Critics argue that India doesn’t need high-speed rail but they’re missing the woods for the trees
Until the turn of the millennium, high-speed trains were an anachronism. These sleek machines that run at a speed of 250-kilometres an hour and higher, were limited to France, Germany and Japan. In Japan, the densely packed eastern seaboard of the main island of Honshu needed reliable transport to be able to move tens of thousands of people everyday. In Europe, with greater distances between cities, it was a decision between constantly upgrading roads or giving citizens reliable stress-free options between the centres of cities. In the last two decades, however, high-speed rail has moved rapidly from these three pioneering nations. Today, a web of high-speed lines envelop western Europe but it is the People’s Republic of China where the most impressive transformation has taken place with a total of 22,000-kilometre of high-speed rail laid down and operational. High-speed trains in China are travelling long distances, the most heavily used line is between Beijing and Shanghai and the fastest train takes under five hours to traverse the 1,318-kilometre between two hub stations. The distance between New Delhi railway station and Mumbai central is 1,385 kilometres and the fastest train between the two stations takes a shade under 16 hours. You can understand why there are close to 75 flights each way between the two most important cities in India every single day. In addition, while China imported a lot of technology for its trains from leading French, German and Japanese manufacturers, the country today is a hub in high-speed rail technology and a part of its ambitious Belt and Road initiative is laying down high-speed rail track in countries ranging from Hungary to laos.
But does India need high-speed railIJ Yes. While it can be argued that India desperately needs to modernise its existing colonial track, much of that track is at its limits. learning from China and the experience of Spain on the Barcelona-Madrid high-speed rail track, there are a couple of things that can happen. The first is that high-speed rail will decongest the existing tracks. While it will be more expensive than regular trains, time saved will attract customers. Why wouldn’t a diamond trader in Surat value an additional hour of sleep in the morning before heading to MumbaiIJ This in-turn will allow for great freight capacity of regular rails which will decongest the roads. In China and Spain, high-speed rail has meant a dramatic decline in air travel between big cities as well. So, high-speed rail will also decongest the air as well. But why Ahmedabad to MumbaiIJ Well, the Chinese started their high-speed rail between Guangzhou and Shenzhen because these are the two cities with a considerable amount of to-and-fro traffic, particularly by business travellers, who appreciate the time they save and also make the line commercially viable. There are other such short-distance city-pairs in India such as Delhi-Chandigarh and Bengaluru-Chennai. And while investment in this first track will be immense, work should commence on other tracks too. Additionally, huge investment and transfer of technology will go a long way in bringing jobs and skills to India. The ‘Diamond Quadrilateral’ high-speed rail, envisaged by the BJP, is far from becoming a reality. This is a start. We wish it well.