Given that Indian locos are not fast enough to compete with aviation, one wonders if Train 18 will change much
There has been a lot of hype built around the Indian Railways’ newest ‘Train 18’, which is claimed to be India’s first ‘locomotive-less’ train. That doesn’t mean that this particular train does not have a ‘locomotive’ but like many passenger trains abroad, the ‘locomotive’ part has moved into and under the coach, thus freeing up space for passengers. Impressively, this train was developed by the Integral Coach Factory for just Rs 100 crore. That said, India is well behind the curve when it comes to railway technology and service speeds. This despite ours being one of the largest and most-heavily used railway networks in the world. Indian trains are woefully slow, and while the Indian Railways took a smart jab at the Indian no-frills airlines because they started to charge for seats, the Railways is pretty much out of the competition when it comes to premium passengers over medium and long distance routes and it remains to be seen if this higher-speed ‘Train 18’ can change that.
But ‘speed’ in and by itself means nothing; after all going fast for a short burst really will not reduce the overall time taken to cover distance by much. Train 18 might have touched 180 km per hour between Kota and Sawai Madhopur, approximately 100 km of track. And the Railways officials say that the train is capable of much more, almost 200 km an hour. But as the official himself says, the main issue is that of tracks and signalling. A fast train can’t really go fast unless the system allows it to go fast. This is like owning a Porsche 911 but being stuck in a Navi Mumbai traffic jam on the way to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway where one can open up that vehicle. Trial runs in relatively uncrowded Rajasthan might have been successful but how will this fare on the Shatabdi Express routes as the plans for it currently are?
The problem the Railways has is that it is falling far behind the airlines. And while over longer distances it will need the development of high-speed tracks as China has done, the Railways is losing out to airlines even on shorter-sectors such as Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur and Chennai-Bengaluru by operating at poor timings and being slow. While commercial jet aircraft are extremely inefficient over such distances, demand has seen airlines operate larger planes on these routes, which is frankly a waste of resources for the country. A few years ago the Indian Railways conducted a similar test with Spanish-built coaches, which also ran fast during trial runs but nothing came of it. One wonders if Train 18 will really change much or will continue to be the long decline of the Indian Railways in the minds of premium customers.