Hi-Speed Travel: Spain's Talgo train tested for five hours on Sunday

A joint team of the Railway Design Standards Organisation (RDSO) and Spanish train manufacturer Talgo tested the latter's 9-coach trainset on the Bareilly-Moradabad route on Sunday.

The trial started around 9 am and was completed by 2 pm, during which the RDSO checked preliminary aspects of the train like its movement characteristics on curves. The train was tested at speeds between 80 km per hour (kmph) and 115 kmph, the maximum permissible speed on the stretch. The coaches, hauled by a 4,500 HP diesel engine, completed the first trial run of 90 km in an hour and 10 minutes.

Speaking to dna, Hamid Akhtar, executive director (testing), RDSO, said that, over the next few days, till June 12, the train would be tested under various conditions to find out how good it is for Indian conditions. Akhtar headed the RDSO team during the trial on Sunday.

"We will be testing the riding, safety, stability and emergency braking distance trial on this train. This will be done in three phases. The Bareilly-Moradabad one is the first phase. The second phase will be between Mathura and Palwal. Here, we will be gradually increasing the speeds by 10 km per hour till we reach a peak speed of 180 kmph," Akhtar said.

PTI

The third phase will be a time-testing trial of the train and it will be conducted over the Mumbai-Delhi route, which is the route the railways plan to deploy this train if all goes according to plan and if at all the railways places order for such a trainset from the Spanish manufacturer.

"The trials on the Mumbai-Delhi stretch will see the train tested for time -- as in how much time it takes to cover the distance at varying speeds of 130 kmph and 150 kmph. This phase will be some time in July," said Akhtar.

The railways is waiting for a piece of equipment to be sent from Spain that will record the lateral movement of the Talgo trainset at high speeds. The second phase of the rake trials can proceed only after this equipment comes in, said officials.

As of now, the Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani Express runs at an average speed of 85 kmph. The Talgo train can maintain an average speed of 125 km per hour and can complete the journey between Delhi and Mumbai in about 12 hours as compared to 17 hours at present.