Talgo train completes Delhi-Mumbai final route trial in less than 12 hours

The Railways, which on Saturday conducted the final Delhi-Mumbai route trial of the Spanish-made Talgo train with speeds of 150 km per hour, announced success with the train covering the 1,384-km stretch in less than 12 hours.

The train, which started from New Delhi station at 2.45 pm on 10 September reached Mumbai at around 2.34 am early morning next day, railway ministry officials said.

The Talgo train, however, was still 5 minutes late as the train was scheduled to reach Mumbai at 2.29 am early morning next day.

This is some solace as once introduced the Talgo train will reduce travel time between Delhi and Mumbai by four hours to less than 12 hours against the 16 hours the super-fast Rajdhani Express train takes.

The nine-coach Talgo train consists of two executive class cars, four chair cars, a cafeteria, a power car and a tail-end coach for staff and equipment.

With nine super light-weight coaches the train, manufactured by Spanish firm Talgo, can hit 200 km per hour.   

For the final Delhi-Mumbai trial run, however, the Talgo train should have taken 11 hours and 44 minutes at 150 km per hour speed to cover the 1,384 km stretch between New Delhi and Mumbai.

In its third trial run on Friday, the Talgo train reached Mumbai 18 minutes late. Travelling at a speed of 140 km per hour the train reached Mumbai at 3.15 am instead of scheduled arrival at 2.57 am.

In three of four trials held so far, the train has not hit the required speed, but there is still hope. With some improvement of the tracks it could still be possible to run the train at speeds above 150 km per hour.

The earlier trials had tested the train for sensors and derailment and were run at a much lower speed.

Railways had conducted the first trial run of Talgo trains on the Bareilly-Moradabad stretch in Uttar Pradesh, followed by the second trial run on the Palwal-Mathura section of the North-Central Railway.

The speed trial of the coaches at a speed of 115 km per hour were conducted on the the 90-km long line between Bareilly and Moradabad continued for around two weeks.

After the Bareilly and Moradabad route trial, the train was test-run on the route between Mathura and Palwal for around 40 days with speed up to 180 km per hour.

Railways will collate the results of technical and speed tests to determine whether to buy the Talgo coaches. It will look for other options as well, say officials.