Zipping in a jiffy – even though you’re standing in the bullet train
26 Mar 2018
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When this writer took his first bullet train journey in Tokyo recently, he was thoroughly disappointed. The train was packed and he had to go standing all the way, hardly being able to watch the zipping scenario outside.
Of course, he had to shell out a hefty sum to take another shorter – and less crowded – route to enjoy a seat in the bullet train. Back in India, it was difficult to convince many that bullet trains also have standing passengers.
Thousands of passengers in Mumbai at least will soon realise that standing can be the norm even in bullet trains. The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC), which is implementing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, has confirmed that it was willing to allow ‘standees’ in bullet trains in Mumbai.
“If the people are ready then we will allow standees inside the bullet train,” said Achal Khare, managing director of NHSRC. So if a passenger at Surat wants to catch a train to Mumbai, he/she does not have to worry about seats not being available – standing for at the most for two hours between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, a distance of a little more than 500 km.
While the country’s maiden bullet train project, expected to be operational in just four years, will connect the two major hubs of the neighbouring states, a lot more passengers are expected to use it on the Greater Mumbai route. The bullet trains will travel at speeds of over 300km per hour.
Instead of travelling in overcrowded trains for an hour or two, they can now zip by in the supertrains – fully air-conditioned – and reach their destinations within the metropolis in a few minutes.
Theoretically, the 10-car trains, with a capacity of 750 passengers, would now be able to carry a total of 1,500 passengers including those standing during the journey.
Passengers travelling between Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and Thane or Virar will have to shell out just Rs500 or Rs250 respectively for the journey, which will take a few minutes, instead of about an hour or two at present. The best thing is that these rates are cheaper than what many would shell out for an Ola, Uber or ‘kaali-peeli’ today.
