Indian Railways News

Okabe Rintarou

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lets hope that they are safer than before and the possibility of derailments are vastly decreased and chances of hitting another train virtually none.
After upgrading to Indian TCAS signalling system, collisions with trains will not happen. Collisions with stray animals is a whole other story though.
 

Blademaster

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BG - Broad Guage
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Indian Railways accomplishes electrification of 81.51% of the total BG network



Next step after 100% electrification and hydrogen trains to replace diesel 100% is to tie the IR electrical grid to nuclear and renewables so that if the time ever comes when the world is in an energy crunch like the Russian-Ukraine war, India still can move its people and goods and keep the economy humming.
 

Concard

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Next step after 100% electrification and hydrogen trains to replace diesel 100% is to tie the IR electrical grid to nuclear and renewables so that if the time ever comes when the world is in an energy crunch like the Russian-Ukraine war, India still can move its people and goods and keep the economy humming.
Don't know what is the point of Hydrogen trains when the track is fully electrified? Isn't producing Hydrogen already inefficient? If this is about running trains in places where the tracks cannot be electrified because the track runs through dense forest then it is perfectly fine to replace Diesel trains.

Anyway apart from track electrification, the most important thing for IR is to improve Railway stations especially services provided and it's aesthetics. That in addition to dotting railway stations with solar panels will be a huge boost to IR. We could have something like 1-5GW capacity of solar installation on IR stations all over the country.
 

assassin162

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Guys we re getting Kavach, we are upgrading trainsets, we are building world class railway stations, dfc's...
But currently we are missing news about rail track upgradation for semi high speed rail corridor. Though it maybe happening on ground, but I am not finding much on google search. Can somebody add some new info regarding this?
Also for semi high speed rail corridor we also probably need to fence tracks, either electric or concrete based or mixed, time for govt to think on this.
Probably rail track upgradation will require changing tracks to better grades, limiting sharp turns, upgrading or rebuilding rail bridges, fencing among some other things that I may not know about. I think kavach and such other security infra will also be a key part of this. Taken as a whole this can be hundreds of billion dollar project.
If somehow in next ten years if we can achieve 130 to 150 average speed in some select routes, on some some select trains, it will be awesome.
 

Suryavanshi

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I think somehow building Bullet Train isn't gonna cut it for us.
Think about it we will have multiple different gauges such that we have to create BP track Between two cities where Regular line already exists.
Its a mess as I see it.
 

another_armchair

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1665754759194.png

Average speed of VBE ranges between 79 and 96 kmph depending on the route.

Given Chennai-Bangalore Shatabdi has an average speed of 73 kmph, I doubt VBE will add significant savings in travel time. Just a fancy train with a better travel experience, better food albeit at a higher cost.

We seem to be doing more things cosmetic than structural with really fat budgets. If one has been to the new SMVT Bangalore railway station, you'd know.

If you can't fix the software, tweak the UI/UX.
 

Suryavanshi

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View attachment 176109
Average speed of VBE ranges between 79 and 96 kmph depending on the route.

Given Chennai-Bangalore Shatabdi has an average speed of 73 kmph, I doubt VBE will add significant savings in travel time. Just a fancy train with a better travel experience, better food albeit at a higher cost.

We seem to be doing more things cosmetic than structural with really fat budgets. If one has been to the new SMVT Bangalore railway station, you'd know.

If you can't fix the software, tweak the UI/UX.
there is no track that can handle 130+ speed in my knowledge. When Trains tracks were made they did not consider that we would ever go for high speed so the level of track construction is that of Thekedar road construction. Many a times there are sharp and uneven turns throughout the route, wobbly tracks due to irregular levelling and gradient.
The newer tracks in Karnataka are better tho.
Overall we will need DFC level track construction to handle that speed.
 

another_armchair

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there is no track that can handle 130+ speed in my knowledge. When Trains tracks were made they did not consider that we would ever go for high speed so the level of track construction is that of Thekedar road construction. Many a times there are sharp and uneven turns throughout the route, wobbly tracks due to irregular levelling and gradient.
The newer tracks in Karnataka are better tho.
Overall we will need DFC level track construction to handle that speed.
Our superfast express trains don't even maintain an average speed of 60 kmph throughout their journey.

Its not the track alone, I have seen trains halt for several minutes, sometimes as much as half an hour outside railway stations to get an empty platform. Times when Chennai-Bangalore double decker arrives 30 minutes earlier and is stranded at Cantonment railway station or slows down to a crawl after Malur.

There are a lot of issues which need to be resolved.

VBE on Chennai-Bangalore stretch should have an average speed of at least 120 kmph. High speed regional connectivity should be topmost priority for the transportation sector.
 

Javelin_Sam

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I think we aren't going to get anything out of Japanese style Bullet Trains.
We will have to be original in our though process and invent our own HSR completely disregarding the Japanese convention.
China started with imported HSR trains and technology. It is always better to start from a Knowledge-Transfer than onboarding from scratch. Reinventing the wheel saves bucks and time. HSRail is not just the train. Entire spectrum of things from the piling, structures, tracks etc needs to be mastered. I'm sure L&T is grabbing everything they can from the MAHSR experience. Ofcourse the main thing about Japanese HSR is it is funded by dirt cheap JICA loans. If India goes alone, good luck trying to fund and develop everything from scratch.
 

Suryavanshi

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China started with imported HSR trains and technology. It is always better to start from a Knowledge-Transfer than onboarding from scratch. Reinventing the wheel saves bucks and time. HSRail is not just the train. Entire spectrum of things from the piling, structures, tracks etc needs to be mastered. I'm sure L&T is grabbing everything they can from the MAHSR experience. Ofcourse the main thing about Japanese HSR is it is funded by dirt cheap JICA loans. If India goes alone, good luck trying to fund and develop everything from scratch.
No I was not talking about that.
I'm talking about researching a methodology to achieve High speeds in broad gauge tracks as well as Locomotive that can sustain it. Methodology to decrease construction cost of broad gauge and devising techniques to mitigate the sharp and uneven orientation of our tracks.
it does not have to be the same 350 kmph just 250 to 300 will do for us.
 

another_armchair

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No I was not talking about that.
I'm talking about researching a methodology to achieve High speeds in broad gauge tracks as well as Locomotive that can sustain it. Methodology to decrease construction cost of broad gauge and devising techniques to mitigate the sharp and uneven orientation of our tracks.
it does not have to be the same 350 kmph just 250 to 300 will do for us.
I guess average speeds of 120 to 150 kmph would do keeping ticket costs within reach of mango man and won't require lakhs of crores of investment.
 

Kumata

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I guess average speeds of 120 to 150 kmph would do keeping ticket costs within reach of mango man and won't require lakhs of crores of investment.
My Home run have reduced by 3.5 hours due to VB .. and fare diff is just 168 re or there off.....when compared with 3 AC or AC chair car in normal Jan shatabdi..

Add another 300 and i get top class hygienic food included... what else do one need
 

Blademaster

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Don't know what is the point of Hydrogen trains when the track is fully electrified? Isn't producing Hydrogen already inefficient? If this is about running trains in places where the tracks cannot be electrified because the track runs through dense forest then it is perfectly fine to replace Diesel trains.
There are some place where electrification is not enough because you need a surge of power to pull all that mass and that would be the forest hills or mountain areas where you are on a steep gradient. In those situations, they usually use diesel engines. Hence my call for hydrogen trains to replace the diesel engines.

Anyway apart from track electrification, the most important thing for IR is to improve Railway stations especially services provided and it's aesthetics. That in addition to dotting railway stations with solar panels will be a huge boost to IR. We could have something like 1-5GW capacity of solar installation on IR stations all over the country.
Every little bit counts and IR is one of the largest landholders in the country. They certainly have the land and space to install solar and wind power plants as well as battery storage farms. If planned and done correctly, the IR's electrification and battery storage facilities can serve to act as the nation's backup power plan if needed be. IR can generate the necessary cashflow to build all that and has the necessary political and regulatory clout to do all of that.
 

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