Railways' high-speed plans on slow track as clearances come in the way

Railways launched Mission Raftaar in 2016-17 to increase the average speed of trains on existing tracks, but multiplicity of plans has come in the way of implementation

The year just gone by was supposed to have seen the Indian Railways’ tryst with a new speed record. Train-18, an engine-less train that rolled out of Chennai’s Integral Coach Factory (ICF) on October 29 for successful test runs, was slated to start commercial service between Delhi and Varanasi in December. That deadline has been postponed for want of some clearances from the Commission of Railway Safety.

 Now, it is 2019 that is expected to see the train, which can clock speeds of up to 180 kmph, in operation just ahead of the Ardha Kumbh mela on January 14. It is expected to take 30 per cent less time than the fastest train to Varanasi currently, by covering the distance in eight hours compared to 11.30 hours before. 

This delay is symptomatic of the slow track on which the Indian Railways’ plans to accelerate the average speed of trains have travelled. Train-18, which was named for the year of launch, was supposed to have galvanised “Mission Raftaar” (meaning Mission Speed), which was launched in 2016-17. 

Mission Raftaar is a multi-pronged strategy for running high-speed trains (with a speed of over 300 kmph), semi high-speed trains (160 to 200 kmph), increasing the speed of existing trains and introducing train sets similar to Train-18. Indeed, Train-18 broke speed records from drawing board to manufacturing stage. ICF conceived, designed and developed the idea in 18 months, against an industry standard of three to four years.

But it remains a beacon in the Indian Railways’ record. The gap with global averages has been a long-standing one. When most networks globally have average speed of around 100 kmph, the average speed of freight trains for April-November of this fiscal was 22.7 kmph and that of passenger trains 44.7 kmph. In November, the average speed for freight trains was 21.9 kmph and for non-suburban passenger trains 45.9 kmph. 

In fact, instead of going up, the average speed has come down. When the mission was conceptualised, the average speed of freight trains was over 24 kmph and 46 kmph for passenger trains.

 One of the key plans to achieve this speed dream was the “Diamond Quadrilateral” plan to connect the four major cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai — with high-speed rail networks. The six projects conceptualised under this scheme — Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Chennai, Chennai-Howrah, Chennai-Mumbai and Howrah-Mumbai — are expected to see investments worth around Rs 58,000 crore.  

These projects are at various stages of planning with many international agencies involved. Once these corridors are operational, the train travel time between these metros are expected to halve. But lack of funds and slow decision-making have slowed the progress of these projects. 

A major thrust to this speed dream was added after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Rs 1.1-trillion bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in September 2017. The operating speed of the bullet train is set to be 320 kmph, with a maximum speed of 350 kmph. Once in place, the distance of 508 km will be covered in two hours and seven minutes if the bullet train stops at Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Mumbai stations. 

“It is on track. Already eight contracts have been awarded for the bullet train projects and the project will be commissioned by 2023. Our effort is to complete at least one stretch by August 2022,” said Piyush Goyal, railways minister. Farmers in both the states are conducting high-voltage protests against the project, but he hopes issues regarding land acquisition in Gujarat and Maharashtra will soon be solved with the help of respective state governments.

However, increased speed on existing tracks like Train 18 has its bottlenecks as well. One major problem is making the tracks access-controlled so that trains are not hindered, as they are today by sundry people and animals crossing the tracks. This is critical, explained Vishwesh Chaube, member (engineering) of the Railway Board, for trains travelling at speeds of 160 kmph. To this end, the Railways set a target of building 3,300 km of walls to protect existing tracks near major cities where encroachments take place, at an investment of about Rs 3,000 crore. This will be for semi-high speed trains running on existing tracks.   

Other initiatives to increase speed on existing routes include strengthening tracks, removing speed restrictions, constructing road over bridges (ROBs) and road under bridges (RUBs) and replacing conventional trains by Main Line Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) trains and Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU), both rapid transit trains that offer faster acceleration by doing away with separate locomotives with two driving cabins.

As a strategy to make existing tracks speed-friendly, the government had also planned eight semi-high speed corridors — Delhi-Chandigarh, Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore, Delhi-Kanpur, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Mumbai-Goa, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Chennai- Hyderabad and Nagpur - Secunderabad — by upgrading the existing tracks. 

“We have not yet finalised which of the semi-high speed lines will be coming first,” said Chaube. The feasibility reports for upgrading the Delhi-Chandigarh and Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore tracks were drawn up by SNCF (France) and ERYUAN Group of Chinese Railways, respectively. However, sources added that these plans are heading nowhere because the government is yet to finalise which route should be taken up on a priority basis. 

One reason for the slow progress could be the multiplicity of plans, which makes it difficult for the Railways to deliver efficiently on any one project. “The Diamond Quadrilateral should be given priority as they are coming up in industrial areas. Moreover, when the new high-speed (over 300 kmph) rail routes come up, existing railway networks should not be competing with them by increasing their speed,” says R Sivadasan, former finance commissioner with the railways.

But Mission Raftaar fits the trendline: India’s attempts to speed up their trains have always progressed with agonising slowness. The first attempt to raise the speed on Indian tracks started in the 1960s, when Japan’s fastest train breached the 256 kmph mark. Those plans became a reality in May 1972 with the launch of Mumbai-New Delhi Rajdhani Express. The Rajdhanis were the undisputed kings on Indian tracks in the 1970s and 1980s, running at speeds of 110-120 kmph. This was broken in 1988 with the introduction of the Bhopal-Shatabdi Express at 140 kmph.  It took another 28 years (until April 2016) to break this record when Gatimaan was launched, clocking 160 kmph. Even with Train-18 on the tracks, when compared with China’s fastest train at 350 kmph, there’ll be a lot of catching up to do still.