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Spanish company Talgo is changing the rules of train travel in India! (1/2)

Talgo Train

On 29th May 2016, India opened its railway infrastructure for an ambitious upgrade by running a trial of the Talgo train on the Bareilly-Moradabad-Saharanpur route. The Spanish high-speed passenger trains manufacturer has been given the opportunity to revolutionize the existing railway services by improving the speeds at which the passengers in India commute.

The media has touted that these trains would be able to deliver a speed of about 200 kmph at peak performance. However, the speeds achieved in the trial runs by a series 9 (Talgo 9) train have not met the desired expectations. The initial trial saw the train achieve 80 kmph. In the second trial, the speed went up to 90 kmph. In the latest trials conducted with adjustments for Indian conditions, a maximum speed of 120 kmph was achieved without any complications. In the recent run on the Delhi to Mumbai Rajdhani route, Talgo saw a maximum speed of 140 kmph, completing the 1400 km journey in 12 hours and 7 minutes.

TALGO (Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol, Goicoechea - Oriol light articulated train) is a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard, and high-speed passenger trains. It was founded by Alejandro Goicoechea and José Luis Oriol and headquartered in Las Rozas de Madrid. These trains have been constructed on different technological principles than the ones which have been running in India for the past 3 decades. Let’s look at how they’re really different than the rest.


Read the second post on TALGO here: Talgo's lean Aluminium manufacturing powers super-fast and safe travel
'Natural tilting system' – When the trains negotiate corners at high speed, the banking angle matters a lot and so does the speed of the train. These trains have been made such that the coach body can do so by tilting itself to a certain angle to facilitate the turning without any sideways acceleration.

Tilting Train

Lightweight fabrication – This is perhaps the most important design innovation that Talgo engineers have achieved. The current coaches in Indian Railway’s arsenal weigh around 41.3 tonnes. Compare that to the aluminum alloy coaches of Talgo which shaves off a cool 29 tonnes and weighs just around 12.3 tonnes! No wonder this facilitates the high-speed capabilities of the train. According to an estimate, a Talgo coach costs around 5 crores INR in Europe while a Shatabdi coach costs around half this amount. It also reduces the deadweight of the coach, makes it more energy efficient and reduces the maintenance cost.

Guided axles & independent wheels –In a conventional axle, two wheels are rigidly joined through an axle like the ones in our present coaches in India. This causes instability in the coaches and high experience of rigid and abrupt movements leading to wear and tear of machinery and high passenger discomfort. In the Talgo trains, there is an ‘independent wheel system’ which enables independent movement of both wheels which have been uncoupled with the axle. This also helps in keeping the wheels parallel to the rail, both on straight and on curved tracks.

Aluminium coaches
Aluminium Coaches


'Articulated' union between coaches - The traditional design of the couplings between coach bodies in railway vehicles is aimed at transmitting the traction-compression forces, allowing each coach to have its own dynamics. Therefore, each one works individually completely isolated from the dynamics of the other coaches. The sizes of the coaches are small compared to the ones we have. So, 37 Talgo coaches can be considered as equivalent to a 20 coached Rajdhani.   

Adjustable Gauge – India moved to the standard broad gauge tracks from the meter gauge and narrow gauge tracks 2 decades ago. The Talgo trains have an automatic system to change the axle wheelbase according to the gauge width.

Accessibility – Indian platform heights are made keeping in mind the height of the current coaches. Talgo coaches do not have steps for boarding. They are low floor coaches designed to stay stable even at high speeds by maintaining a low center of gravity. Herein lies the problem of restructuring the boarding height of the existing platforms on its route in India. However, this has its own advantages too. For starters, the people with movement disability can now easily avoid the hassle of boarding the trains with no stairs to hinder them. Also, the present coaches have too many architectural barriers which obstruct internal movement inside the train. This has also been made easy because of the modern interior coach designs.

*But wait…there’s more!

More from us on the Talgo coaches in our next blog! 


References: 
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talgo
  • http://www.talgo.com/index.php/en/tecnologia.php
  • http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/end-of-track-for-talgo-in-india-railways-says-needs-modifications-2965326/
  • http://swarajyamag.com/business/is-talgo-an-ideal-choice-for-the-indian-railways
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