<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53634172.cms" /> Even though the trail of Spanish <keyword id="3733779" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Talgo">Talgo</keyword> train was successful, <keyword id="6355455" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-Railways">Indian Railways</keyword> has said that it still needs some modifications before it can be operational, given that it has less width and low footboard height. 
 
The railways will go for an open tender so that it can acquire such lightweight trains from the international market. 
 
The speed trials of the nine-coach Talgo train were conducted between Barailey and Moradabad section, during which it went up to the speed of 115 kmph. Later, a high speed trial was conducted between Mathura and Palwal section, with a test speed of 180 kmph. 
 
<a href="http://amazingindiablog.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Talgo-Trains-in-India.jpg">Image source</a>

Trial successful, but Talgo still needs some modification before starting operations

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53414518.cms" /> As of now, the least time in which you can cover the distance from Mumbai to Delhi via train is nearly 16 hours, taken by the <keyword id="6386498" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rajdhani-Express">Rajdhani Express</keyword>. However, thanks to the introduction of the Spanish-manufactured high speed train Talgo, the journey could be completed within 13 hours, in the first week of August. 
 
During the final phase of trials, the nine-coach train will undertake three trips between Mumbai and Delhi between August 1 and 5, departing from New Delhi at 7.55 pm on August 1, maintaining a speed of 130 kmph during the entire journey. 
 
"The Talgo officials have said that at this speed, the distance of 1,384 kms will be covered in 14 hours and 5 minutes. Currently, the Rajdhani Express touches 130 kmph and takes nearly 16 hours to cover the same distance," a WR source told <a href="http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/Mumbai-to-Delhi-in-less-than-13-hrs-on-Talgo-trains/articleshow/53409254.cms">Mumbai Mirror</a>. 
 
While returning to Delhi on August 3, the test drive only gets better. "The train will depart Mumbai at 3 am, and the goal is to reach Delhi by evening. During the last run, on August 5, the train will throughout the journey, which is likely to be completed in 12 hours and 55 minutes," said the WR source. 
 
Talgo has nine coaches, including two executive class compartments, four chair cars, a cafeteria, a power car, and a tail-end coach for equipment. The train did a successful test trial a few days ago on the Mathura-Palwal route, at 180 kmph, covering a distance of 84 km in 38 minutes. 
 
Talgo stands for Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol, meaning light articulated train in Spanish, with Alejandro Goicoechea and Jose Luis Oriol being the company's owners. 
 
<a href="http://e-spaces.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Talgo-train-India.jpg">Image source</a>

Spain-manufactured Talgo trains would take you from Mumbai to Delhi in less than 13 hours

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48198740.cms" />If everything goes as planned, you may soon be travelling in a Madrid-based locomotive and reach your destination early. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=modi">Prime Minister Narendra Modi-</a>led NDA government has given an in-principle nod to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=talgo">Madrid-based locomotive-maker Talgo</a> to undertake trial runs of its lighter and faster trains. 
 Jose Maria Oriol, <keyword id="3733779" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Talgo">Talgo</keyword>’s Chief executive Officer, met Modi and said a formal nod was awaited to start shipping process of trains from Spain to India. 
 
Economic Times reported that Talgo was hopeful to start trial process by October-November at its own risk on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=indian+railways">Indian Railway</a> tracks. 
 
If the trial is successful, it could cut travel time between Mumbai and Delhi from 17 hours to 12 hours as these lighter locomotives can run with a speed of 160 kilometres to 220 km an hour and are being used across the world on legacy rail tracks, including the US. 
 
"Most of the technical part has been solved, now it is the practical part of doing it. Up to now, we have an informal approval. What we need is a piece of paper to say: go ahead. I don't think it would take too long after this set of meetings," Oriol told ET. 
 
He also emphasised the company will bear the costs of bringing the train from Spain. 
 
"Of the 60,000 km of railway tracks in India, some would be upgraded, but most would remain as it is. That's where we can make a difference, by increasing the speed of the train without changing the track infrastructure," Oriol told the financial daily. 
 
Talgo is also interested to establish a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=make+in+india">manufacturing hub in India</a> to tap the Indian and Asia-Pacific market using the recently opened window for 100% FDI in the sector. 
 
"I see a willingness to invest and improve. I don't know how long it will take. Whenever you deal with politicians, whether it is India or Spain or Italy, you have to be patient. But in this case, knowing that this government is keen to show some improvements in services to the citizens, it is looking to do that in a rather short time period," Oriol told ET. 
 
It is noteworthy Talgo has a commercial office in India and it has used the time to identify a potential supply chain of tier-I and tier-II vendors that can help it localise its product swiftly once it sets up shop. 
 
"We are pleased to say that we can find most of the components we need at a very attractive cost here. We have also sub-contracted design and development to a lot of Indian engineers here and they are very skillful at a very attractive price," Oriol told ET, adding they were also exploring options in China, Japan, Malaysia.

Spanish trains to take over Indian rail tracks soon!

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54277191.cms" /> 
Your train journey from Delhi to Mumbai might come down to a little less than 12 hours. Ever since the Spanish train <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Talgo-needs-some-modifications/articleshow/53634134.cms">Talgo </a>has been brought to India, Indians who prefer train travel seem to be quite excited. And yesterday’s <keyword id="3733779" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Talgo">Talgo</keyword> run has given some more reasons to rejoice. 
In its final leg of test runs, Talgo train that started from Delhi at 2:45 in the afternoon reached Mumbai at 3:15 in the morning, thus covering 1,384 distance in little more than 12 hours. 
 
Nine super light-weight coaches manufactured by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Talgo-needs-some-modifications/articleshow/53634134.cms">Spanish</a> firm Talgo, which can hit 200 km per hour, were imported to Mumbai in April. 
Although the Talgo train reached Mumbai yesterday 18 minutes late in its third trial. The train was scheduled to reach its destination by 2:57AM. 
 The <keyword id="6355455" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Railways">Indian Railways</keyword> had conducted the first trial run of Talgo trains on the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Talgo-needs-some-modifications/articleshow/53634134.cms">Bareilly-Moradabad </a>stretch in <keyword id="6357713" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Uttar-Pradesh">Uttar Pradesh</keyword>, followed by the second trial run was conducted on the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Talgo-needs-some-modifications/articleshow/53634134.cms">Palwal-Mathura </a>section of the North-Central Railway.

Delhi to Mumbai in less than 12 hours by train, Talgo may make it happen

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/50903123.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> High speed trains will soon rule <keyword id="6355455" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-Railways">Indian Railways</keyword> tracks. Spanish firm <keyword id="3733779" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Talgo">Talgo</keyword> may soon undertake trial runs at speeds between 160 and 200 kmph on the existing tracks on the Delhi-Mumbai route. Depending upon the results of the trial runs, the railways will consider introduction of high speed trains on other routes too, a senior Railway Ministry official told PTI. 
 
Talgo will conduct the time validation trial on Delhi-Mumbai corridor soon, the official said. 
 
The Spanish train maker has offered to test run their lighter and faster trains free of cost. 
"We will be issuing the permission letter to Talgo after getting the Railway Board's approval for importing the rake to India. They (Talgo) have offered to do the trial with no cost to railways," said the official. 
 
The rake will be imported in knocked down condition and be assembled in India. 
 
If the Talgo train runs at speeds varying between 160 and 200 kmph on the existing infrastructure without any upgrade, the travel time between the two cities is expected to be cut down to about 12 hours from the current 17 hours. 
 
Besides reducing travel time, Talgo's lighter trains consume 30 per cent less energy which will help railways reduce their power bill. 
 
The official said barring minor changes, there will be no need for overhauling the tracks for the trial run. 
 
The process required for this will kick off once the approval of the Railway Ministry has been received, the official said. 
 
"A lot will depend on the trial on Delhi-Mumbai sector and, if the test run is successful, we may consider it for some more routes also," he said. 
 
These trains are already running in several places in Asia and the US. 
 
(Image credits: indiatimes)

Superfast train Talgo may soon enter India

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47731986.cms" /> Soon we will have high-speed trains where coaches are self-propelled and not pulled by locomotive. Global giants such as <keyword id="117791" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Bombardier">Bombardier</keyword>, Hyundai-ROTEM, TALGO and <keyword id="94703" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="CAF">CAF</keyword> are interested to manufacture semi high-speed train sets in India, which will be used for faster inter-city travel. 

	"Four multinationals have evinced interest to manufacture modern train sets in India. The successful bidder will first import two train sets and then rest would be manufactured in the country," a senior railway board official told the Economic Times.
 <keyword id="18658" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Railway-Minister">Railway Minister</keyword> <keyword id="6356597" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Suresh-Prabhu">Suresh Prabhu</keyword> has announced about such train sets in his Rail Budget 2015-16. The cost of the project will be around Rs 2,500 crore for 15 train sets. More such train sets would be ordered after the success of this project. These sets of train would not require dedicated tracks. These swanky trains will ply on all <keyword id="6386499" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rajdhani">Rajdhani</keyword> and Shatabdi routes. As per the Request for Proposal for the project, while 275 coaches will be manufactured in India, 40 would be imported. 

	The Request for Qualification (RFQ) was floated in May for the global manufacturers to participate in the bidding process. Bids will be opened in August for short-listing the qualified bidders. The RFQ will be followed by financial bids and the successful bidder will be awarded the contract by December.
 Two potential bidders — CAF and TALGO — are from <keyword id="6363645" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Spain">Spain</keyword>, while Bombardier is from Canada. Indian Railways has proposed to increase the speed of nine railway corridors from the existing 110 and 130 km per hour to 160 and 200 km per hour respectively so that inter-metro journeys on the Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai routes, for instance, can be completed overnight. 

	After the Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power, railways have been aggressively eyeing private investment in the sector, and the government has already cleared 100% FDI in railways infrastructure. The Indian Railways is also in process to bid out the two locomotive factories in Bihar.
 Four global firms -- <keyword id="48503" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Alstom">Alstom</keyword>, <keyword id="73372" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Siemens">Siemens</keyword>, GE and Bombardier -- have been shortlisted for the proposed electric locomotive factory at Madhepura. Two multinationals, GE and EMD, are vying to bag the diesel locomotive plant at Marhorah. The estimated cost of the loco factories is about Rs 1,200 crore each. The projects are expected to be awarded by the end of this year. 
	(Image: Indiatimes)

High-speed trains on its way to India

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54641155.cms" /> 
(Image: Indianrailinfo) 
 With train fares sky rocketing (read surge pricing) and the minister ambitious enough to introduce world class facility in Indian trains, I believed <keyword id="6355455" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Railways">Indian Railways</keyword> must be heading to a grand renovation and might match the travel-quality in other developed South Asian counterparts of it. 
 To travel to <keyword id="6354925" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kolkata">Kolkata</keyword> from New Delhi, I wanted to experience how Indian Railways must have changed in the days of Talgo trial runs and <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword> enabled wi-fi in stations. I ditched the allure of flash sales of airlines offering me a <keyword id="1475258" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Delhi-Kolkata">Delhi-Kolkata</keyword> flight ticket for Rs 2500, inclusive of all taxes. A day before my journey last month, I bought a ticket on the newly introduced surge pricing for New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express, one of the premium trains in the country. The ticket, although priced at Rs. 2105 costed me something around Rs 2850, thanks to flexi pricing. But I was hopeful that the service must have bettered and it’s worth it. 
 I reached the New Delhi station in late afternoon. With limited seating options, people squatted on the dusty floors of the platform waiting for different trains. As the <keyword id="93583" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sealdah">Sealdah</keyword> Rajdhani arrived, I was readying myself for premium hospitality from the Indian Railways. 
 
Two minutes into my designated berth, as I was checking out the place, a co passenger entered the coach with 16 sets of bags including a LED TV and packed the coup. 
 
Evening of ‘super <keyword id="18712" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gold">gold</keyword> dhamaka chai’ 
Twenty minutes into the journey, I was served bottled water along with the evening snacks, which consists of a namkeen (with oil dripping), a stale sandwich, a sweet, and a tea-kit. Now if you are conscious about health diet, you should have got your own snacks. The tea bag was a Super Gold Dhamaka tea, a brand you might never hear of, but it exists. 
 
Stinky toilet with flooded floor 
Moving on to the next episode – the toliet. The Wester Styled toilet was stinking and the hand shower lying on the flooded floor. I discovered that the drain outlet is clogged with dirt and it won’t be possible for the cleaner to do the needful. The washbasin tap has a missile like projectile that lands directly on your foot. Tired of it, I decided to check out the other toilet, which was slightly better. But the stink is omnipresent. The tap in this toilet needs to be patted to get the water flowing in the moving train. There are just so many lifehacks, I learnt in a few hours in the train. 
 
WTF is food-hygiene! 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54641140.cms" /> 
(Representational image to show how doors are kept blocked. Source: Mouthshut) 
 Coming out of the toilet, I found the attendants of ‘Meals on Wheels’, the contractor of food service in this particular train, squatting in the floor and readying dinner. The trays have been laid down on the ground and being arranged. <keyword id="51958" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="YES">Yes</keyword>, in front of the doorways, dustbins and washrooms. Those will soon be served to the passengers. Also one side of exits are made inaccessible by these attendants because they need a place to arrange their food. So in case of an emergency, you have to depend on just two doors and emergency windows for exit. 
 
Dessert-less dinner 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54641131.cms" /> The dinner arrived at 8:30. It was a decent one with two tiny pieces of chicken, rice, roti, dal and yogurt. The passengers, who had ordered <keyword id="2396101" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Continental-meal">Continental Meal</keyword>, received cold fried chicken, pasta, bread and some inedible noodles. One of them had requested for the breads to be toasted, which the attendants denied to oblige. Well, the dinner was over by 9pm and the only dessert ice cream started getting distributed at 10:15. Yes, when most of the passengers were ready to sleep, this strategy worked better for ‘Meal on Wheels’ because 70% of passengers refused to have. We were seated in the end of the coach and somehow the ice creams got over by the middle of the coach. The server informed us that ice cream is over and they can serve Frooti, ‘if we want’. Definitely nobody wanted a fruit juice after dinner. 
 
Blankets are washed every 2 months 
As we prepared for sleep, my pillow was found to be a used-one with stains. The blanket was smelly and the attendant informed was indifferent about it. He said, blankets are washed every 2 months. The sleep wasn’t much comfortable because the AC was too cold and there was no attendant in the coach at midnight. Moreover, there were mosquitoes. The coach attendant in the morning informed us that pest control is done after 2-3 months and he can’t help with it. On asking for the complain book, he said his job would be at stake if we complain. 
 
Delay of premium train 
The breakfast doesn’t need to explained, as it was of the same quality as evening snacks with un-toasted breads. You need to choose between jam or butter, as both would exceed their budget. There was no fruit juice with it, which it used to be earlier. The train was delayed by 2 hours and reached Sealdah at around 12:30pm and there was no free water bottle or food served in extra to make up for the delay. 
 
Thou shalt tip 
Towards the end of the journey, the coach was stinking like never before. The cleaner just mopped the floor, which isn’t enough to clean the floor walked down by 72 passengers. There was no deodorizer used. And then as the train was nearing destination, the servers of 'Meals on Wheels' started asking for tips. While there is no such official order on it, the minimum tip is Rs 20 per passenger, otherwise they would just not leave and keep coaxing you. The same people who are rude enough and serve food as if doing you a favour suddenly wear ear-to-ear smile. 
 
As I completed 1454 kms on India’s premium train for 19 hours, I realized I could have simply taken the flight and reached home last night itself by paying a few hundreds more on spot-ticket.

You Searched For "Talgo" and got 7 results

Trial successful, but Talgo still needs some modification before starting operations

BI India Bureau

Spain-manufactured Talgo trains would take you from Mumbai to Delhi in less than 13 hours

BI India Bureau

Spanish trains to take over Indian rail tracks soon!

BI India Bureau

Delhi to Mumbai in less than 12 hours by train, Talgo may make it happen

BI India Bureau

Superfast train Talgo may soon enter India

BI India Bureau

High-speed trains on its way to India

BI India Bureau

I paid Rs 2800 on flexi pricing in a premium train to Kolkata; the biggest mistake I made

Suchayan Mandal