The Spanish-made high speed trains, Talgo, will soon be pressed into service but only after modifications to set them operational for Indian platforms, the Indian Railways said on Wednesday. Even though the timing trail of Talgo can be called successful, Hemant Kumar, Member (Rolling Stock) of the Railway Board, said that trains cannot be operational on Railways in its present form due to less width and low footboard height. There will be an open tender for acquiring such lightweight trains from the global market, Kumar added, as quoted by PTI. With a maximum speed of 140 kmph, Talgo’s train on Wednesday completed its third trial run on the Delhi to Mumbai Rajdhani route in 12 hours and 7 minutes. The fourth and final is said to take place on August 14. Quick facts: # The Talgo train runs at an average speed of around 90-100 km/hr and can attain a maximum speed of 130-150 km The train has nine coaches which include two executive class coaches, four general class coaches, a cafeteria, a power car and a tail-end coach. # The executive class is the premium coach with 20 seats in each coach. The premium seats are spacious and provide ample leg space. There is a wooden pull-out table for keeping food and other items. The luggage space on top of the seats is also very spacious. There are also television sets on top for displaying information about train speed, location, etc. The aisle area has ample room for movement. # The general coaches can seat up to 36 people each. The seats may not be as premium as the ones in the executive class but they are comfortable, spacious and have leg-room. The pull out tables are also quite big. Here is a timeline of the trail runs Talgo train undertook: August 14: Fourth and final phase August 10: With a maximum speed of 140 kmph, Talgo’s train completed its third trial run on the Delhi to Mumbai Rajdhani route in 12 hours and 7 minutes. August 7: The high-speed Talgo train completed its second trip, improving its timing, between Mumbai and Delhi as part of the final leg of speed trials, In the process, the ‘semi bullet train’ beat the Rajdhani Express by nearly three hours, taking barely 13 hours to cover the Delhi-Mumbai distance. August 2: Talgo Tuesday completed its third and final phase of trials from New Delhi to Mumbai, but arrived at its destination over three hours behind schedule, a Western railway official said, adding that heavy rains enroute caused the delay. In Pictures | Talgo train: Take a look at its swanky interiors August 1: Talgo train will commence its third and final phase of trials from Delhi to Mumbai aiming a maximum speed of 130 kmph and is expected to reach the financial capital in about four hours less than the time taken by Rajdhani. July 27: Talgo train will reach Mumbai by August 2 for more speed trials on the Delhi-Mumbai route, Western Railway officials confirmed. Watch | Talgo Trials: Exclusive Interior Preview Of The Train July 14: Talgo train broke the speed record of the country’s fastest train, the recently launched Gatiman Express, by clocking 180 km per hour during its third trial run on Mathura-Palwal stretch. It covered the 80-km stretch in 39 minutes. July 9: Spanish train Talgo commenced its second phase trial from Mathura at 120 km per hour speed with senior officials from Spain and Railways onboard. May 29: Indian Railways conducted the first trial run of Talgo train between Bareilly and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh as part of its strategy to increase the speed of trains. The train achieved a speed of 110-115 kms in the run. Click here to watch video May 28: The Railways has successfully conducted censor trials of the Spanish Talgo coaches between Izzatnagar and Bhojipura stations. February 7: Talgo may soon undertake trial runs at speeds between 160 and 200 kmph on the existing tracks on the Delhi-Mumbai route.
