High-speed rail in India

Potential High Speed Rail lines[26][27]

Multiple pre-feasibility and feasibility studies have been done or are in progress.

The consultants for pre-feasibility study for four corridors are:[28]

• Systra France's Company for Delhi-Panipat-Ambala-Chandigarh-Ludhiana-Jalandhar-Amritsar,
• Systra, Italferr and RITES Limited for Pune – Mumbai – Ahmedabad,
• British firm Mott MacDonald for Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna
• INECO, PROINTEC, Ayesa for Howrah-Haldia
• Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Oriental Consultancy along with Parsons Brinckerhoff India for Chennai-Vijayawada-Dornakal-Kazipet-Hyderabad

In September 2013, an agreement was signed in New Delhi to complete a feasibility study of high-speed rail between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, within 18 months.[29] The study will cost ¥500 million[30] and the cost will be shared 50:50 by Japan and India.[29]

Location of the stations, its accessibility, integration with public transport, parking and railway stations design[31] will play an important role in the success of the high speed railway system. Mumbai may have an underground corridor to have high-speed rail start from the CST terminal.[32] European experiences have shown that railway stations outside the city receive less patronage and ultimately make the high-speed railway line unfeasible.[33]

High Speed Rail Corporation has called for international bidders for carrying out a pre-feasibility study of the 458-km Delhi - Chandigarh - Amritsar High Speed Corridor.

The feasibility study for the Chennai-Bengaluru high-speed rail corridor was completed by Germany in November 2018. The study found that the route was feasible. The proposed corridor would be 435 km long and would have an end-to-end travel time of 2 hours and 25 minutes with trains operating at a speed of 320 km/h. The study proposed constructing 84% of the track on viaducts, 11% underground and the remaining 4% at-grade. The current fastest train on the Chennai-Bengaluru route, the Shatabdi Express, completes the journey in 7 hours.[34]

The Diamond Quadrilateral high speed network connecting the four major cities of Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai was a key plank in the BJP's election manifesto.[35][36] PM Modi mentioned in his address to the joint session of Parliament on 9 June 2014 that the new Government was committing to launch the project.[37]

In February 2014, Henri Poupart-Lafarge of Alstom, manufacturer of trains used on TGV in France, stated that India is at least 5–10 years away from high-speed trains. He suggested the country should first upgrade the infrastructure to handle trains travelling 100–120 km/h (62–75 mph).[41]

French National Railways (or SNCF) proposed to upgrade the Shatabdi train track between Delhi and Chandigarh to run the trains at a maximum speed of 220 km/h.[42] This is expected provide hands-on expertise for Indian Railways to implement Semi-High speed trains across India, specifically running Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains at maximum speed 220+ km/h with average speed of 150 km/h.

Feasibility study of running semi-high speed trains on the 500 km Chennai–Bengaluru and Mysore section has been submitted by the China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd (CREEC) to Railway Board. It envisions reducing travel time from existing 7 hours to 4 hours and 45 minutes.[43] The German finance ministry has agreed to finance a government feasibility study into a high-speed rail link between Chennai and Mysore, and had discussed a project to modernise the Chennai–Hyderabad route.[44] Germany is conducting a feasibility study for running trains at a speed of about 300 km/h on the 450 km long Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysuru route. It has already completed pre-feasibility study in 2016. A consortium of consultants comprising DB E&C, Intraplan Consult and Ingenieurburo Vossing are conducting the study.[45]

During the trial run in Delhi–Mumbai route Spain's Talgo trains reached a peak speed of 150 km/h (93 mph), observing laid-down speed cautions and halting at the usual stoppages as the Mumbai Rajdhani, Talgo clocked an average speed of 117.5 km/h (73.0 mph). The Mumbai Rajdhani took 15 hours and 50 minutes at an average speed of 87.7 km/h (54.5 mph).

With the great success of Gatimaan Express, the Indian Railways plans to start additional semi-high speed services along the Delhi - Bhopal / Chandigarh / Kanpur routes shortly.[46][47]

Railway minister Mr Sadananda Gowda mentioned in his Rail budget 2014 speech that the railways will start high speed trains at 160–200 km/h (99–124 mph) on 9 routes. Indian Railways is also testing to increase the speed of the Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani express train. Proposed increased speed will be 160 km/h between Delhi-Mathura stretch and 130 km/h for the remaining stretch.

  operational   under construction   planned

Indian railways has proposed EMU train sets to operate at semi-high speed (180 km/h). These are of two types "Train 18" which will be a day train replacing Shatabdi Express and "Train 20" which will be an overnight train replacing Rajdhani Express. Train 18 has entered service on 15 February 2019 while Train 20 will roll out in 2020. These trains will be manufactured by Integral Coach Factory (ICF).[51]

These trains will have loco pilot cabins on both ends. This will prevent the need to reverse the locomotive which will save time. As these are EMU train sets, the time and distance taken to accelerate and decelerate will reduce, enabling the train to travel at top speed for more distance. Each coach will be fitted with traction motor so the train will be self propelled. The train coaches will have automatic sliding doors, on board Wi-Fi connection, GPS based information system, wide windows and will be fully air conditioned. Bio toilets will be installed in coaches. The rake of Train 18 will have 16 coaches consisting of 2 Executive Chair Cars and 14 AC Chair Cars, it will operate at 160 km/h, while Train 20 will have 20 coaches consisting of AC First Class sleeper, AC II Tier sleeper, AC III Tier sleeper classes and an AC Chair Car, it will operate at 160 km/h. Train 20's proposed top speed to be 176 km/h.[52][53]

Critics point out that Delhi-Agra time savings are not based on the speed of train but based on other factors. According to critics, the reduction in travel time due to speed is a mere three minutes, and that other maneuverings are largely responsible for the drastic drop. The reduction of time is largely due to shifting the train's departure point from New Delhi railway station to Hazrat Nizamuddin and doing away with the scheduled stop at Mathura reportedly saving 14 minutes. Limiting the locomotive to 10 coaches (Bhopal Shatabdi has 14) leads to a decrease of another two minutes. Thus track improvements and superior infrastructure lead to a decrease of only five minutes, three minutes owing to route relay and interlocking at Agra, and one minute each due to the approval to run a passenger train on the third line at Palwal and Bhuteshwar, installation of thick web switches at four points and putting up a track station at Chhata.[54]

There were also serious questions raised about the safety of the passengers as the infrastructure on which semi-high speed trains are running may not be able to run at such high speeds. For example, it is preferred to run these higher speed trains on 60-kilogram tracks, but as of now they are running on 52-kilogram tracks.[55]

Indian Railways is exploring the possibility of super-speed, also called ultra-high-speed, rail network in India. The Railway Minister's vision is to make rolling stock the driver for India's shift from being a technology importer to a manufacturer and developer, by becoming a designer for future rolling stock technology.[56] Ultra-high-speed trains running on magnetic levitation, maglev for short, will bring in efficiency, time-reduction and cost-reduction for the Indian industry, the general public and the overall economy of the country, at almost the same cost as wheeled high-speed trains. Such trains could make the Indian industry and economy the most efficient in the world. However, the major blocking financial hindrance is that maglev technology has consistently been shown to be more than double the cost of "standard steel-to-steel bullet trains" and thus has been a major economic hindrance to the beginning of any construction of the Chuo Shinkansen in Japan.

The Andhra Pradesh state government has decided to build its metro train system in major cities using the Maglev technology. The Changsha Maglev system was studied by a team to gain better understanding of running the metro using Maglev. Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Amaravati metro railway systems will be built using low speed Maglev train systems.[57][58] It is expected make the industrial sector in the Andhra Pradesh the most cost efficient and exports competitive in world market by reducing the logistics cost for the transport of people and freight.[59] Maglev based metro systems improve the quality of life in cities and provide efficient, high-speed rail systems to generate far higher levels of economic output.[60] This is expected to create an industrial base, hands-on expertise and lower costs for Maglev in India.

Kochi Metro explored using the South Korean Maglev technology used in the Incheon Airport Maglev, but it was not fully operational in 2011. So, Kochi Metro opted for wheeled-train set technology for initial routes. But, future routes may use Maglev technology.[61]

India may build its future metro train systems using Maglev as it has faster acceleration and deceleration than traditional metro systems. China is building new lines for Beijing Metro and Changsha Metro using Maglev technology to retain Chinese cost competitiveness in the world market by reducing the transportation time and cost.

Earlier in 2016, Indian Railways announced a seminar with ultra-high-speed train manufacturers to explore the possibility of introducing an ultra-high-speed train system on a public–private partnership basis.[62] The corporation has issued an Expression of Interest (EOI) to global investors to implement an over-500-kilometre-per-hour (310 mph) rail system. Transport infrastructure (including stations, platforms, tracks, signal systems, fare structures and timetables) would be developed by private firms; Indian Railways would handle land-related issues, and the revenue would be shared.[63] The new railway system, parallel to the current one, should support passenger and freight traffic.[64] In February 2019, a train model based upon MagLev systems was unveiled by scientists from Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology for a speed of 600 km (370 mi) per hour.[65] In September 2020, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited signed a pact with SwissRapide AG to bring MagLev metro systems in India.[66]

There is no currently operational hyperloop system in the world today, and no experimental system has yet been conducted with human beings. Speed projections depend on significant engineering advances, and have not yet been observed.[67]

Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop

It is a proposed 1,000 km/h hyperloop system that will take 14 minutes compared to the current 3 hours to commute between these two cities while carrying 10,000 commuters per hour (5,000 in each direction). Hyperloop One, the firm proposing the route, believes that it is feasible and can be made operational by 2026 as per its Detailed Project Report submitted to Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) in January 2018. Hyperloop One propose three possible terminal end-points options in Mumbai, namely Dadar, Santacruz and the Mumbai International Airport. Currently, 3,00,000 people commute daily between these two cities daily in 1,10,000 vehicles (including 80,000 cars and 6,000 buses).[68]

Vijayawada-Amaravathi Hyperloop

The Andhra Pradesh state government is currently studying the feasibility of the project and if introduced, the 40 km distance between the two cities can be covered in just six minutes. AP Economic Development Board (AP-EDB) and US-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the same.[69] Andra Pradesh already has decided to build its metro train systems using Maglev technology and has sent the study teams to China for practical study of the operational Maglev based metro train systems.[58]

Bengaluru-Chennai Hyperloop

Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One, has signed a MoU with Karnataka government to conduct a feasibility study for the route between Bangalore and Chennai. According to its sponsors, such a Hyperloop will reduce the travel time to 20 minutes between the two cities.[70]