Trains are once again going to be the favourite of the Indian business class as the Railways have taken up two major reforms aiming at productivity improvement in Indian Railways.
Most of our public amenities suffer due to lack of professionalism and utter disregard for customer satisfaction (forget customer delight!) and the lack of a sense of urgency to improve human and system productivity. Slowly the Railways is changing from that mindset and has started giving greater importance to the travelling public and caring for his comfort and delight !
One of these steps is allowing surge pricing (revenue or yield management) which permits increasing fares by 10% for every 10% filling of seats, on certain premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi express trains which has already started giving great convenience to the passengers not forgetting the almost Rs 100 crore extra revenue that has been added to the Indian Railway's coffers during the past one week.
 |
| High speed Talgo trains (upto 250 kmph) will redefine luxury yet again on Indian Railways |
The other reform taking place is the test run of the light, high speed Spanish Talgo trains on Indian rails. Trial runs having been successfully completed, it is just a matter of time before Talgo trains will be introduced between metro cities to begin with and later across the country's major rail sections.
Spanish Talgo trains offer many advantages on Indian rails. Some of the important ones are highlighted here.
1. Light-weight - A 30% reduction of weight,
2. Low operating costs - a 30% reduction in costs in fuel,
3. higher speeds - higher speeds of up to 250 kmph (demonstrated at 160 kmph on Delhi Agra route)
4. time savings - savings in travel time (upto 4 hours already demonstrated on the New Delhi Mumbai route),
5. Low Capital costs - substantial reduction in capital costs for bogies,
6. Low maintenance and costs - low maintenance needs,
7. Use existing railway infrastructure - ability to use existing railway infrastructure for high speed travel (due to low weights and resultant low dynamic forces on the tracks),
8. Modern in-house facilities - modern amenities inside the train and
9. High safety - zero compromise on safety features as certified by Railway Board
add to the attractiveness of the much popular 75 year old Spanish company's Talgo trains on Indian rails !! The two steps together will bring cheer to rail travel.
Since the Indian Railways has great potential to grow and provide services to more people, the Indian Railways should seriously consider of getting Talgo to set manufacturing facilities in India and transfer technology to our manufacturing bases spread across the country.
George
No comments:
Post a Comment