High-speed rail in India

During the steam era of Indian railways, the trains rarely managed to reach speeds of 90 km/h (56 mph). It was only until the introduction of WP class locomotive in the 1940s where speeds of 100 km/h (62 mph) were operated commercially.[15] The move from steam technology happened when the electrification was completed in Bombay Division. WCP-1 class electric locomotives were used to haul the coaches with a speed beyond 100 km/h (62 mph) and they had a theoretical maximum speed of 120 km/h (75 mph). Due to the intervening World Wars, Indian Railways were unable to introduce electrification beyond the Bombay Division and hence steam locomotives dominated the lines in the rest of India.[15]

The era of diesel locomotives took shape in the 1960s when Indian Railways imported WDM-1 and WDM-2 class locomotives from the American company, ALCO. Although the WDM-1 struggled to cross the 100 km/h (62 mph) speed mark, the subsequent introduction of WDM-2 and WDM-4 locomotives achieved these speeds for the most of the decade.[15]

India began developing higher-speed rail by inaugurating the Howrah Rajdhani Express back in March 1969, five years after Japan inaugurated Shinkansen, the world's first high-speed rail which was running at twice the speed of Rajdhani Express.[16] With the initiation of various electrification projects in the 1970s on the trunk routes, the electric locomotives soon began to replace their diesel counterparts. The WAP-1 electric locomotive broke the record to be the fastest locomotive in India during the 1980s, reaching a maximum speed of 160 km/h (99 mph) during trial runs and was certified for commercial operations at 140 km/h (87 mph).The first service to reach a maximum speed of 140 km/h (87 mph) was, the WAP-1 hauled, Shatabdi Express from New Delhi to Jhansi in 1989.[15]

WAP-5 class locomotives, the first AC locomotives of its kind in India, were imported to haul fast, short trains like the Shatabdi Express. They also featured fully suspended traction motors, reducing the impact on tracks and allowing faster speeds. The first batch of these locomotives arrived in India in 1995 and operated at speeds of 130 km/h (81 mph). During the trial runs, this locomotive reached a record speed of 184 km/h (114 mph) which made it the fastest locomotive in India.[15]

Inauguration of the Vande Bharat Express, India's second indigenously developed EMU train, at New Delhi railway station.

in April 2016, the WAP-5 hauled Gatimaan Express became the fastest commercially operated train in India, with a maximum operational speed of 160 km/h (99 mph).[17] Two years later, Indian Railways developed the second indigenously built, semi-high-speed EMU train, the Vande Bharat Express based on MEMU. This train reached a speed of 180 km/h (112 mph) during its trial run and was designed to run at a maximum speed of 200 km/h (124 mph), but due to the speed limitations on tracks, the train's operational speed is restricted to 130 km/h (81 mph).[18]

Erstwhile Minister of Railways, Mallikarjun Kharge launching High-speed Rail Corporation of India Ltd.

In mid-1980s, then railway minister, Madhavrao Scindia proposed the Delhi-Kanpur high-speed rail line which was found financially unviable,[19] thus railways instead introduced Shatabdi trains which ran at 140 km/h (87 mph).[20] Under the Vision 2020 white paper in 2009, six elevated corridors were identified for technical studies on setting up of high-speed rail corridors. The 'High Speed Rail Corporation of India Ltd' (HSRC), founded on 25 July 2013 by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL) for the high-speed rail corridor projects,[21][22][23][24][25][26] was replaced by the 'National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited' on 12 February 2016 as the government company for construction and operation of high-speed rail corridors.[27]

Prime ministers of India and Japan at Ground Breaking ceremony of Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project, at Ahmedabad.

Construction of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, India's first high-speed rail corridor started in 2017 and is expected to be completed by 2028. The foundation stone laying ceremony was held on 14 September 2018 when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, flagged off the construction work in Ahmedabad. The E5 Series Shinkansen trains will have a maximum operational speed of 320 km/h (199 mph) and an average speed of 260 km/h (162 mph).[6]

Potential Diamond Quadrilateral route map.

The Diamond Quadrilateral high-speed rail network project is envisioned to connect the four major metro cities of India namely: Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai.[43][44][45][46]

Gatimaan Express is the first semi-high speed service in India that runs at its maximum speed of 160 km/h between Tughlakabad and Agra Cantonment.

India has several semi-high speed routes which allow trans running at semi-high speeds (160kmph), these services are called Vande Bharat Express[47][48][49][50] and Gatimaan Express.[51][52][53]

Indian Railways aims to increase the speed of passenger trains to 160–200 km/h (99–124 mph) on dedicated conventional tracks. Indian railways also intend to improve the existing conventional lines to handle speeds of up to 160 km/h (99 mph), with a goal of speed more than 200 km/h (124 mph) on new tracks with improved technology.[7] Trains have already been built by native companies that can reach speeds of 200 km/h (124 mph).[54] Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India has built dedicated freight corridors across India to move cargo traffic from the passenger railway tracks, thus increase the speed of the passenger trains to 200 km/h (124 mph).[55] Indian Railways have classified the tracks in two categories. The tracks that support 110 km/h (68 mph) – 130 km/h (81 mph) are classified as 'Group B' while the tracks that support 130 km/h (81 mph) – 160 km/h (99 mph) are classified as 'Group A'.[56][57] The following list has various routes that operate, are under construction or are planned to run at speeds of 160 km/h and beyond. This table does not list the trains that are capable to run at speeds of 160 km/h or beyond, for such information on trains, see here.

  Operational
  Under upgradation
  Planned

  Operational
  Under construction
  Planned

Indian Railways explored the possibility of maglev trains to implement an over-500-kilometre-per-hour (310 mph) speed rail system to shift from technology importer to manufacturer and developer.[67][68][69][70] 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.[71] In September 2020, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited signed a pact with SwissRapide AG to bring MagLev metro systems in India.[72]

There is no currently operational hyperloop system in the world. Although there has been human testing, but the proposed speed projections depend on significant engineering advances & testing.[73]

Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop

1,000 km/h hyperloop system would 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 Onesubmitted a Detailed Project Report submitted to Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) in January 2018 with 3 terminal end-points options in Mumbai, namely Dadar, Santacruz and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. In 2018, 3,00,000 people commute daily between these two cities daily in 1,10,000 vehicles (including 80,000 cars and 6,000 buses).[74]

Amritsar-Chandigarh Hyperloop

Virgin Hyperloop signed a MoU with Punjab in 2019 for building a rail to cover total 226 km (140 mi) distance in 19 minutes, which will be at least 10 times faster than a trip taken by existing transport infrastructure of road, rail or flight.[75]

Bengaluru-Chennai Hyperloop

Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One, signed a MoU with Karnataka government to conduct feasibility study for thus route which will reduce the travel time to 20 minutes.[76]

Depiction of modified E5 series Shinkansen in background at the ground breaking ceremony.

The Indian railways will construct bullet train assembly facilities on a public-private participation (PPP) model. As per National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), Japanese companies will set up manufacturing facilities in India to build the parts for bullet train sets.[77]

Indian Railways is developing EMU train sets which can operate at a semi-high speed of (200 km/h (124 mph)). In 2019, The Vande Bharat Express or Train 18 replaced Shatabdi Express. 'Train 20' is another proposed overnight semi-high-speed train to replace the existing Rajdhani Express service. Both of these will be manufactured by Integral Coach Factory (ICF).[78] These trains have driver cabins on both ends, which eliminates the time needed for turnaround at the terminal station. Since these are EMU train sets, the time and distance taken to accelerate and decelerate is reduced, enabling the train to travel at a top speed for longer distance. The coaches have automatic sliding doors, onboard Wi-Fi service, GPS based information system, wide windows, bio-toilets and are fully air-conditioned. The rake of Vande Bharat Express has sixteen coaches, consisting of two Executive Chair Cars and fourteen AC Chair Cars, it is being operated at 130 km/h due to track limitations. Train 20 is set to have twenty coaches consisting of AC First Class sleeper, AC II Tier sleeper, AC III Tier sleeper classes and an AC Chair Car, it is set to operate at 160 km/h. Train 20's proposed top speed was announced to be at 176 km/h.[79][80]

A prefabricated section of the elevated track being installed with the help of Mega Carrier and Launcher on the Chinese Harbin-Dalian High Speed Railway in October 2010.

The Mega Carrier and Launcher Machines or Transporter, Gantry, and Full Span Launcher Machines are the machines that are used to construct viaducts (elevated structures) for bullet train corridors in China. These vehicles carry an entire girder by traveling on an already launched girder to place the next girder. The speed was seven times faster than India's previous girder launching mechanism. While the Chinese machine laid two girders a day, the previous Indian girder launching mechanism placed one and a half girders in a week.[81] The NHSRCL had posed a challenge to build such machines for L&T which is currently constructing the 325 km (202 mi) stretch of Mumbai-Ahmedabad line. Each of these machines cost around ₹70–80 crores and 30 such machines are required to construct 237 km (147 mi) stretch.[81] On 9 September 2021, India joined Norway, Italy, China, and South Korea to possess Full Span Launching Methodology (FSLM) technology after L&T was successfully able to develop it indigenously. NHSRCL will acquire 20 such machines for their Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project in order to ramp up the construction progress. These machines can be further used to build viaducts for elevated roads and rapid transit systems across India.[82][83]