India's latest HSR proposals

[lpetrich]

California High Speed Rail Blog » China, India Continue HSR Expansion Plans

Indian Government fast tracks high-speed rail plan - Rail News from rail.co

The Indian Government is planning to introduce measures to fast track the development of a high-speed rail network in the country.

The push came at a recent meeting where officials decided that development of key infrastructure projects, including high-speed rail must be pushed through and completed on time.

I'm inclined to believe it only if I ever see it. India seems worse than the US on HSR.

The routes:

• Mumbai - Ahmedabad, 492 km, 300 km/h, 7h to 2.5h
• Pune - Mumbai
• Hyderabad - Dornakal - Vijayawada - Chennai
• Howrah - Haldia
• Chennai - Bangalore - Coimbatore - Trivandrum
• Delhi - Agra - Lucknow - Allahabad - Patna
• Delhi - Chandigarh - Amritsar
• Delhi - Jaipur - Ajmer - Jodhpur

Map, from Wikipedia: File:India HSR potential route 1112.GIF

[morris&essex4ever]

I agree, India is much worse off in terms of HSR than the US. Is there an estimated date on when the first Mumbai-Ahemedabad train will be running?(I know it will be a lot sooner than the actual date of the first run)

[george matthews]

An important problem in India is that the electric grid is not reliable enough to power even the existing railways. Maybe the railways need an insulated grid for their exclusive use.

[David Benton]

i think an even bigger problem would be keeping people and animals off the right of way . the only way i can see would be to fence the entire lenght with high fences . or equip the trains with bigger cow catchers .

[george matthews]

i think an even bigger problem would be keeping people and animals off the right of way . the only way i can see would be to fence the entire lenght with high fences . or equip the trains with bigger cow catchers .

I think everything about HSR in India fills me with apprehension. This week showed the electrical problems. But numerous crashes show the human factor is a problem everywhere.

[kaitoku]

There was a TV program here in Japan a few weeks ago, documenting the visit of Indian railway officials to see the high speed rail lines of JR East Railway. A visit to the under construction Hokuriku Shinkansen was part of the itinerary- the line is completely elevated (like most shinkansen lines). The officials were impressed, but balked at the cost. If you want the highest possible levels of safety, you need to pay for it, and back it up with a corporate culture committed to safety.

[lpetrich]

In the "I'll believe it when I see it" department,

Indian high-speed plans take shape | International Railway Journal

After a slow start, high-speed rail in India began to make the headlines last year as firm proposals for the first lines started to form. While a political head of steam is building up, Raghav Thakur questions whether the money is available to fund high-speed rail projects.

INDIA's high-speed plans are firming up. Last year, Indian Railways (IR) took the first tangible steps along the path to high-speed by announcing plans to acquire a batch of six high-speed trains from a Japanese or European supplier - global tenders for the contract are likely to be invited soon.

????

Without tracks to travel full speed on? Even worse, much of India's trackage is 5'6" / 1676 mm broad gauge rather than standard gauge. So without specially-built bogies, those trainsets will have almost nowhere to go.

On the face of it, India appears willing to bite the high-speed bullet and is exploring various options. One is true high-speed running at 300-325km/h on standard-gauge track rather than broad gauge, which is the norm in India.

Another possibility is semi-high-speed operating at 160-200km/h. IR has drawn up a draft plan for operating semi-high-speed services along parts of the so-called Golden Rail Corridor linking some of India's main cities. A number of companies, including Japanese and French, have offered to provide the technology. "Pre-feasibility studies for the semi-high-speed will begin in early 2013," a senior IR official confirmed.

High-speed rail in India - Wikipedia has a map of the proposed routes.

[mtuandrew]

It wouldn't be too hard to expand an Iberian gauge trainset a third of an inch/8 mm for Indian gauge, being 5' 5 2/3" (1,668 mm) versus 5' 6" (1,676 mm.) (cough cough CAF and Talgo)

[goodnightjohnwayne]

I agree, India is much worse off in terms of HSR than the US. Is there an estimated date on when the first Mumbai-Ahemedabad train will be running?(I know it will be a lot sooner than the actual date of the first run)

India is in a much better position to build new dedicated HSR lines than the United States, since India already has huge volumes of passenger rail travel, but a very primitive highway network - only 600+ miles of limited access highways in the entire country. The downside is that it's hard to get anything done in India, since a handful of poor farmers can put a stop to any project, even after approval, even after land acquisition, even after it has been built, with the first Tata Nano automobile factory being a example. Imagine building a right-of-way through densely populated farm land in India. The current right-of-ways were primarily acquired and built during the pre-independence colonial era.

The biggest downside to HSR in India is the current perception of railway travel. The sort of people who can afford to pay the premium for HSR currently fly and avoid rail travel. The sort of people who currently travel by rail in India, a huge number by American standards, would either be unwilling or unable to pay the premium for HSR.

[lpetrich]

India and China sign high-speed MoU | International Railway Journal
It is for "a joint pre-feasibility study into constructing a high-speed line." Specifically, a Delhi - Varanasi - Patna line. Also mentioned was upgrading some existing lines, like Chennai - Bangalore - Mysore from 130 km/h to 160 km/h.