‘Spanish train not fit for India’

Even while the much-hyped Spanish high-speed Talgo train has successfully met the parameters on speed and safety, the ministry of railways finds the train not suitable to run on Indian conditions. The Railways has maintained that the low height of Talgo train and low width of its coaches make the Spanish train unsuitable to Indian conditions. “The Talgo train has low height in contrast to the height of the platforms. Since there will be significant gap between the train and the platform, there will be safety concerns for the passengers. Also, the width of the coaches are small, which will not make it possible to customise to the Indian requirements for sleeper coaches,” said Mr Hemant Kumar, Member (Rolling Stock) of the Railway Board. Additionally, Mr Kumar stated that the Talgo train consists of just nine coaches against normal 27 coaches of the Indian trains. Though the Talgo train trials have been taking place on the speed and safety parameters, the Railways seems to have thrown additional demands to the Spanish train manufacturer to meet the Indian requirements. “If the Talgo were to change the height and width, besides adding more number of coaches, then it may not be able to meet its claims of covering the distance between Delhi and Mumbai four hours short of the time taken by the Rajdhani trains,” said a senior official of the Railways.