If all goes according to plan, passengers on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route will be able to travel on the state-of-the-art Vande Bharat train in the next few months. The final trial of the third Vande Bharat train on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route will be conducted shortly.
However, the time table and fare chart of the train are yet to be finalized, but sources said it will be likely to depart from Ahmedabad in the morning and reach Mumbai in the afternoon. In the reverse direction, it will depart from Mumbai in the afternoon and reach Ahmedabad in the evening. An earlier trial of this train was planned on September 7th, but postponed due to some unavoidable reasons.
"After the successful route trial, the timetable will be finalised," said an officer of WR, adding that if all goes according to plan, Vande Bharat trains will start running on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route in a couple of months. From August 25 to 28, a high-speed trial run of up to 180 kph was done on the Kota-Sawai Madhopur segment. Oscillation tests of the train were also carried out up to speeds of 180 kmph.
Currently, two Vande Bharat trains are already running between Delhi, Varanasi, and Katra. It will be the third Vande Bharat express in the country and the first from Mumbai. "This is a bit different from those two already in operation with enhanced safety and convenience features for passengers," said a railway official.
Safety enhancements in the upgraded Vande Bharat train with the Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) or Kavach prevent signal passing at danger (SPAD) cases and unsafe situations arising due to overspeeding and train collisions in station areas . The train set has been designed for acceleration reserve, which will help maintain the slope's speed. While the earlier Vande Bharat train set has a one-hour battery backup, this one has a three-hour backup.
As per ICF officials, the new rake has a better acceleration and deceleration capacity and will be able to reach 160 kmph in just 140 seconds as compared to 145 seconds for the earlier rakes. The new rake also has four platform side cameras, including rear view cameras, instead of the earlier two. They said it has better heat ventilation and air-conditioning control owing to higher efficiency compressors and UV lamps for germ-free supply of air.
