Talgo Chief executive officer Jose Maria Oriol said they are hopeful of bringing their trial train to India by October or early November at their own cost and risk to demonstrate its advantages.
The Euro 384 million, Spain-based Talgo has come with an entirely different solution. The manufacturer of intercity, high speed and passenger trains has suggested using the legacy network of the Indian Railways to provide faster connectivity. What Talgo plans to do is launch its lighter, faster trains in India for which it has an in-principle nod. If all goes well, the first of these light, fast train sets would be imported into India by the end of the year. The immediate impact will be a reduction in the travel time between Delhi and Mumbai by 30% to 12 hours.
The Talgo trains travel at speeds of 160-220 kilometres per hour, much higher than the current high of 130 kilometres per hour. Though they are slower than the 350 kilometres per hour achieved by high speed trains like Japan’s Shinkansen or France’s TGV, the investment too is much lower. With the government opening up investment in the sector, Talgo is open to setting up a plan to make the trains here.
