Tilting trains to make journey faster without slowing down on curved tracks, speeds up to 160 km/h

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the advent of tilting trains that tilt without slowing down on bends, it will be possible to travel at a speed of 160 km on tracks in Kerala full of bends. This will be first introduced in Vande Bharat trains.

Union Minister V. Muraleedharan has announced that Vande Bharat will be granted to Kerala this year itself. The state government wants to announce it in the central budget. 100 of the 400 newly built Vande Bharat trains will be tilting trains. With the arrival of other trains in a phased manner, the train journey will be faster.

The average train speed in Kerala is 55-60 kmph. The lack of speed is due to the bends and uphill paths. Speed is 20 km/h on bends. There are 626 bends, 230 level crossings and speed restrictions at 138 places on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragode route. 36 percent of the route is at the curves. It will take Rs 25,000 crores in expense and ten years to fix the curves. The current alignment of the railway line will also change. Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode stations and many smaller stations have to be shifted. A large amount of land should be acquired. However, the tilting train will be twice as fast on curves as it is now. They also run on normal tracks so there is no need to change the track.

Two units of 16 passenger cars will be supplied to the Thiruvananthapuram division on completion of construction at the integral coach factory in Chennai. Bengaluru, Chennai and Mangaluru services from Thiruvananthapuram are under consideration. The central plan is to run 75 trains by August. In advance, Thiruvananthapuram-Eranakulam (via Alappuzha) and Shornur-Mangaluru lines will be upgraded to run trains at a speed of 130 kmph.

Current average speed

49 km: Thiruvananthapuram-Eranakulam

80 km: Shornur-Eranakulam

110: KM Shornur-Mangaluru

90 km: Ernakulam-Kayamkulam

110 km: Kayamkulam-Thiruvananthapuram

Hydraulic system to maintain speed at bends

A special hydraulic system at the bottom of the coaches allows the train to run without slowing down on curves. It's like a biker leaning on a curve. For this, hydraulic tilting bogies should be made. Time can be saved by 30 percent as there is no need to slow down on the curve. Fiat's tilting trains in Europe run at 200km/h. Tilting train in India is with foreign collaboration.