A common sight on railway platforms round the country is that of passengers flocking excitedly to take selfies and photos of the sleek Vande Bharat express trains to share with family and friends. It’s been many months since India’s first indigenous semi high-speed trains were launched — with over 50 VB train sets running on different routes — but the enthusiasm is still palpable.
The Indian Railways, too, keeps the adrenaline rush going with fanfare over VB Express launches on new routes. On August 31, newspapers featured full page ads of VB Express trains being unveiled on three new routes and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narenda Modi — Meerut-Lucknow; Madurai-Bengaluru; and Chennai-Nagercoil — adding to the 100 VB services operational across the country connecting over 280 districts.
The indigenous Vande Bharat train — a fine example of a Make in India initiative taking off - was unveiled in February 2019. Its precursor, Train 18, was designed and developed in 2018 entirely at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Perambur, Chennai. However, the VB Express got momentum from late 2022 with the Railways introducing the service on new routes and ICF ramping up production along with other coach factories such as MCF, Raebareli, and RCF, Kapurthala, later.
While the Vande Bharat trains have redefined the travelling experience, offering greater comfort and reduced travel times, it has also given renewed purpose to ICF, which was founded in 1955 and has emerged as the largest rail coach manufacturer in the world.
Says U Subba Rao, General Manager, ICF, “The making of Vande Bharat express trains has given an incentive and push to the whole organisation. Now Vande Bharat is a whole brand of trains, not just the chair car train. It’s a quantum jump from the trains we had so far as this train brings better comfort and passenger amenities; the touch and feel is better and the feeling is that you are in a better class of train. We are not replicating the trains of Europe nor are they equal to the high-speed trains of China, but they have put us on that path.” Capable of travelling at 160 kph, (but running around 130 kph or less because of current limitations with the tracks that are now being progressively upgraded) these trains are faster than the Shatabdi Express, which so far had the pride of place for fast rail travel in the country.
These semi high-speed trains have speeded up rail travel on shorter routes such as Chennai to Bengaluru, where you can travel to either city centre in a shade under four-and-a-half hours, which beats air travel by a couple of hours, considering the reporting time and travel to and from the airport.
The manufacturing
It’s late afternoon at a manufacturing facility of ICF at Perambur in Chennai. Inside the cavernous hall, the heat is intense but work is on full swing.
The clang of clashing metal reverberates around the hall while supervisors yell out orders; workers weld parts together, huge overhead cranes on rails transport large under-frames to their assembly points.
Further inside, workers are huddled under the chassis, tightening bolts, installing lengthy wiring or putting panels in place. A team is working in the driver’s cabin, installing propulsion systems. Another VB train set is getting ready.
Different as chalk and cheese
Compared to conventional trains where locomotives haul bogies, each VB train is called a train set — either of eight or 16 coaches (and now 20) and they are not decoupled and shunted around like other trains. VB trains don’t require locomotives because of its distributed power; four units act as four independent locomotives. Even if one unit fails, the train continues to run without any compromise on performance; in a conventional train, if the loco fails, the train comes to a standstill.
As Subba Rao explains, VB trains are DPRS (distributed power rolling stock) enabled. “Technically, what it means is that the loco is broken into small pieces and the complete loco is spread between several coaches in the under carriage and all linked through cables and communication through which they are controlled.”
With the DPRS, the acceleration of these trains is very high. At 0.72 metres per second, it is comparable to the city metro coaches, while on the Shatabdi it would be about 40 per cent of that. Moreover, there’s nothing like a rear or front locomotive as the VB trains are through-wired.
Passenger comfort
As far as passenger comfort is concerned, if one compares Shatabdis, which are next in terms of value given to passengers, VB trains are a lot better because the riding comfort is superior. In every coach, there’s an infotainment system. Every seat has a socket to charge mobiles.
The trains have a fire detection system and in areas where fires can go unnoticed, there is a self-activated fire mitigation system as well in electrical panels and in the toilets. Doors close automatically and the train cannot move if all doors are not shut.
There is CCTV surveillance too, so that the guard and the loco pilot can look into each coach. There are four cameras fitted outside too, at either end. In fact, stone pelters at a VB train were identified and arrested in one instance through this camera footage, an unintended result of having cameras on the outside.
Moreover, to make travel safe, each of the trains has been fitted with Kavach anti-collision devices. If you have two approaching trains on the same track, the brakes on both will be activated to avoid collision.
Whoever has crossed the vestibule connecting two coaches in a train would definitely have been scared due to the noise and the swaying and also because it’s partially open. However, in VB trains the gangway is much wider and completely air and water tight. The movement from one coach to another is seamless, akin to a Metro train.
Simplifying manufacturing
ICF had to think out of the box to speed up the manufacturing process by looking at semi high-speed trains on the global circuit. It also roped in an overseas consultant to help with the design. A separate facility was created for manufacturing VB trains and in the same plant, the coach body, wiring, and interiors are finished. One could see at one end, the under frames being brought in. Farther on, the body frame is erected, ACs are installed on the roof, installations of transformers, batteries and other panels done under the chassis, and then seats are put in, while a team from Medha, one of ICF’s main vendors, is working on the propulsion system in the loco.
The indigenisation level of VB trains is 85-90 per cent. Forged wheels and axles are imported. Rest of the parts are indigenous. ICF has gone in for supply and installation contracts for the panels, air-conditioning ducting, toilets and luggage racks so that the employees from the company that manufactures them fit them in.
More VB trains and variants
A Vande Bharat train costs approximately ₹108 crore to make, without GST. A conventional train cannot be compared as speed, acceleration and safety is better in the VB. A German-designed Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coach, for instance, costs ₹2.5 crore per coach while a locomotive would cost ₹12-15 crore.
While the Railways upgrades tracks, more VB variants are to follow: A VB sleeper train and a VB Metro. As Subba Rao says, it’s a ‘brand extension’ on the VB platform.
ICF is now making a Vande Metro. The first rake of Vande Metro, a 12-car fully air-conditioned train set with features similar to VB coaches was turned out in May 2024. The train completed all trials successfully and has been sent to Western Railway for passenger services. The VB Metro train will offer a comfortable travel experience to passengers travelling 150-200 km, he said. “The VB Metro will have both seats and room for standing passengers. It is completely AC, the speed is lower, the seating will be like a suburban train, but cushioned, and is meant for two-to-three hours of travel. We have done a 12-car train but now the order is for 16-car trains. After seeing its performance, we will go for it. An order for seven trains is there,” says the GM.
The first 16-coach Vande sleeper train will be out by September 15. This is being produced by BEML under a collaboration. “The designs we are giving and some of the sub-assemblies are from us. The train will come back to ICF for final testing, which will take a couple of months,” adds Rao.
ICF has also received a fresh production order to manufacture 24 coaches of VB sleeper trains. “These trains will have pantry cars and will cater to the long-distance premium segment. We hope by August 2026 this train will be in service,” Subba Rao had said, while delivering his I-Day address to ICF staff.
Till July 2024, ICF has turned out 75 VB train sets. Of these, 53 rakes were manufactured in 2023-24.
“We have total orders of 97 chair car trains. After this, I expect there will be no more demand for chair car trains as we will have 125 trains in the system. We should do 15 more VB trains this year,” says Subba Rao. In June 2024, ICF rolled out its 75,000th coach, which was a DPRS coach and fittingly part of the 69th VB train set.
In an interview, Sudhanshu Mani, a former GM of ICF and the architect of VB trains, said that there are 54 VB train sets running and the image of Indian Railways in terms of modernising passenger services has definitely changed. “Many more shall be inducted over the next three years, taking the number beyond 250 if not more. That is the good part. Second part is that the upgrade of track has not kept pace. It is an expensive train compared to regular trains. So if you make so many of them, it would have been much better if they were exploited to full potential as apart from a good travelling experience, reduced travel time is also important.”