Indian Railways (IR) recently announced a Vande Bharat portfolio with three variants: Vande Bharat (VB) Express, Vande Metro, and Vande Sleeper trains, catering to both short- and long-distance travellers. The news is that the latter two, hyped for ages, may enter service before the year ends.
The original which inspired variations — Train 18 or VB Express, a long-distance chair car train, designed indigenously by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) with cutting-edge features — was a resounding success in 2018-19. However, this writer has always maintained that after 40-45 day-trains, IR would struggle to deploy them profitably without a sleeper version to replace Rajdhanis and other fast overnight trains.
With the sleeper version delayed excessively, IR keeps deploying the existing model sub-optimally.
Even as the average speeds keep falling, unlike the initial services, at least 14 of the 50-odd origin-destination pairs now in service suffer from poor patronage, including the latest one between Lucknow and Meerut.
In an unfathomable decision, the Ministry positioned Vande Metro as 130 kmph top speed 12/16-coach train, meant for cities within a 100-150 km radius. It retains most VB features except for pantry but accommodates 280 passengers in 100 seats and space for standees in a wider aisle. Two Vande Metro trains have been around for some time, awaiting their grand debut. Unless their tickets are considerably cheaper than those for VB, filling these trains would be a Herculean task.
Fares factor
Charging MEMU type fares would be suicidal as VB Metros are way more expensive than existing MEMUs. Then the dampener that the travel time would hardly be lower as the trains would be run at 110 kmph, not the intended 130 kmph.
The first train shall run between Ahmedabad and Bhuj, covering 358 km instead of the intended 100-150 km, at a disappointing average speed of 65 kmph and the fare is reportedly at around 75 per cent of regular AC Chair. We have to see what occupancy it attracts.
The VB Sleeper was a work in preliminary progress at ICF in 2018 but along with the unfortunate stoppage of VB work from 2019 to 2022, it was abandoned, a baffling decision. In 2022, however, IR took a bold decision to tender for 200 Sleeper versions for manufacture by non-railway companies and succeeded in ordering 120 and 80 trains to consortiums of TMH+RVNL and Titagarh+BHEL respectively. These prototypes are expected next year.
One believed that this outsourcing was to supplement the efforts of ICF, and not to elbow ICF out of the picture. In a strange death-wish, ICF went ahead and ordered on single tender basis another 10 trains to be built by Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), Bengaluru with the key components to be supplied by ICF to them.
BEML had earlier bid for the tender for 200 trains but was reportedly priced out. In addition, the drawings and knowhow of ICF were transferred.
VB project would not have been possible without the help of the allied industry which had matured in India, notably the manufacturer of the propulsion system.
However, projects of this magnitude need something more than capability and expertise; namely, pride and passion, which team ICF had in plenty. ICF is now going ahead with ordering the work of design and manufacture of two futuristic 250 kmph trains to BEML, although BEML has little expertise in the area of fast trains. This is going to be the most prestigious project ever undertaken by IR and one can trust ICF to deliver it in three years.
Outsourcing one’s core knowledge to another PSU which has been merely manufacturing rolling stock based on borrowed designs, is like handing over one’s family silver.
The writer is Retd. GM/Indian Railways, leader of Vande Bharat project and Independent Consultant