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Water Leaks Into Rs 115 Crore Vande Bharat Express In God's Own Country - What Exactly Happened?
Hours after the latest Vande Bharat Express was launched in Kerala by the PM, the Rs 115 crore train had water leaking into one of its executive class coaches.
The leak thankfully did not occur during the inaugural journey of the 15th Vande Bharat Express from the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod in North Kerala.
The leak was discovered yesterday morning at Kannur railway station where the 15th version of the Vande Bharat Express is kept overnight due to a lack of servicing facilities at its final stop of Kasargod.
The city of Kannur experienced heavy overnight rain which later leaked into one of the executive coach cars of the first Vande Bharat Express to run in Kerala. This according to some reports was caused by an issue with the ceiling of the coach.
Thankfully, the repair crew were able to diagnose the problem and the nation's most premium train offering was able to head back to Kasargod on time, where it then departed on its first commercial journey to Thiruvananthapuram at its designated time of half past two in the afternoon.
The Vande Bharat Express - India's Semi-High Speed Success Story
The Vande Bharat Express is India's first premium train that runs without a locomotive pulling or pushing it along. Instead, the Vande Bharat Express is based on the Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) tech and is self-propelled with eight of the 16 coaches providing around 12,000hp of power to the EMU-style train.
This is the same tech that powers many local trains in various metropolises across the nation including Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi and has been in use for quite a few years now by the Indian railways.
However, the Vande Bharat Express, unlike those locals is built for speed and acceleration. The trainset which was initially known as Train 18 after its targeted completion date has an operational top speed of 180km/h and can go from 0-100km/h in just 52 seconds.
The Vande Bharat Express ran for the first time between Delhi and Varanasi on the 15th of February 2019. Another Vande Bharat Express followed in October the same year this time connecting New Delhi to Katra in Jammu and Kashmir.
Then the pandemic hit and production of the Vande Bharat seemingly stopped. Thankfully, Indian Railways used this time to update the train to its current Vande Bharat 2.0 (VB2) spec.
These newer VB2 trains now run on the now 15 routes that the Vande Bharat is used for. Newer trains have seen a few updates and tweaks with the two trains out of Mumbai sporting additional parking brakes and traction motor systems to help them climb the steep inclines of their routes.
The Vande Bharath Express that runs between Delhi and Ajmer sports high-rise pantographs as the route it takes between Delhi and Jaipur features quite a few double-decker passenger trains and double-stacked goods trains as well.
In addition to this two of the routes covered by the Vande Bharat Express namely the Coimbatore to Chennai and the Secundrabad to Tirupati route both feature smaller 8-car trains dubbed Mini Vande Bharat Express.
The 13 other routes serviced by the Vande Bharat Express all sport 16-unit trains which cost around Rs 115 crore per train. The Mini Vande Bharat trains cost around Rs 65 crore per trainset.
Indian Railways is working on updating the Vande Bharat Express even further with the third generation of the trainsets set to arrive sometime in the future. These will be the so-called Train 20 trains, which will feature air-conditioned sleeper cars for longer journeys. Train 20 is expected to replace the Rajdhani Express when it comes into service.
Vande Bharat 4.0 (VB4) is also currently being worked on. These trains will be constructed using lightweight aluminium alloys and are expected to feature a top speed in excess of 200km/h.
VB4 is also expected to feature tilting train tech, the first time this feature will be deployed commercially in India. VB4 is expected to come into operation in the second half of this decade.
Thoughts About The Vande Bharat Express
The Vande Bharat Express is the pride and joy of Indian train enthusiasts and will be the fastest train in India till the Bullet Train arrives sometime this decade. Hopefully incidents like the water leak in Kannur will not happen again in the future.
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