The Indian railways fastest train, Train 18 will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 29th from his constituency in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
India’s first engineless train will replace Shatabdi Expresses and will run between Delhi and Varanasi.
The Train 18 was manufactured by ICF Chennai at a cost of ₹100 crore. It became India’s fastest train by hitting speed of over 180 kmph during trial-runs.
The Train 18 comes with facilities at par with the world. The Train 18 coaches have on-board WiFi to a GPS-based passenger information system, touch-free bio-vacuum toilets, LED lighting, mobile charging ports and a climate control system that adjusts temperatures according to occupancy and weather.
The train has two Executive Chair coaches which will seat 52 passengers and other 14 regular coaches will seat 78 passengers each. The Executive Chair coach has rotating seats to match the direction of the train.
It has faster pick up than normal trains, the Train 18 reduces a journey time of the Shatabdi by over 15%. It will replace the existing Shatabdi fleet.
The engineless train ranks safety as the number one priority, it has enough cushion to prevent derailment and in case of a collision train coaches can’t climb one over the other. This will reduce fatalities if any incident takes place. The Indian railways has a pretty bad numbers on its chart for safety. This additional detail to safety is welcoming.
The Indian Railway Minister Piyush Goyal was impressed with the success of Train 18 during trials, and asked for more to be built.
