The Indian Railways is looking to shorten the commute from Mumbai to Pune, Nashik and Vadodara, and make daily travel to these cities feasible. On Wednesday, Rajesh Agarwal, member of the Railway Board (Rolling Stock), said that they will soon be conducting trials on an indigenously-produced Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) rake, which has been built along the lines of Train 18, used as the Vande Bharat Express.

Mr. Agarwal said, “The Vande Bharat Express has been able to reduce travel time between Delhi and Varanasi by around 40%. We can see what kind of time savings we can get from the MEMU rake once the trials are completed.”

The trials will also yield an estimate of whether a Mumbai-Vadodara trip can be achieved within four hours or a Mumbai-Pune or Mumbai-Nashik trip can be completed within two hours, and multiple trips can run through the day.

Similar to the Train-18, the MEMU train’s equipments will be in the underslung, or under the floor, of the train. Regular MEMUs have equipment as part of the coach. Having underslung equipment increases the carrying capacity of the train and allows all coaches to be connected via vestibules. The technology used in Train 18 allows it to reach a top speed of 180 km per hour.

‘A game changer’

Mr. Agarwal said for the first time, the rake requirement of both Central Railway and Western Railway has been completed, which he termed a ‘game changer’. He said, “Now that the rake shortage is no longer an issue, the issue is of quality and aspiration. Now we have to start working towards achieving that.” In addition to the MEMU, the air-conditioned electric multiple unit (AC EMU) will also undergo trials in the next few months.

Outlining plans for the Mumbai suburban system, Mr. Agarwal said a dozen AC EMUs would be pressed into service within the next 12 months. “We plan to install CCTV cameras in all coaches as well as a talk-back facility in the ladies’ compartments of all EMU rakes,” he said.

Mr. Agarwal said the next development was Train 19, which would be built for long-distance trains. “Train 18 was built for a Shatabdi train with only sitting capacity but India is a subcontinent and requires trains for overnight journeys as well. Train 19 is being built for that purpose. We are also planning Train 20, which will have a completely aluminium frame,” he said. Senior railway officials said Train 19 was being built to initially be used for Rajdhani Express.

Train 18, however, has run into issues, with the Railways’ Vigilance Department investigating the production of the first unit. Senior officials said that the latest action has cast a shadow over the production of Train 18 as well as the future development of Train 19.