India interested in Japan’s bullet train technology

[TimeToScoot]

Not even China developed their own.

China first learnt to walk before they could fly. Their major cities are world class and even their villages are not remotely as dirty as our cities. Our cities are unplanned and downright filthy. Let us fix these basic issues first before spending billions of dollars on a luxury that we can ill afford in 2014.

I find this "make at home" fetish among Indians most bizarre. In most areas India is behind the developed world in terms of quality of production and yet Indians are obsessed with the fact they can develop whatever they please straightaway at the drop of a hat?

Please point out where I've implied - 'Straightaway at the drop of a hat'? India does not need bullet trains in 2014. By 2019 if Modi can bring the Railways into green and make the railways spick-and-span he would have done an excellent job. We should aim to start building our own bullet train infrastructure by 2025-2028. That is a good decade+ to initiate R&D and create technologies for a high speed railway network. We don't need a 500 km/hr train straight away. Even 300-350 km/hr will be a good start. I find this 'Let us throw away foreign exchange at the drop of a hat' fetish among some Indians rather bizarre.

 

[Dem!god]

May be it's high time to privatize Indian railways.What do you say?

nope , not a very good idea...
railways are for poor... those who can't afford plane tickets...
very few elites travel with railways...
so privatizing will lead to massive increment of ticket price and price/ km. Govt. service is for socialistic measure not for profits....
though i will say if we want to have privatization , we can have it in HSR line not in common line...

 

[Indischer]

nope , not a very good idea...
railways are for poor... those who can't afford plane tickets...
very few elites travel with railways...
so privatizing will lead to massive increment of ticket price and price/ km. Govt. service is for socialistic measure not for profits....
though i will say if we want to have privatization , we can have it in HSR line not in common line...

Actually, there's no reason why the upper middle class and the rich won't travel in the Railways if the service offered is up to acceptable standards. IMO, the biggest hurdle is in the time that our Railways take to move from A to B. Our Government must do everything it can to increase the avg speeds of our railways. After that, each engine can always be fitted with luxury coaches for the benefit of the rich.

 

[Dem!god]

Actually, there's no reason why the upper middle class and the rich won't travel in the Railways if the service offered is up to acceptable standards. IMO, the biggest hurdle is in the time that our Railways take to move from A to B. Our Government must do everything it can to increase the avg speeds of our railways. After that, each engine can always be fitted with luxury coaches for the benefit of the rich.

u see the problem is... when the price will remain cheap, we can't demand word class facilities... can we...
and when there will be no world class facilities upper middle class abd elites won't travel in train.... if u will go on 1st class AC it costs 4000-4500 rs. currently for travelling from kolkata to delhi... so, why will one travel with railways when at the same price one can travel in flight with ofcouse less time....
poor people hang onto railways because they dont have anyother option... if u take a general ticket it cost mere 250 rs. for same route or ib sleeper it cost only 500 rs.

 

[Indischer]

u see the problem is... when the price will remain cheap, we can't demand word class facilities... can we...
and when there will be no world class facilities upper middle class abd elites won't travel in train.... if u will go on 1st class AC it costs 4000-4500 rs. currently for travelling from kolkata to delhi... so, why will one travel with railways when at the same price one can travel in flight with ofcouse less time....
poor people hang onto railways because they dont have anyother option... if u take a general ticket it cost mere 250 rs. for same route or ib sleeper it cost only 500 rs.

Air travel isn't without it's headaches. Most of our new airports are outside cities, and the check-in and exit times too are quite lengthy. If the railways take much less time to travel, they shall be preferred by many over air travel.

The real reason why our railway engines aren't stretched to their limits is because of the abysmal track safety and warning systems in place. If they're improved on select lines, the speed of the coaches can be increased at minimal cost.

 

[ExtraOdinary]

sorry mate, I am not making fun of you, but in India, etiquette is a joke

If we can enforce etiquette in metro stations, I don't see why it should be a problem for high speed rail (if that materializes). All the Indian public needs is a "danda"

 

[Dem!god]

Air travel isn't without it's headaches. Most of our new airports are outside cities, and the check-in and exit times too are quite lengthy. If the railways take much less time to travel, they shall be preferred by many over air travel.

nope .. not without headaches, but fast reliable, accident free(lowest accident rates.), clean, and many more... and when u have the money why u would be travelling in train... even if ur chek in times are lengthy, its not more than an hour...but u never know once u board the train how many hours its going to be late...
for making railways taking less time to travel we need upgrades in many infra. like engine(currently only WAP 5 engines are capable to reach 200 kmph.) tracks, signals, crossings,turnings, bogies, and many other... which will again require money.. U may be knowing many parties are still protesting over the rise in the current fare... so, from where will the money come for all these... though not much is needed to change to run the train at a avg. of 160kmph but a major over haul of railway infra is needed...

The real reason why our railway engines aren't stretched to their limits is because of the abysmal track safety and warning systems in place. If they're improved on select lines, the speed of the coaches can be increased at minimal cost.

the max. speed any indian engine has achieved till date is 160 kmph. in recent run.. that was WAP 5 engine .. it can max. run at 200 kmph. we know our govt. will not even allow it to run at 200kmph ... so say in coming days we can see 180 kmph speed ..
In the recent test of delhi to agra the amount spent to place the infra in line was 300 Cr. and u know bhopal shatabdi on the same line runs at 150kmph. so, just to increase 10 kmph we spend 300 Cr.(may be speed can be further increased , if they were willing) so, still we need huge money, say a cost of one line of HSR . for whole india... so, this can be done.. but still people will choose airways over railways (elite one) as the speed increment is just of 20-30 Kmph...

 

[kaku1]

It'd create high paying jobs. Also the cost is initial. A single plane costs 100m and carries 200 people. Train can carry far more and ticket cost be less.

Yes at first, the project will cost arm and leg, which is because later on, things get cheaper.

The poor can keep riding slow trains but middle or lower middle can take bullet train. Beside, poor people don't travel to different states often and work nearby.

Definately not across India. They'll likely connect delhi first, or premium paying customers. India is bigger than Europe so obviously India won't be able to afford. But setting up key cities will do a great job.

Actually, I have a different thinking, why go HSR on all cities. Create a golden quadrilateral which can support 300 Kmph, and thats it. For tier-2 and tier-3 cities we doesnt require HSR, upgrading the current track to 200 Kmph will serve its purpose.