Mumbai, Aug 7: The high-speed Talgo train Saturday completed its second trip, improving its timing, between Mumbai and Delhi as part of the final leg of speed trials undertaken by the Railways.
In the process, the ‘semi bullet train’ beat the Rajdhani Express by nearly three hours, taking barely 13 hours to cover the Delhi-Mumbai distance.
In the second time trial, it clocked a speed of 130 kilometer per hour (kmph).
The train that began its journey around 3 pm Friday reached the Mumbai Central station at 3.49 am Saturday. In the first trial, which took place earlier this month, the train had covered this distance in 15 hours.
Railway officials declared Saturday’s speed trial as a big success. “The second trial of Talgo between Delhi-Mumbai was successfully completed in almost 13 hours without any problems. Trials at higher speed will be conducted in the coming days,” said a Western Railway official.
Following the time trial, the train left for Delhi again around 3 pm Saturday. The train, which is manufactured in Spain, had landed for the first time in Mumbai on August 2.
“The best part of the second trial was that we were able to successfully increase the speed of the rake on curves and some difficult portions. The next target will be to guage its performance at an even higher speed,” an official from the Research Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO) said. The next trial is scheduled for August 9.