Mumbai: The Spanish-made Talgo started its final round of trials from Delhi to Mumbai on Monday evening, completed its third and final phase of trials from New Delhi to Mumbai, but arrived at its destination over three hours behind schedule.
The train had commenced its final phase trial run from Delhi on Monday at 7:55 PM and arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday at 11.40 AM, over three hours behind schedule, a Western railway official said, adding that heavy rains enroute caused the delay.
The semi-high-speed train was expected to complete the journey of 1,384 km in 12 hours and 35 minutes, and was scheduled to reach the metropolis at 8.31 AM.
Aiming at a maximum speed of 130 km per hour and reached the financial capital in less than the time taken by the Rajdhani Express.
The train, that clocked 180 km per hour during its first trial run on the Bareilly-Moradabad stretch, slowed down in Gujarat because of rain and flooding on the track, thus leading to delay in its arrival.
However, the train attained its maximum speed and the trial run at 130 km/hr was successful, he said.
The Talgo train runs at an average speed of around 90-100 km/hr and can attain a maximum speed of 130-150 km/hr.
The light-weight train aims to cut short the time between the two destinations by almost four hours. Presently, super-fast trains such as Rajdhani Express take around 16 hours to traverse the route.
The train consists of nine coaches, two executive class, four chair cars, a cafeteria, a power car and a tail-end coach for staff and equipment.
However, on the second trial for Mumbai-Delhi route, the official said the train will start from here on August 5 at 7.55 PM at 140 km per speed and reach Mumbai next day at about 8.50 AM.
"This is the timing trial and we want to find out how much time it is likely to save if we allow such type of coaches to run on our track. Four such trials will take place with speed ranging from 130 kmph to 150 kmph," Railway Board Member (Mechanical) Hemant Kumar told PTI.
The second trial will be held on Friday, the third on August 9 and the final on August 14. The route will be tested for higher speeds every time.
"Then the fourth trial will be at 150 kmph with higher speed on the curves. We expect that it is likely to take 11 hours 30 minutes at 150 kmph to reach Mumbai," railway official Hemant Kumar told news agency PTI.
