Train 20
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The Vande Bharat sleeper trainset, formerly known as Train 20 is a semi-high-speed, long-distance
electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...
(EMU) train, designed to replace the
Rajdhani Express The Rajdhani Express () is a series of passenger train services in India operated by Indian Railways connecting the national capital New Delhi with the capitals or the largest cities of various states. ''Rajdhani'', derived from the Sanskrit m ...
. It is being developed based on the existing short-distance Vande Bharat trainset, differing in exterior body, sleeping berths, and onboard amenities due to its long-distance service. This train was originally planned to have featured two distinctive classes, the air-conditioned chair car and sleeper car. The sleeper cars would have included AC first class, AC two-tier and AC three-tier sub-classes. However, these plans were shelved after the tenders were red flagged. A series of fresh tenders were launched in 2022 and the contracts for which were awarded in 2023. Following the renaming of Train 18 as Vande Bharat Express, any mentions of Train 20 were stopped. It is currently known as the Vande Bharat Sleeper. The first prototype was launched in September 2024 and would start its operation after 3 months.


Background

Long-distance train travel in India over takes more than 12 hours to complete, making it difficult for commuters. For example, the Mumbai Rajdhani Express between
Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
and
New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
takes about 15 hours and 32 minutes to complete the journey. Thus, the introduction of a semi-high-speed train with modern coaches could reduce the travel time significantly. Hence
Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...
began to upgrade the tracks as well as plan for new trainsets that could match the passenger rail standards operated across the developed world. India began to develop its next-generation EMU trainsets named Train 18 (later known as the Vande Bharat), which were composed of chair class coaches and were intended to replace short-distance services of the
Shatabdi Express Shatabdi Express () are a series of fast passenger trains operated by Indian Railways. Shatabdi Express are day trains and mostly return to their origin station the same day. The trains run at a maximum permissible speed of depending on the ...
. During the design phase of this train in 2018, Indian Railways had also planned to introduce a long-distance, sleeper version to replace the half-century-old
Rajdhani Express The Rajdhani Express () is a series of passenger train services in India operated by Indian Railways connecting the national capital New Delhi with the capitals or the largest cities of various states. ''Rajdhani'', derived from the Sanskrit m ...
. The
EMU The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...
train with aluminium coaches, a first of its kind in India, was estimated to cost . It was expected to roll out by 2020, hence it was named "Train 20" similar to its counterpart, the Vande Bharat, which was formerly called "Train 18".


History


Initial plans and cancellation

During the initial plans for the trainset, the designers felt that an aluminium body would make it lighter, energy efficient, and aesthetically 'better looking'. Companies from Japan, China, and Europe were said to be in the race to win the bid for the design consultancy contract for Train 20. According to officials, the tender was supposed to be finalised by mid-February 2018.
Integral Coach Factory Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is an Indian manufacturer of rolling stock, and electrical multiple units. Established in 1955, it is located in Perambur in Chennai and is the largest rail coach manufacturer in the world. It is owned and operated ...
(ICF) planned to build two train rakes by 2020 and thereafter add 24 more trains to the service in the future. Although the pre-bid conference had attracted around seven global players, the Stadler-Medha consortium emerged as the sole bidder after final submission. Others lacked a precondition which said that the manufacturer should have an existing manufacturing facility in India. The authorities then began to examine the bid submitted by the Swiss consortium. In July 2018, the Nallasopara-Virar train shed, built by Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation, emerged as a shed that could likely maintain Train 20 rakes.
Western Railways The Western Railway (abbreviated WR) is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways and is among the busiest railway networks in India, headquartered at Mumbai, Maharashtra. The major railway routes of Indian Railways which come under Western Railw ...
was likely to operate the train's first service, potentially between
Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
and
New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
. Later in 2018, Indian Railways received a rap from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion which red-flagged the initial tender, stating that it was not in line with India's ambitious ' Make in India' project. Hence, a brand new tender was said to be floated with reworked conditions that would also take care of the interests of domestic manufacturers.


Fresh plans

In 2022, the Government of India floated fresh tenders to construct 200 new sleeper-class trainsets. In March 2023, they announced that the contract for the production of the trains was awarded to Kinet Railway Systems, the consortium comprising RVNL (Indian enterprise) and TMH (a Russian rolling stock company), which emerged as the lowest bidder with per trainset. RVNL-TMH consortium, the lowest bidder would manufacture a total of 120 trainsets while the second lowest bidder would manufacture the remainder of 80 sets. A month later,
BHEL Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking and the largest government-owned electrical/ industrial technology company. It is owned by the Government of India, with administrative control under ...
- Titagarh Wagons consortium bagged the contract to manufacture the remainder of 80 trainsets at the same price, for six years. The commercial production of these sets was slated to begin in June 2025. Apart from the tenders for 200 trainsets with stainless steel bodies, there were tenders floated in the same year for the manufacturing and maintenance of 100 aluminium body trainsets, for which,
Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...
, the French rolling stock manufacturing company emerged as the lowest bidder with per trainset. The aluminium body was chosen for its lighter weight relative to the stainless steel. In August 2023, the Russian TMH, part of the RVNL-TMH consortium, submitted a performance bank guarantee of , ending speculation of the bid's failure. As per the bid, the consortium would manufacture the 120 trainsets in the Indian Railways facility at
Latur Latur (ISO: ''Lātūra''; formerly Ratnapur) is a city located in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra state of India country. Before 1982 Latur was a part of the Osmanabad district (now Dharashiv). The city is a tourist hub surrounded by many ...
and would maintain the sets for 35 years.


Production

, one Vande Bharat sleeper prototype is under construction at ICF-
BEML BEML Limited, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Limited, is an Indian public sector undertaking which manufactures a variety of heavy equipment, such as that used for earth moving, railways, transport and mining. It is headquartered in Bangalore. BEM ...
facility in
Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
. ICF-BEML were slated to manufacture 10 such trainsets. A total of 200 Vande Bharat sleeper trainsets are planned. Trial runs for the trainsets have been scheduled for May 2024. As of 13 August 2024, the Indian Railways has cancelled the deal with Alstom stating that per trainset was costly and will call for fresh tenders with the price per trainset capped to .


Engineering

The 16-coach
electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...
trainset is planned to have eleven AC three-tier coaches, four AC two-tier coaches, and one AC first-class coach. The train, with a carrying capacity of 887, is slated to operate at speeds up to . Like its seating-only counterpart, the train has an aerodynamic design which helps in countering drag at higher speeds. Driver cabins at both ends enable quick turnaround of the train at terminal stations. The presence of motorised systems in alternative coaches will enable a quick acceleration and deceleration rates of . According to the first glimpses of the trainset's renders shared on social media, the interiors revealed a modernised design relative to the existing services. The designs were created in collaboration between ICF and BEML. Propulsion will be supplied by ICF, with the assembly of the entire train to be carried out at BEML. The fully air-conditioned train will have intercommunicative automatic doors. The coaches are designed to have better coupling to reduce jerks, and with improved soundproofing, it is expected to offer a comfortable ride. Every coach will be equipped with a small pantry as well as a sensor-based lighting system in the common areas. Soft lighting will be used to provide a modern ambience. It will also feature integrated Reading lights with USB Charging. The train will have bunk beds with ladders. The beds will be designed to be broader, comfortable and better cushioned relative to the existing services. Out of 857 berths, 823 will be reserved for the passengers, with the remaining 34 designated for the onboard staff. Some of the berths will be disabled-friendly. There would be three ergonomically designed restrooms per coach, with one of them being designed for the differently abled. These restrooms are equipped with odour control systems, and the wash basins in them are being designed to have anti-spill features. Since this train is intended for long-distance journeys, spacious room for luggage will be provided. Public announcement systems and visual information systems will help in guiding passengers. A hot shower facility will be exclusively provided for passengers in the first AC.


Rake formation

;Traction equipment layout ''Driving Trailer Coach (DTC)/ Non-Driving Trailer Coach (NDTC)'': These coaches have
air compressor An air compressor is a machine that takes ambient air from the surroundings and discharges it at a higher pressure. It is an application of a gas compressor and a Pneumatics, pneumatic device that energy conversion, converts mechanical power (from ...
for the train's air brake system, Battery and Battery Charger units all mounted below the underframe. ''Motor Coach (MC)'': These coaches have line and traction converters and brake chopper units mounted below the underframe, also the bogies of these coaches are fitted with
traction motor A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric vehicle, electric or hydrogen vehicles, or electric multiple unit trains. Traction (engineering), Traction motors are used in electrically powe ...
s. ''Trailer Coach (TC)'': These coaches have
transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...
and auxiliary converter fitted below the underframe; whereas
pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...
and VCB fitted on the roof. ;Abbreviations * DTC – Driving Trailer Coach * NDTC – Non-Driving Trailer Coach * MC – Motor Coach * MC2 – Motor Coach with electrical change-over switch * TC – Trailer Coach having
Pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...
* 3AC – Three Tier AC class * 2AC – Two Tier AC class * 1AC - First AC class Total 3AC Seats: 611 (11 coaches)
Total 2AC Seats: 188 (4 coaches)
Total 1AC Seats: 24 (1 coach)
Total Seats: 823 (16 coaches)


See also


References

{{Indian Railways Proposed rail infrastructure in India Higher-speed rail Express trains in India Electric multiple units of India