India rolls out its first air-conditioned double-decker train
Kapurthala: The Railways rolled out its first air-conditioned double-decker train comprising 10 coaches that included eight double-deckers and two power cars, built by the coach factory (RCF) here in Punjab, on Saturday. The stainless steel
coaches have been introduced to cater to heavy rush of travellers on high-density
routes, offering air-conditioned travel at a lower cost. The passenger carrying
capacity has also been increased to 128 passengers in comparison to 78 in chair
car bogies that can be seen in trains such as the Shatabdi Express. The new coaches
are capable of running at speeds of up to 160 km per hour. This train will run
between Howrah and Dhanbad. The facilities are similar to
those in Rajdhani and Shatabdi. Such trains will be introduced on stretches not
more than 500 km long as there are no sleeper facilities yet. Electricity will
be supplied through power cars attached at both sides of the train. The RCF officials
claim that the double-decker coach has been completed in a record time of eight
months. The RCF started preparing such coaches after Union Railway Minister
Mamata Banerjee announced in her Railway Budget speech in 2009 that AC
double-decker trains will be manufactured to cope up with heavy rush of commuters.
The Railway Minister had announced that two trains would be running between Delhi
and Kolkata as part of the pilot project. Depending on the response, the project will
be further extended in terms of number of coaches. According to RCF's General
Manager Pardeep Kumar, the new coach shell design is capable of running at a
speed of 160 km/hour, and it will be 1.5 feet higher than the normal coach and will
have a seating capacity of about 130. The Railways in some countries have
double-deckers or even triple-deck trains. Triple-deck trains are usually restricted to
car carrying freight trains but some double-deck trains have been built for both
passenger and freight operations. In designing vehicles with more than one level,
there are some restrictions which have to be taken into account. Of course, the first
of these is the size. Railways are limited by the weight limits of the structures along
the line. These are usually called "civil engineering limits" or some form of shortened
version of this phrase. The limits imposed by the civil engineer are usually expressed
in terms of "axle load" as tons. Many lines in Europe, for example, are limited to an
axle load of 22.5 tonnes, whereas, in the UK, the upper limit is generally 25 tonnes.
In the US, some heavy haul lines allow axle loads of up to 40 US tons or just over
35 UK tons. Many of the routes in the extensive suburban network
south of London had reached capacity by the end of the second world war in 1945
and ways were sought to improve them without expensive platform lengthening to
allow longer trains. The answer was thought to be the double-deck train and an
experimental 8-car electric multiple unit was introduced in November 1949. It
was built according to the traditional Southern Railway pattern with "slam" doors
provided for each seating bay on the lower level. The seat bays of the upper level
were reached by a set of stairs at each lower bay. It was not possible for a level
upper deck floor to be provided within the small British structure gauge. Loading
of the train was slow and this was the main reason for it not being generally
adopted. The designs used on suburban lines around Paris and
other large cities in Europe were consulted. The passenger area is located between
the bogies so that the lower deck floor can be sunk and thus give the height required
for the upper deck. Entrance doors are provided over the bogies and in the centre
of the car to allow rapid loading and unloading, according to the coach factory
sources. Although popular for suburban lines, the French have
introduced a double-deck TGV (high speed train) design. The
benefits of a large loading gauge have given North American railroads the scope
to employ double deck coaches, or bi-level cars as they call them, on a much wider
scale than in Europe. A popular design, first introduced in Toronto, Canada in
1977, is now in use on a number of suburban and interurban routes in the US and
Canada. The design differs from the French model described above in that there
are three seating levels. The lowest is between the two side entrance doorways,
the intermediate level is over the trucks at each end of the car and the highest
is directly above the lowest in the centre of the car. The highest level has the
most seating space. The cars are usually produced in two types,
a driving trailer, called a "cab car" in the US, and a trailer car. They are normally
used in push-pull formation with a locomotive at one end and the "cab car" at
the other. The distinctive tapering shape of these cars makes them instantly
recognisable. There are now over 500 of them in use in North America. Other
designs are also used but these lack the tapered ends and some versions have only a
single door in the centre of each side of the car. Many of these cars are designed as
gallery cars, where the upper deck consists of a gallery above the
main (lower) deck. Some, such as Amtrak Superliners and Swiss intercity stock,
have inter-vehicle connections at upper-deck level, effectively making that the
main deck. The Japanese have a number of modern double-deck
passenger train designs and in Hong Kong where a new double-deck train has been
introduced between Kowloon and Guangzhou. Also, the extensive suburban network
in Sydney, Australia is operated entirely by double-deck electric multiple units
- all vehicles bought since 1964 have been double-deck.
