- Indian Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani on October 29, 2018, unveiled the blue-nosed ‘ Train 18’ at Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.
- The cone-shaped frontage is fitted with amenities on a par with the best in the world. Some of the amenities are:
- On-board Wi-Fi
- GPS-based passenger information system,
- ‘Touch-free’ bio-vacuum toilets,
- LED lighting,
- Mobile charging points,
- A climate control system that will adjust the temperature according to occupancy and the weather.
- It doesn’t have, however, is a locomotive to pull the coaches — it is a self-propelled, semi-high-speed trainset that will soon replace the box cars of the inter-city Shatabdis.
- It can reach a maximum speed of 160 km per hour.
- The train can both accelerate and pull to a stop rapidly, thereby consuming much less energy.
- About 80% of the design, technology and manufacture of Train 18, a predecessor to ‘Train 20’, is Indian.
- The coaches in the fully air-conditioned train are linked with advanced bridge plates, leaving the train free of the shaky gangways Indian train travellers are used to.
- Train 18 will undergo the mandatory safety checks before being inducted into the Railways in the coming months.
