SDAH NDLS Duronto: দৌঁড়ে চলো , দিল্লি চলো - PPG

The interior seating arrangements can be altered easily enough. All that matters is the ability to run these rakes at higher speeds on our tracks. Interior systems and other cosmetic changes do not matter much to the train's operations.
Most important thing is that Talgo operations will cost lesser than normal LHB coach trains. It is very crucial that IR follow this and price the Talgo on the same rates as the Raj or Shatabdi class ( without the flexi fare) or a marginal increase to recover initial rake costs. If IR prices them too high, it will defeat the whole purpose of getting the rakes here in the first place.
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If they guarantee an overnight travel, then they can attract quite a bit of crowd. Many premier still have a good rush for AC 1st class and between major cities even though it costs as much as a flight ticket simply because people prefer traveling overnight with a comfortable sleep than waking up early morning to catch an early morning flight. I've regularly experienced this with SBC Raj between SBC and SC. A lot of passengers take Raj as they prefer having a comfortable sleep rather than waking up at 4 AM and catching a morning flight.

IR shall lose money if they convert 21 LHB coached (500M long) Mum/HWH Rajs into 26 Talgo coached (340M long) rake or replace LHB with Talgo in shatabdies.
It will be better if Raj/Shat with LHB coaches are operated at 160kmph.
IF current MUM raj is operated at 130kmph and given overriding priority which was given to Talgo train during trials, it can easily save 1-1.5 hrs i.e. do journey in 14.5- 15 hrs. And if speed is kept 160kmph like Gatiman, 12-13 hrs seems possible.
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expenditure in Talgo rake at this juncture, with IR in severe cash crunch is not justified when the job can be done without any capital expenditure.

It will be a rather fine line when it comes to the earnings. The train capacity may decrease by moving to a Talgo rake. But at the same time there would be considerable savings in Energy and maintenance costs ( Talgo is projecting about 30%, but it will be less that that). With that included, the earnings may not take a big hit.
Talgo may not be a viable alternative at the outset for the Mumbai Raj, or the Bhopal Shatabdi due to the loss in capacity. But it will be a better alternative for many of the Shatabdi's running on non-high speed routes like MYS/SBC-MAS, Pune-SC etc.
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Actually a huge capital investment would be required for upgrading routes to run the Mumbai raj at 160kmph. For the HWH and Mumbai routes alone, IR has projected an estimate of 10,000 cr for upgrading the routes to be 160kmph fit as it would require actual relaying of tracks, changes in alignment in some places and many more large scale works to enable the long, heavy rakes to run at high speeds. It is not a short term project.
On the contrary, Talgo rakes will require a much smaller expenditure ( for initial rake purchase and setup of maintenance facilities) and can be used on any of the trunk routes and most of the important non-high speed routes with very minor modifications on these routes. They can run at higher speeds on existing routes and will reduce maintenance and energy costs considerably.
But Talgo is only a short term solution.More importantly, the LHB technology itself is now over 25 years old and stainless steel coaches worldwide have been replaced with more efficient, lighter aluminum and alloy coaches. By the turn of the decade, IR will have to move to these newer ones to reduce operational costs ( and the savings it would get are considerable). Trying out Talgo rakes would go a long way to help IR to transition in to the next generation.