High Speed Railway Projects for India
and the Taiwan Experience
B. K. Makhija
Director Projects
RITES.
Prologue
Railways made an appearance in India in
1853 and are now one of the largest
railway systems in the world under a
single management. A hundred years
later the first High Speed (HS) train was
introduced in Japan and subsequently in
other countries like France, USA,
Germany, China and Taiwan, amongst
others. Indian Railways are now drawing
up plans for introducing such trains in the
foreseeable future.
rail based transportation vis-à-vis the
airways. Based on the experience of
Taiwan High Speed Railway Project, he
makes a pitch for introduction of high
speed trains in India. The advantages of
such trains along with the financial
modeling have also been suggested. In
fact, RITES - the Infrastructure People –
were commissioned to study the
feasibility of a high speed route between
Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
In this in-depth Paper, the Author brings
out the beneficial aspects of high speed
One does hope a beginning will be made
soon.
- Editor
Introduction
In the 19th Century and early 20th Century, railway trains had a vital role in
transport of passengers and goods. In the latter half of the 20th Century, the motor car
and the aircraft eroded the importance of railway travel. However, with the realisation
of impact of global warming and unsustainable rates of natural resource usage, which
threaten our economic well-being, the public’s health and the environment in which
we live, there has been a resurgence of rail with regard to urban and inter-urban
transport rendered possible by the development of new technology. High-speed rail
has enabled train services to be faster and more convenient than the motor car and
aircraft. The development of the high-speed train system is considered as one of
many strategies to reduce global warming and bring under control our resource
consumption to preserve the Earth for future generations
RITES Journal
12.1
July 2010
12.2
High Speed Railway Projects for India
and the Taiwan Experience
The pioneer in development of high speed trains has been the Japanese
Railways with the spectacular success of their famous Shinkansen bullet trains, the
first of which ran in April, 1964 between Tokyo and Tokaido at the time of the Tokyo
Olympics. France took the lead in Europe in 1981 with the TGV (Train à Grande
Vitesse), followed by Germany in 1991, Spain in 1992 and the rest of Europe in the
last decade and a half. The USA was a late entrant to the HS club in late 2000, the
latest members now being Korea and Taiwan. With substantial expansion of the HS
network in Europe on the cards, China has also jumped onto the high speed
bandwagon. Indian Railways is, perhaps, the only major railway system in the world
which does not have a high speed train.
There is no globally accepted standard separating high speed rail with
conventional rail. However, a number of widely accepted variables to define high speed
rail have been acknowledged by the industry. The International Union of Railways
(UIC) defines a high speed train as one that runs at over 250 kmph on dedicated
tracks, or at over 200 kmph on upgraded conventional tracks. A “high speed line” is
thus a new line designed to permit trains to operate at speeds above 250 kmph
throughout the whole journey, or at least over a significant part of the journey.
Alternatively, it could also be an upgraded conventional line, suitable for carrying
traffic above 200 kmph.
The French hold the world train speed record of 574.8 kmph. Japan introduced
the technology of magnetic levitation train (maglev) in which a speed of 581 kmph was
achieved in trials. However, the only maglev train in commercial service is the German
designed Transrapid Shanghai to Pudong international airport link in China, operating
at a maximum speed of 430 kmph.
Currently, there are high speed networks of 9000 km under operation in the
world. Networks of about 8000 km are under construction and similar lengths are
under design/planning.
High Speed Railways worldwide generate surpluses from their operations
because they attract more passengers and generate more revenues at lower unit
costs of production (crew can make two round of trips instead of one). In most of the
countries, HSR systems generate enough revenue to cover ‘Operational Costs’ and
most of the HSR lines cover some of their ‘Construction Costs’. Tokyo-Osaka generated
enough operation surpluses in its first decade to completely match capital costs. The
same is true for the Paris-Lyon Line.
Benefits of High Speed Train System
High speed rail as being designed and implemented today, is an inherently
convenient, fast, clean and a comfortable transport system. Compared to other modes
of transport, mainly air and road, HSR is a much better transport option mainly on
account of the following factors:
B. K. Makhija
i.
12.3
Lower energy consumption per passenger kilometre: HS trains are
far more environmentally efficient than aircraft, as trains consume less
energy. This results in less carbon dioxide emissions, thus reducing the
greenhouse effect responsible for global warming (road transport is
responsible for 80 to 90% of greenhouse gas emissions) - in addition to
being less stressful, more productive and more reliable than road journeys.
Primary Energy and CO2 Emission
17
14
6
2.5
7
4
HS Trains
ii.
Primary energy in litres of petrol per
100 passengers-km
Private Cars
Amount of carbon dioxide emissions
in kg per 100 passengers-km
Planes
Land usage for a given capacity compared to motorways: A standard
twin track HSR requires a corridor of only 25m land width to carry same
number of passengers for which a 6-lane highway is required and hence
HSR are 3 times more space efficient as illustrated below.
High Speed Rail
Motorway
Double Track
2x3 Lanes
25m Corridor
75m Corridor
12 Trains per hour per Direction
4500 Cars per hour per Direction
666 Pax/Train
1.7(Average) Passengers per car
Capacity = 8000 Passengers
per hour
Capacity = 7650 Passenger per
hour
iii. HSR has proved to be the safest mode of transport: In Japan, since
1964, 4 billion Passengers have been carried without any fatal accident.
In Europe, billions of passengers have travelled with practically no accident
attributable to High speed Trains.
iv. Significant saving in journey time: While commercial high speed
trains have maximum operating speeds much lower than jet aircraft,
12.4
High Speed Railway Projects for India
and the Taiwan Experience
they have an advantage over air travel largely due to the shorter distances
and better connectivity with other city rail transport systems. High-speed
rail has also the advantage over automobiles in that it can move
passengers at speeds far higher than those possible by road. Even the
lower limit of 200 kmph is substantially faster than the highest road
speed limit in any country. Due to the very high average speeds, the
commuting time is reduced significantly and makes commuting feasible
for distances of up to 300 km.
Decongestion of Metro: Presently, population in metros is increasing rapidly
requiring heavy infrastructure such as metro transport, flyovers, additional drinking
water, sanitation etc. Most of the cities have reached a saturation point. HSR, by
reducing the commuting time between cities can give an excellent opportunity for the
smaller towns and cities to grow. Employees working in metro cities can stay in
other smaller towns or in suburbs and commute on a daily basis. Even new
establishments can come up in the satellite town adjoining to metros utilizing the fast
commuting facility of HSR.
The dedicated infrastructure for HS passenger lines frees up capacity on
conventional lines, which can then be used to accommodate extra freight transport
and in turn help relieve congestion on the roads, driving down the related costs to
society.
HSR provides opportunity for technological advancement leading to increased
opportunity to export of equipment and services. It can also provide more job
opportunities.
Introduction of High Speed Railway in Taiwan
Background
Taiwan is small country on the south of mainland
China with a total area of 35980 sqkm (slightly less than
Kerala) with a population of 22 million. The Shape of the
country is like a bean or a tobacco leaf and almost 94% of
the its population lives on the western side of the country.
The length of Taiwan on the western side is about 400 km
with 22 major cities en-route. Taipei is the capital city on
the north whereas the south most city is Fongshan.
Taiwan has more than 17 million vehicles which has
been the cause of heavy congestion on the highways/
expressways. Considering the concentration on the western
side of the country, it was felt necessary to consider
construction of a high-speed rail corridor. The idea for
B. K. Makhija
12.5
constructing a high speed railway on the western side of the country was conceptualised
in 1974. It took almost eighteen years before the project was approved by the
Government in 1992. These eighteen years were used in conducting various studies.
However, within one year of the decision, the government withdrew the funding in 1993
and decided that the project would be developed as a BOT project. Perhaps the
reason was the high cost and technology involved for implementing the project where
a private concessionaire was expected to have more flexibility. This was a landmark
decision since till that time this was the biggest BOT project undertaken in the world.
Some of important events in implementation of the project are as under :
•
1992 June
Approval to build a high-speed railway.
•
1995 May
Approval of BOT model for implementation.
•
1997 Dec.
Award of the concession to THSRC.
•
1998 May
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. established.
•
1998 July
Signing of concession for operations (35 years) and
for station development (50 years).
•
2000 Dec.
Construction of the system begins.
•
2004 May
Civil works completed. 700T trains transported to
Taiwan.
•
2005 Jan.
High-speed railway begins trial runs.
•
2006 Apr.
The railway passes rigorous inspections.
•
2007 Jan.
Railway commences operations.
Salient Features
•
The total length of the route is 345 km crossing 22 cities.
•
240 km of the alignment is built on viaducts and has 48 tunnels of about
46 km length.
•
8 stations have been provided and there is provision for 5 more stations
in future.
•
The maximum speed of the train is 300 kmph. The total cost of the
project is 15 billion US$ and is constructed on BOT model with a
concession period of 35 years including construction.
•
The operations started in Jan 2007 and within three years, it is operating
more than 60 pairs of trains per day. The total number of passengers
carried by it is more than one lakh per day.
•
The travel time of the HSR from Taipeh to Kaohsiung is only 90 to 120
minutes. The business class fare is 2440 NTD (76.91 US$) and standard
class fare is 1490 NTD ( 46.96 US$).
12.6
High Speed Railway Projects for India
and the Taiwan Experience
•
The capacity of each train is of 989 passengers.
•
The HSR management is of the view that with the present level of traffic
and the expected growth, it will be able to pay back its debts and recover
equity within 15 to 16 years of operations.
Development of Stations
The Concessionaire has developed facilities and business establishments at
the stations and around the station area and is utilising the money derived from
property development to fund the construction cost of the HSR project. Facilities
developed at the stations and adjoining areas are for following purposes :
•
•
•
•
Business Complex
Residential Houses
Cultural & Educational Facilities
Facilities for Tourism, Leisure, Recreation and Entertainment.
A typical layout of one of the stations is shown in the picture.
The Government has provided land to the concessionaire free of cost at various
stations as detailed below:
Station
Station Area
(Hectare)
ion Area (Hectare)
Business Area (Hectare)
Taoyuan
Hsinchu
Taichung
Chiayl
Taninan
Total
8.96
7.96
9.50
7.07
8.85
42.37
Business Area
(Hectare)
Station Zone
(Hectare)
Station Zone (Hectare)
10.72
5.03
17.46
5.44
7.86
46.51
19.68
13.02
29.96
12.51
16.71
88.88
B. K. Makhija
12.7
Apart from the development of facilities by the concessionaire, the Government
is planning to develop residential units and business complexes on the areas adjoining
to the stations after developing suitable roads and other transport facilities.
Effect on Air-Travel
•
It is reported that till August 2008, half of the air-routes between Taipeh
City and the western cities had been closed.
•
The total domestic air traffic was expected to be halved from 8 million in
2006 to 4 million in 2008 and is expected to reduce further.
•
Long distance bus companies reported reduction in volumes of passenger
between 20 to 30%.
Indian Scenario
Indian Railways are perhaps the only major railway system today that do not
run HS trains. IR’s initial venture into HS was the introduction of the Rajdhani Express
in 1970 connecting Delhi with Kolkata and running up to 120 kmph. Following the
approach of incremental improvement, the speed of Rajdhani trains could be increased
to 130 kmph and since quite sometime, there has no advancement.
Connection to Metros/Major Cities
In India, the pattern of urban settlement is such that the 4 largest metros of
Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai are located between 1,300 to 2,200 km apart,
with smaller cities located closer to these main urban agglomerations. As detailed in
the table below, the fastest train services connecting Delhi to other these cities are
able to achieve average speeds of around 80 kmph, whereas fastest trains connecting the other three metros are able to achieve only 60 kmph.
Route
Delhi-Howrah
Delhi-Mumbai
Delhi-Chennai
Mumbai-Howrah
Howrah-Chennai
Mumbai-Chennai
Distance
Travel time
1441 km
1388 km
2192 km
1976 km
1663 km
1279 km
17 hours
16.5 hours
28 hours
32 hours
28 hours
24 hours
Average Speed
86 kmph
84 kmph
78 kmph
62 kmph
59 kmph
55 kmph
Another initiative in 1988 was the introduction of Shatabdi Express between
Delhi and Jhansi with a top speed of 140 kmph (now increased to 150 kmph). Later
on, Shatabdi trains have been introduced connecting the four Metros with the adjoining
cities within distances between 300 & 500 km. Introduction of Shatabdi trains, even
at speeds of 120 to 150 kmph has helped Indian Railways in winning back traffic from
short distance airlines.
12.8
High Speed Railway Projects for India
and the Taiwan Experience
Prospect of Introducing High Speed Trains in India
In the past there was a general perception in the minds of people that India
does not need a high speed train as being a poor country it will not be able to afford
the high fares. However, with the liberalization of economy since 1990 and the continued
high GDP growth during the last few years, this perception now is fast changing. The
proportion of population living in urban areas is set to increase from 27.8% in 2001 to
around 41% by 2030 (India: Urban poverty report 2009 GOI and UNDP). The middle
class and above population in India has grown substantially. Today we have a middle
class population of about 300 million and is increasing by 25 million annually. This
population is expected to give the main customer base because of their disposable
income. India has about 760 cities with 50,000 population and 31 cities with million
plus population. This scenario is ideal to enter into an era of high speed trains. Most
of the countries like Taiwan and China, who are in a similar situation have constructed
high speed trains and are expanding in a big way.
From the table above para, it is seen that the distance between the four
metros various from 1300 km to 2200 km. Even with the introduction of HSR, the time
required for travel shall be in the range of 5 to 8 hrs. Considering that air travel time
between these metros is less than 2 hr, these routes are not suitable for introduction
of high speed trains. There is need to identify routes where travel time is around two
hrs. Considering the country size and a large number of million plus cities, this task
is not difficult.
Efforts for Introduction of High Speed Trains in India
RITES was commissioned to conduct a study in 2005 of the Mumbai –
Ahmedabad route with a view to examine the applicability of HS to India. This 492 km
route was chosen because of its economic and financial importance, the higher
capacity of people to pay, the volumes of high-value freight traffic and the degree of
saturation of the section.
Indian Railway’s Vision 2020, published in Dec. 2009, talks, among other
things, of the following :
•
Addition of 25,000 km of New Lines by 2020;
•
Segregation of passenger and freight services on double-line corridors
on over 6,000km and increasing passenger train speeds from 110-130
km/h to 160-200 km/h on these routes and increasing freight train speeds
from 60-70 km/h to 100 km/h;
•
Implementation of at least 4 high-speed rail projects with speeds in the
range of 250-350 km/h;
•
Planning of at least 8 more corridors for introduction of high-speed trains.
B. K. Makhija
12.9
Assuming an average length of 500 km per corridor, the Vision 2020, thus
envisages some 2,000 km of operational dedicated high-speed passenger lines and
planning for another 4,000 km by 2020. Though, this is nowhere near the Chinese
vision of 16,000 km of dedicated high-speed passenger lines by 2020, it surely is a
good start. However, this pronouncement has to be matched with corresponding
organizational and legal frameworks, detailed studies and fund allocation.
Till now, only one corridor (viz. Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad) has been studied,
that too at a preliminary level. RITES along with Systra were commissioned in 2009
to conduct a fresh study of the Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. The draft report of
the study has been submitted to the Railways and is under consideration. The salient
features of the study are :
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Traffic forecasts studies show a total of 26 million passengers per year
at the 2021 horizon year. This includes 1.6 million passengers on the
existing network. The figures reaches to 105 million passengers in the
year 2041.
The estimated cost of construction of infrastructure is Rs. 49,000 cr and
rolling stock as Rs. 6,800 cr.
The economic rate of return is 12.8% and Financial rate of return is
11.42% (pre tax)
The proposal is to build the HS rail on PPP model by providing 17%
budgetary support by Government and 11% by means of soft loans. The
debt:equity ratio is proposed at 70:30.
The concession period is 40 years.
Train fare has been considered between Rs 4.5/km to Rs 7/km with 30%
extra for first class. The air fare is about Rs 5/km.
Train running time has been estimated as 40 minutes between MumbaiPune and 2 hours 40 min between Pune-Ahmedabad.
Possible Benefits of HSR System on Indian Railways
Development rate of the area adjoining proposed station will shoot-up.
With planning of business complex, shopping centre, residential units, etc.
around proposed stations, real estate price would increase in geometric
proportion. Many ancillary units will also have to be setup to serve the
developed facilities. All these activities would lead to increased prosperity to
the residents around the proposed stations.
Employment opportunities would increase.
Development of new infrastructure and business units will help developing
greater opportunities of employment. Persons presently working in the rural
sector can work during lean season in other towns and can get better
employment opportunities.
12.10
High Speed Railway Projects for India
and the Taiwan Experience
Due to increase in land rate and other business inflow, revenue to
Government would increase many fold.
Enhanced real estate price, development of new business units and increased
income of citizens would result in increased revenue to the Government.
More business units & SEZs would get established.
Efficient connection of business centres and reducing transport time in sourcing
inputs and speedy distribution of products, many business units and SEZ
can be developed along the HSR corridor.
Boost tourism significantly.
Due to greatly reduced travel time, tourists can cover more places in lesser
time and this can provide opportunities to utilise even shorter leisure periods
for tourism. Properly developed stations can provide facilities of Mega Malls,
Theme Parks, Cultural Centres, etc., which would create additional
opportunities for tourism.
Conclusions
High Speed Railway system being way ahead in fuel and land efficiency as
compared to the other modes of transport has been very popular in Japan and European
countries and is now being adopted in developed nations of Asia – South Korea,
Taiwan and China. India, one of the fastest developing economies urgently requires
HSR system to meet the requirements of a rapidly growing metro population. Although
setting up costs of HSR system is very high, but proper planning of stations and
developing business units, SEZ, residential units under Public Private Partnership,
etc., can facilitate its smooth installation and operation. The availability of a strong
technical infrastructure in India can, after assimilation of HSR technology, facilitate
considerable export opportunities too.
If the targets of the Vision 2020 are to be realized, a separate organization
needs to be created and tasked with the responsibility of planning and execution of
high-speed rail projects. This organization can have direct access to public funding
as well as funding from the market. The PPP mode may also be explored to generate
parts of the funding from development of real-estate along the HSR routes.
References
1.
UIC – International Union of Railways.
Website : www.uic.org
2.
Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co. Ltd.
Website : www.smtdc.com/en/
3.
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation.
Website : www.thsrc.com
*****