India’s first driverless train operations

Context: UPSC GS Paper III S&T (Prelims - Mains)

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate India's first-ever driverless train operations on Delhi Metro's Magenta Line along with the fully operational National Common Mobility Card service on the Airport Express Line.
• The driverless trains will be fully automated, which will eliminate the possibility of human error, it said, adding that after the start of driverless services on the Magenta Line

Other Train Technologies

Modern Train Control system

• Indian Railways has decided to modernize its Signalling system on its entire network by implementing a Modern Train Control system.
• RailTel Enterprises Ltd. (REL), a 100% subsidiary of RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. has been given the responsibility to implement these four pilot projects on behalf of the Indian Railway.
• The MTCS includes provision of:

1. Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System
2. Electronic Interlocking System
3. Remote Diagnostic & Predictive Maintenance System
4. Long Term Evolution (LTE) based Mobile Train Radio Communication (MTRC) System
5. Centralized Traffic Control System (CTC) /Train Management System (TMS)

Hyperloop Train

• In a Hyperloop, the passenger pods or capsules travel through a tube, either above or below ground. To reduce friction, most but not all of the air is removed from the tubes by pumps.
• Overcoming air resistance is one of the biggest uses of energy in high speed travel.
• Airliners climb to high altitudes to travel through less dense air; in order to create a similar effect at ground level, Hyperloop encloses the capsules in a reduced-pressure tube, effectively allowing the trains to travel at aeroplane speeds but on the ground.
• In the model, the pressure of air inside the Hyperloop tube is about one-sixth the pressure of the atmosphere on Mars. This means an operating pressure of 100 pascals, which reduces the drag force of the air by 1,000 times relative to sea level conditions and would be equivalent to flying above 150,000 feet altitude.
• The pod would get its initial velocity from an external linear electric motor, which would accelerate it to ‘high subsonic velocity and then give it a boost every 70 miles or so; in between, the pod would coast along in near vacuum.

Vande Bharat Express:

• It is India’s first indigenously built engineless semi-high speed train. Earlier, it was known by the name Train 18.
• It runs between Delhi and Varanasi at a maximum speed of 160 kmph.
• It has been built by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, in a record time of 20 months.
• The train is a 100% ‘Make in India’ project and is claimed to be built at half the cost of a similar train set that is imported.
• It is energy-efficient as its coaches will be fitted with LED lights. Coaches will have automatic doors and retractable footsteps.
• It will be inter-connected with fully sealed gangways along with a GPS-based Passenger Information System. It is provided with Bio toilets.