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India puts into operation a new generation of domestically built passenger coaches

11 July 2022
Reading time ~ 3 min
The second generation of Vistadome passenger car of the, preparing for operation by WCR
The second generation of Vistadome passenger car of the, preparing for operation by WCR. Source: WCR, twitter
Litvintsova Olga, Editor of International Projects, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency
Reading time ~ 3 min
Stolchnev Alexey, Russian Projects Editor, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency

India: West Central Railway (WCR), the division of Indian Railways (IR) responsible for passenger transportation in the west-central region of the country, announced the start of equipping Shatabdi Express passenger trains with new second-generation Vistadome seating coaches with panoramic windows.

The rolling stock has been mass-produced since 2021 by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF, part of IR) in Chennai based on the locomotive-hauled passenger coaches of LHB platform localized in India by Alstom in 2001. It is created for operation as a part of the express passenger trains. It is stated that the tests carried out at the end of 2020 showed the possibility of operating the coach at a speed of 180 km/h.

India’s Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said the network had 45 trains with the Vistadome second-generation coaches running in February 2022, and IR was due to put another 90 units into service by March to meet the growing demand for travelling in this type of coaches.

Inside the second generation of Vistadome passenger car for WCR

Inside the second generation of Vistadome passenger car for WCR

Inside the second generation of Vistadome passenger car for WCR. Source: WCR, twitter

The Vistadome passenger coach has a number of features. Firstly, it is equipped with panoramic windows, which are located on both sides of the сoach and on the roof. It is also emphasized that the windows are equipped with multilayer double-glazed windows, which are almost impossible to break. In addition, the light refraction of the roof windows glass can be manually adjusted with the help of electric drive. Secondly, there are 44 seats in Vistadome, all of which can rotate 180 degrees. Thirdly, the coach is equipped with automatic sliding doors at the entrance to the compartment on both sides, wider entrance doorways and pneumatic suspension for a smoother ride.

The first generation of Vistadome coach was launched on the line between Mumbai and Margao in 2018. At the same time, plans were announced for the production of 69 coaches by 2020, thus their number in the IR fleet would reach 100 units. However, it is not possible to find any information in open sources about the current fleet of the Vistadome first-generation coaches.

The first generation of Vistadome passenger car

The first generation of Vistadome passenger car The first generation of Vistadome passenger car. Source: Piyush Goyal, twitter

Earlier this year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the allocation of 2.45 trln RS ($32.8 bln USD) from the national budget for the development of the Indian railway transport in 2022-2023. As to the document, during this period, three Indian plants (ICF in Chennai, RFC in Kapurthala and MFC in Raebareli) should produce more than 8,400 units of rolling stock. In particular, the production of 5,800 locomotive-hauled passenger coaches of the LHB series, including Vistadome coaches, is planned.