The first of 14 trains built by Chinese company Dalian for the Calcutta Metro is on course to join the fleet by June 2017, kick-starting the transition from snag-prone “assembled” coaches to speedier, smoother and smarter rakes. The remaining 13 trains are scheduled to arrive around 10 months after the first one, officials said. The imported trains, with an average speed of 65kmph, will run concurrently with the ageing rakes of the original fleet and the air-conditioned ones manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Perambur, Chennai. Two AC rakes from the Chennai unit are expected to arrive around six months before Dalian delivers its first. Metro brings you the first look of the Dalian fleet and highlights its key features.

SMARTER COLOURS:
The body of the train is coloured silver with purple stripes. The driver’s cabin has an LED board displaying the name of the terminal station in three languages.

SPEEDIER TRAVEL:
The China-made prototype has a top speed of 80kmph, similar to that of the rakes supplied by the Chennai factory. The difference lies in the average speed — Dalian promises 65kmph, which is 10kmph more than what the existing AC rakes are capable of delivering. 

Dalian’s aerodynamic design — the face of the rake is distinctively curved, unlike the flat front of the Indian rakes — apparently helps the train pick up speed faster and reduces energy consumption too.

“The existing rakes consume more energy while gathering speed because of higher wind resistance. A curved face helps in cutting through wind with less effort, which translates into lower energy consumption,” an official said.

But Metro Railway would need to “upgrade” its tracks to use the higher average speed that a Dalian train is capable of delivering.

WIDER DOORS: 
Dalian’s answer to the commuter crush at every door during rush hour is to provide wider ingress and exit in every coach. The doors of the Chinese rake are 20cm wider than that of the India-made AC rakes. The vestibules are 1,450mm wide, more than double that of the existing ones. This is meant to enable commuters to move from one coach to another comfortably.

BETTER COOLING: 
The roof-mounted air-conditioning system that Dalian uses is more advanced than that of the existing rakes. The drains meant to flush out water from the cooling unit have “slopes” to ensure there is no leaking roof. The AC rakes built in Chennai have a design defect that causes leakage. Since the drains don’t have slopes, water can’t be flushed out, an engineer with Metro Railway said.

BRIGHTER INTERIORS:
Coaches in the Chinese rake have LED lighting, which provides more illumination with less energy consumption. The existing coaches have dim lights that often malfunction. Metro officials say Dalian’s lighting system is far superior to what commuters in Calcutta are used to.