India to get Swiss ‘tilting trains’, signs two MoUs with Switzerland

India will collaborate with Switzerland for developing trains which will tilt on approaching a bend, just like a motorbike on a winding road. A memorandum of understanding was signed on Thursday between the two countries in this regard. 

Such trains are now operational in 11 countries — Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, the UK, Switzerland, China, Germany and Romania. Explaining how the tilting trains work, officials said that as a train rounds a curve at speed it causes objects to slide about. 

“While it makes seated passengers feel squashed by the armrest, standing passengers tend to lose their balance. The design of the tilting trains counteract this,” an official said. 

During a curve to the left, the train tilts to the left and vice versa, the official said. 

The railway ministry signed two MoUs with the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport and Communications of the Swiss Confederation for technical cooperation in rail sector in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The first agreement is a follow up on bilateral cooperation in rail sector discussed in the meeting held between Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and the Swiss Ambassador in July 2016. 

The MoU aims at cooperation in the areas of traction rolling stock, electric multiple unit and train sets, traction propulsion equipments, freight and passenger cars, tilting trains, railway electrification equipments, tunnelling technology among other things. 

The second MoU was signed between Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology which will help the former in establishing the George Fernandes Institute of Tunnel Technology (GFITT) at Goa especially for assimilation and dissemination of knowledge in the field of tunnelling, the officials said.