Amid all the brouhaha about the Spanish-made high-speed Talgo trains hitting Indian railway tracks, here is something which may come as a disappointment. The train's third and final phase of trials didn't go as expected because the train arrived at the destination three hours late.

The train started its journey from Delhi on Monday at 7:55 PM and reached Mumbai on Tuesday at 11:40 AM which is three hours behind the schedule. The train was expected to complete the journey of 1,384 km in 12 hours and 35 minutes, and was scheduled to reach the metropolis at 8.31 AM.

The train stationed at Matura Railway Station

A Western Railway official has blamed the heavy rains for the reason behind the delay.

Presently, super-fast train such as Rajdhani Express take around 16 hours to cover the Delhi-Mumbai route. The Talgo train which runs at an average speed of around 90-100 km/hr and can attain a maximum speed of 130-150 km/hr aims to cut short the time between the two destinations by almost four hours.

Officials of Spanish train Talgo during trial run from New Delhi to Mumbai on Monday

Recently, it became the fastest train in India after clocking 180 km/hr by covering 84 km in 38 minutes in a trial conducted by Railways on Mathura-Palwal route. The train consists of nine coaches, two executive class, four chair cars, a cafeteria, a power car and a tail-end coach for staff and equipment.

(All images sourced from PTI)

(With inputs from PTI)