Vande Bharat's appeal goes well beyond speed

This train service is not all that fast and surely no match for Chinese railway achievements. Yet, it's a scalable project and could easily impress millions in a country of rickety railways

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Trains running on time have been overtaken by speed as a talking point. When exactly this happened is hard to identify. On a timeline stretching all the way back to steam engines, we can pin the shift on Japan’s Bullet trains. Flagged off in the 1960s, their clever branding gave them instant fame around the world—and other railways a fast-moving target to chase. It was decades later that China zipped ahead with its sudden maglev acceleration. As visitors to Shanghai testify, magnetic-levitation travel is a marvel of technology. Freed from the friction of track contact, a maglev train ride is a smooth glide at a whizzy 400km per hour. By most accounts, it’s a sensation in a class of its own. Its engine does not have a Bullet-like snout, but a sleek aerodynamic front. This is a look sported by the Indian Railways’ Vande Bharat trains as well. While it may be taken as a sign that India has also joined the race for pace, the fact that these move no faster than about 130km per hour should keep expectations capped.