Vande Bharat Express, India's first semi-high speed train.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chennai: For the first time, the Southern Railway will run a overnight service of semi-high-speed train, Vande Bharat, between the capital cities of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on November 21 to clear the holiday rush of passengers. Another Vande Bharat special will run between Yesvantpur/SMVT Bengaluru to Chennai Central on November 20.
The eight-coach Vande Bharat express from Chennai Central station will leave at 11 pm on Tuesday (November 21) and reach SMVT Bengaluru at 4.30 am on Wednesday, covering the distance between the two in 5.30 hours. On November 20, the Vande Bharat special will leave SMVT Bengaluru at 5.15 pm to reach Chennai Central at 10 pm the same day.
All 34 existing Vande Bharat trains run during the day, while the Southern Railway (SR) is running the overnight service to check passengers' reaction. The SR had successfully run four special services of Vande Bharat trains between Chennai, Egmore and Tirunelveli last week to clear the Deepavali rush.
“No other railway zone in the country has so far run special services of Vande Bharat trains. Our Chennai-Tirunelveli special trains had very high patronage and we wanted to check the reaction of the passengers for a sitting train during the night,” a senior Southern Railway official told DH.
Generally, the Railways runs trains with sleeper and AC coaches during the night to clear the holiday rush. “We will see how passengers react to this special train on Tuesday. Based on the response, we will decide on whether to run more special services of Vande Bharat during the night during the upcoming holiday season,” the official added.
SR already runs two one Vande Bharat, two Shatabdi Express, one double-decker, and two express trains between Chennai and Bengaluru during the day. The Vande Bharat express and Shatabdi trains between Chennai and Mysuru is preferred by business travelers who travel to Bengaluru.