Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off five more Vande Bharat Express trains from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, taking the total number of such express trains to 23. While the trains are designed to run at a speed of 110 kmph to 130 kmph, the average running speed on the ground ranges between 63 to 96 kilometres per hour. With even the newly launched routes adopting the same pattern, the Vande Bharat journey is proving to be much longer than it has to be.
Mr. Modi flagged off trains between Bhopal and Jabalpur, Bhopal and Indore, Goa and Mumbai, Ranchi and Patna and Dharwad and Bengaluru — a bid to connect State capitals of Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Information accessed by The Hindu revealed that the average speed of Vande Bharat Express on the Ranchi-Patna route is not more than 63 kmph. A rail distance of 379 km between Ranchi and Patna is currently traversed in 6 hours. However, if the train were to run at its full potential, the travel time can be reduced by half to three hours.
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Similarly, on the Mumbai-Shirdi route, the average speed is 64 kmph and the travel time is 5.25 hours. At a maximum speed of 110 kmph, the trip time could be shorter by two hours.
Lower speed is also causing journeys on certain rail routes to go beyond seven to eight hours. Take for instance the 662-km journey from Secunderabad to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, which at an average running speed of 80 kmph takes 8.15 hours. People would rather choose sleeper trains for longer journeys. “An eight-hour journey should be a sleeper one instead of a chair car one. I will prefer the 10 or 11 pm to 6 to 7 am journey any day if I have a choice,” tweeted Chinmay Agarwal, a rail enthusiast.
The commissioning of the sleeper version of Vande Bharat trains has been delayed due to deferring timelines. The Hindu had earlier reported that the fallout between Russian rolling stock manufacturer TMH Group and PSU Rail Vikas Nigam had put a dent in the plan.
Speed vs safety
Of the 23 Vande Bharat trains, the New Delhi-Varanasi train is the fastest, running at 96 kmph (even though the maximum speed is 130 kmph) and covers a 759 km in eight hours.
Railway officials pointed out that while maximum speed is determined by testing the trains and ascertaining their running speeds during test runs, the average operational speed depends on the quality and well-being of railway tracks. “Trains cannot run beyond a particular safe speed if tracks are not in the proper condition to bear the load,” an official said.
Sudhanshu Mani, creator of Vande Bharat and former General Manager of Integrated Coach Factory, Chennai, commented, “Five Vande Bharats to be launched by the PM, rising after the cloud of tragedy at Balasore. Sure, but average speed table should mellow down the euphoria as it is deployed nowhere near it’s potential.”
Matter of cost
The newer Vande Bharat Express trains on the Ranchi-Patna, Dharwad-Bengaluru, Goa-Mumbai, Khajuraho-Bhopal-Indore, Bhopal-Jabalpur, Delhi-Dehradun, Guwahati-New Jalpaiguri, Bilaspur-Nagpur, Chennai-Coimbatore routes are smaller versions, comprising eight coaches instead of sixteen coaches.
Railway officials said that the reason behind reducing the number of coaches is bleak demand. However, they said that they cannot comment on the actual occupancy figures of the Vande Bharat trains. Rail travellers find Vande Bharat trains expensive.
For instance, an Executive Class ticket on the Ranchi-Patna train is ₹2,110, while the chair car rate is ₹1,175. The latter is nearly twice that of its equivalent in the Ranchi Patna Jan Shatabdi Express — ₹650. While the Shatabdi and Vande Bharat trains depart around the same time, the latter takes two additional hours to complete the journey.
