Bengaluru additional divisional railway manager Kusuma Hariprasad with schoolchildren during the trial run of the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express on Thursday.
Credit: Special Arrangement
Railway staff burst into euphoria as the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express pulled into the Yeshwantpur train station during its maiden end-to-end trial run on Thursday.
The self-propelled, semi-high-speed covered the distance (609.81 km) in 7 hours and 45 minutes, as many as 45 minutes faster than expected. This has raised hopes that the train would have a travel time of eight hours when it begins commercial operations on September 25.
The train will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi via video conference on September 24. It will leave Kacheguda at noon and reach Yeshwantpur at 11 pm halting at all major stations on the way that day.
During Thursday’s trial run, the train left Kacheguda at 5.30 am and reached Yeshwantpur at 1.15 pm, as against the expected arrival time of 2 pm. After halting for one-and-a-half hours, it embarked on its return journey to Kacheguda at 2.45 pm.
The trial run was undertaken to assess various technical and operational parameters, the railways said.
While an eight-coach trainset with 612 seats plied during the trial, commercial operations will likely have 16 coaches with 14 chair cars and two executive classes.
Railway officials estimate the chair car seat to cost around Rs 1,500 and the executive chair car Rs 2,800.
The train, the third Vande Bharat for Karnataka, has a maximum speed of 110 kmph and an average speed of 71.74 kmph. Thrinethra K R, divisional commercial manager at SWR, said trains were capable of running at 160 kmph, but tracks were not ready to facilitate it. “There is a plan underway to increase the maximum speed to 130 kmph,” he added.
Kids’ day out
During the trial run, the children of loco pilots Surendran, Aneesh Srinivas Rao and Hitesh Swamy expressed pride that their fathers had been given the responsibility of piloting this premier train. Surendran drove South India’s first Vande Bharat (Mysuru-Chennai).
The railways said based on passenger feedback, it had increased angle of seat reclination from 17.3 degrees to 19.4 degrees, improved the accessibility of mobile charging sockets and provided wheelchair securing points in driving/trailer coaches for the convenience of the disabled and the
elderly.