Mysuru-Chennai route to get South India’s first Vande Bharat train on November 10

The Railways recently launched the third and the fourth Vande Bharat Express from poll-bound states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh

Vande Bharat Express, the country’s fastest train designed to clock a maximum speed of 180 km per hour, will make its Southern debut on November 10 on the Chennai-Mysuru route via Bengaluru, connecting the capital cities of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The prestigious train, which is being manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, will run on the busy Chennai-Mysuru railway line in addition to the Shatabdi Express that has been chugging along the route since 1994. Multiple sources told DH that the Chennai-Mysuru Vande Bharat Express, the fifth such train in the country, is likely to be flagged off from the Karnataka city on November 10.

The choice of the route and the venue for flagging off of the train is interesting and politically significant as Karnataka goes to assembly polls in May 2023. When the Vande Bharat Express is flagged off on November 10, the number of prestigious trains connecting Chennai with Bengaluru will go up to three with the Southern Railway already running a Shatabdi Express between Chennai and Bengaluru, six days a week.

Though the Vande Bharat Express can chug at a maximum speed of 180 km per hour, it can run only at 110 km per hour between Chennai and Mysuru as the tracks on the route can only withstand the above-mentioned speed.

Also Read | Railways to launch freight version of Vande Bharat Express

The sources added that the work on increasing the speed to 130 km from Chennai to Jolarpet is in full swing and the new train can clock the speed when the tracks are ready.

The new train, though will provide a new experience to travellers on the busy route, will not bring much cheer on the travel time as it is expected to reduce only by a few minutes from the current seven hours taken by the Shatabdi.

Much like the two Shatabdi trains, the new train will also be a hit among professionals who shuttle between the two cities since the time taken by it is just one hour less than the total time drill involved in taking a flight from Chennai and reaching Bengaluru from the airport.

The train set consisting of 16 coaches is indigenously designed and will be free of locomotives since traction motors will be fitted underneath each coach to render them self-propelled.

The Vande Bharat Express or Train-18 is a fully air-conditioned train with Second Class and premium First Class and boasts of automatic doors, vacuum toilets, comfortable doors, on-board infotainment, and facilities for people with special needs.

This will be the fifth Vande Bharat Express train in the country with four trains already running between New Delhi-Varanasi, New Delhi-Katra, Mumbai-Gandhinagar, and New Delhi-Una.

The Chennai-Mysuru Shatabdi, which completed 28 years of service in May this year, is the first such prestigious train in South India having begun its first journey on May 11, 1994.

From 10 coaches in 1994, the train now boasts of sixteen coaches, including one Anubhuti and one Executive Class, and has added another stop at Katpadi from 2016.