KOCHI: In happy news for hundreds of students, techies, and businesspersons based in Bengaluru, the new Vande Bharat Express train between Ernakulam Junction and KSR Bengaluru will begin services next week, with the official inauguration tentatively slated for November 7.
According to the schedule announced by the Railway Board on October 31, train no 26651 Bengaluru-Ernakulam Vande Bharat Express will depart from KSR Bengaluru at 5.10am and reach Ernakulam Junction at 1.50pm. In the return direction, train no 26652 will leave Ernakulam Junction at 2.20pm to reach KSR Bengaluru at 11pm.
The daily train, which will take eight-and-a-half hours to cover the distance, will have only two stops in Kerala -- Thrissur and Palakkad. The Vande Bharat from Bengaluru will arrive at Palakkad at 11.28am and Thrissur at 12.28pm. En route to Bengaluru, the train will reach Thrissur at 3.17pm and Palakkad at 4.35pm. The train will also stop at Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, Salem and Jolarpettai in Tamil Nadu and at Krishnarajapuram in Karnataka.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is tentatively slated to inaugurate the four new Vande Bharat trains virtually, including the Bengaluru-Ernakulam train, on November 7. A special service for VIPs and dignitaries will be conducted from Ernakulam to Bengaluru on the day. The date of commencement of regular commercial operations will be announced later,” a senior railway official said.
This will be the third Vande Bharat Express operating through Kerala and the fourth to be operated by the Thiruvananthapuram division, the official added.
The new Vande Bharat train will have an operating speed of 160km per hour, subject to track conditions. The fare will be lower than that of the Special Vande Bharat service briefly operated in the section last year.
Slight change in timing sought
Earlier, the special Vande Bharat tri-weekly service on the route ran to almost full capacity, but the Railways discontinued the same reportedly due to the development work at Cantonment and KSR Bengaluru stations.
Ernakulam-Bengaluru is a premium, high-demand route. In future, the journey time is set to be reduced further with the introduction of the automatic signalling system in the section. Plenty of technology professionals and students from Kerala are based in Bengaluru. And now, with most of the companies extending the ‘work from home’ facility, their travelling needs have increased hugely, having to report at the office two or three days a week.
At the same time, demands have risen to tweak the timing of the service to ensure metro connectivity.
“The train is scheduled to reach Bengaluru at 11pm, when the last metro would have left. Similarly, the passengers will find it difficult to reach the station so early (5.10am) to catch the train to Ernakulam. The Railways should consider these aspects too,” said P Krishna Kumar of the Thrissur Railway Passengers’ Association.
