Vande Bharat Express is proposed between Bengaluru-Goa, which will run 6 days a week. The journey will take over 12 hours and the average speed will be less than 50 km/h due to the ghat section. The final decision of the Railway Board is still pending.
Bengaluru: There may soon be a good news for those traveling between Bengaluru and Goa. Is Vande Bharat Express going to run on this route? According to reports, South Western Railways (SWR), Southern Railways and Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) have sent a proposal to the Railway Board earlier this month. In this proposal, it has been said to run Vande Bharat train between Yesvantpur and Madgaon. At present, the most popular evening train on this route is Panchganga Express, which runs seven days a week.
According to the proposal sent to the Railway Board, this train will run six days a week. It will leave Yesvantpur at 6:05 am and reach Margao in Goa at 7:15 pm after traveling for more than 12 hours. En route, this train will stop at Hassan, Sakleshpur, Subramanya Road and Padil stations. If we compare, the currently running Yesvantpur-Vasco da Gama Express takes about 15 hours to cover the distance of 700 kilometers.
However, this is just a preliminary time-table and is subject to change. The Railway Board has asked zones to consider starting trains after 6:30 am.
SWR has also informed that KSR Bengaluru station is the most preferred station in the capital, but there is lack of space for maintenance. Due to the long distance between the terminal stations, this service will require two Vande Bharat rakes simultaneously.
Speed will be less than 50 km/h
Railway Board estimates that the average speed of this train may be less than 50 kilometers per hour. In the ghat section this speed can reduce to 30 kilometers per hour. This is a very slow speed for a train which is capable of running at speeds of more than 160 kilometers per hour. This means that the journey between Bengaluru and Goa will still be slow.
SWR Chief PRO Manjunath Kanmadi said, “The Railway Board has not yet taken any final decision on the stoppage nor has it issued any notification. SWR has given its inputs and is now waiting for the decision.”