The Railways are likely to operate a Vande Bharat Express special service in the Bengaluru-Ernakulam corridor during weekends using a spare rake to cater to increased demand from commuters during the impending Deepavali season, it is learnt.
This will be an extension of the Vande Bharat special train that is likely to operate in the Chennai-Bengaluru and Bengaluru-Chennai corridors during the weekend. Unconfirmed reports said the train that would reach Bengaluru at 4 a.m. on Friday would begin its service to Ernakulam at 4.30 a.m. and reach Ernakulam Junction at approximately 1.30 p.m. The return trip from here would be at 2 p.m., and the train will reach Bengaluru at 10.30 p.m. the same day.
It will operate in the Bengaluru-Ernakulam corridor and back on Saturday and Sunday as well before returning to Chennai where it will be based at as a spare train for existing services. Railway sources said the service was yet to receive the formal go-ahead.
Soon after the launch of Kerala’s first Vande Bharat Express on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod stretch in April, Railway Minister Aswini Vaishnaw had said that a Vande Bharat train would be introduced in the Thiruvananthapuram-Bengaluru sector as soon as the sleeper format of the train was ready by year-end or in early 2024. Likewise, the high-capacity metro format of Vande Bharat trains, designed to run up to a distance of 200 km, could operate shuttle services between Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi at a later stage, covering the distance in one-and-a-half hours, he had said.
In the absence of adequate number of trains from Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam to Bengaluru, commuters are forced to depend on private buses, often paying up to ₹4,500 for a trip during festive seasons.
