Vandebharat, the most modern face of Indian Railways, has also begun service in South India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the country's fifth Vande Bharat Express in Mysuru. South India's first Vandebharat Express service runs on the Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai route. For the maiden journey from Bengaluru to Chennai, the PM gave the green light at the Bengaluru KSR station. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bomme attended the function. After the first journey, Vandebharat will start running on the Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai route. In the first phase, Vandebharat will run from Chennai to Mysuru via Bengaluru in six and a half hours. With the completion of the track upgrade, the journey time will be reduced to 3 hours. With this, the travel problem on the Chennai-Mysore route will be solved to a large extent. A waggon containing 16 coaches has been brought for the service.
The train leaves Chennai at 5.50 a.m. and reaches Bengaluru at 10.20 a.m. and Mysuru at 12.20 in the afternoon. Vande Bharat will leave Mysuru at 1 p.m. and reach Chennai at 7:30 p.m. evening. Vande Bharat is capable of running at a speed of 180 km per hour, but on the Chennai-Mysore route, it will operate at a speed of 75–80 kmph. The lack of a safety fence is the reason for the slow speed.
Vandebharat also has lower ticket prices than Shatabdi Express, which also travels this route. 1200 per car, inclusive of food. 1275 should be paid per journey. The executive car Vandebharat is priced at Rs 2295. The timings of other trains have been changed ahead of the Vandebharat service.
Vandebharat trains are very light and able to travel at high speeds in a short time. Kavach, a state-of-the-art safety system to avoid train collisions, is part of the Vandebharat Express. The Prime Minister had earlier announced that 75 Vande Bharat train services will be launched across the country by August 15. Currently, passenger train services are being run, but the railways have informed that special Vande Bharat trains for high-speed freight will be launched soon.
