A Vande Bharat Express train on the Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysuru route, at the KSR station.
Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru is getting connected to Kochi by the Vande Bharat Bharat Express next week.
The train will start from Ernakulam on July 31 and from Bengaluru Cantonment on August 1. It will run thrice a week and make 12 trips in each direction.
M Senthamil Selvan, Chief Public Relations Officer, Southern Railway, said the service would run as a special train to clear the extra rush of
passengers.
The railways typically operates special trains to meet
extra demand during peak seasons.
The Vande Bharat will be the fastest train between Bengaluru and Ernakulam, taking about nine hours to cover 608 km. The current fastest train takes 10 to 12 hours.
Train number 06001 Ernakulam-Bengaluru Cantonment Vande Bharat Special will run on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, between July 31 and August 25.
It will leave Ernakulam Junction at 12.50 pm and reach Bengaluru Cantonment at 10 pm on the same day.
In the return direction, train number 06002 Bengaluru Cantonment-Ernakulam Vande Bharat Special will run on Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays, between August 1 and August 26.
It will depart from Bengaluru Cantonment at 5.30 am and reach Ernakulam Junction at 2.20 pm on the same day.
The stoppages will be Thrissur, Palakkad, Podanur, Tiruppur, Erode and Salem.
The train will have eight coaches (seven chair cars and one executive class).
The IRCTC has started taking bookings for the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Cantonment service while advanced reservation for the return journey will likely begin on Monday.
KN Krishna Prasad of the Karnataka Railway Vedike welcomed the introduction of the premium train between the two cities, but said the timings were “inconvenient”.
“Bengaluru has a significant number of Malayalis working in the IT and other sectors. They typically prefer overnight trains. Going by the timings, travellers will lose almost an entire day,” he told DH.
Prasad also lamented the lack of stoppage at KR Puram, a key neighbourhood near the city’s IT hub.
Bengaluru already has Vande Bharat trains to Chennai/Mysuru, Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Hyderabad and Coimbatore. There are two Vande Bharat trains to Chennai/Mysuru. A Vande Bharat has also been proposed between Bengaluru and Madurai.
Fare structure
The chair-car fare is Rs 1,465 (inclusive of meals). The executive-class fare is Rs 2,945.