- Speed restrictions because of the many gradients and curves, clarify officers
- Gap between Shatabdi Express and Vande Bharat Express too short, say commuters
Mysore/Mysuru: The Vande Bharat Express that has a maximum speed of 160-180 kilometres per hour will only run at a speed of 75.60 to 77.53 km per hour on the Mysuru-Chennai route via Bengaluru, only a wee bit faster than the Shatabdi Express that is running at present between the three cities.
While the existing Shatabdi Express between Mysuru and Chennai takes over 7 hours 15 minutes to commute between the two cities via Bengaluru, the brand-new Vande Bharat Express, a semi-high-speed train, takes 6 hours 40 minutes to cover the same distance, a difference of 35 minutes.
“It is almost the same without much difference. Going by the hype created around the Vande Bharat Express and its speed, it should have cut down the travel time further. The train has a maximum speed of 160-180 kilometres per hour. Then I wonder why the train is running at an average speed of 75.60 km per hour to 77.53 km per hour,” questioned businessman Rajeev, who is a regular commuter between the two cities.
Sources from the South Western Railways, however, told Star of Mysore that there are many restrictions on speed due to various reasons and as such, South India’s first Vande Bharat Express will be the slowest in the country.
“There are speed restrictions because of the gradients and curves and they are a real challenge to enhance the speed levels at the 165 km per hour range. Running at a high speed is risky and will endanger the safety of the passengers and a conscious decision has been taken to restrict the speed of Vande Bharat Express from 75.60 to 77.53 km per hour,” an officer said on condition of anonymity.
The speed of New Delhi to Varanasi Vande Bharat Express is 95 km per hour, New Delhi to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra in Jammu & Kashmir is 82 km per hour, Mumbai Central to Gandhinagar is 84 km per hour and the Vande Bharat Express speed between New Delhi and Amb Andaura in Himachal Pradesh is 79 km per hour.
Though certain engineering works can be taken up for the locomotives to negotiate these curves without getting toppled at high speeds, straightening all the curves is not financially feasible as it entails acquiring extra land, rehabilitating people and rebuilding bridges and level crossings at different points. “This needs a huge investment of hundreds of crores of rupees and time,” the officer added.
Gap too short say commuters
Also, many commuters have questioned the too short gap between Vande Bharat Express and Shatabdi Express. While the Vande Bharat Express will leave Chennai at 5.50 am, the Shatabdi Express leaves Chennai at 6 am.
“Every morning we already have a Shatabdi from Bengaluru and we can reach Mysuru by 1 pm. Now Vande Bharat Express also runs in the same schedule with a short gap and reaches Mysuru at 12.30 pm. This would have been a big benefit if the Vande Bharat Express would have started late in the afternoon or early evening. What is the use of two high-speed trains that run at the same time and return also almost at the same time,” questioned Suraj Venugopalrao in Star of Mysore Facebook page.
“Did not understand the schedule. Why do we have two trains starting from Chennai in the morning? One could have started from Mysuru and other from Chennai,” said Neeraj Vyas.
“It would be better if they work on rescheduling either Shatabdi Express or Vande Bharat Express. They can run these superfast premium trains one in the morning and one in the evening. Running in a gap of 30 minutes to one hour to the same destination makes no sense,” said Adithya Jagannath.
Total time taken
The Chennai Central-Bengaluru-Mysuru Vande Bharat Express’ travel time will be six hours and 40 minutes while the Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai Vande Bharat Express will take only six hours and 30 minutes.
The total time taken by Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai Shatabdi Express is seven hours and 15 minutes. On the return route Chennai Central-Bengaluru-Mysuru Shatabdi Express takes 7 hours.
The Vande Bharat Express will run six days a week (except Wednesdays) The railways is not planning to replace Shatabdi Express for now. It will run six days a week except on Tuesdays. At present, Shatabdi is not running on Wednesdays.
Adjustments will be made
“Most of the track between Bengaluru and Chennai are straight and as such, the Vande Bharat Express will travel faster. However, there are many steep curves between Mysuru and Bengaluru and this will curtail the speed. The train is yet to start and the timings that have been decided now are that of the initial stages. Once the actual operations start, the timings, time table, stoppages will be decided after matching with other trains.” – Pratap Simha, Mysuru-Kodagu MP
Vande Bharat Express
From Chennai to Mysuru via Bengaluru
Departure (from Chennai): 5.50 am
Arrival at KSR Railway Station, Bengaluru: 10.25 am
Departure from KSR Railway Station: 10.30 am
Arrival at Mysuru Junction: 12.30 pm
Total time: 6.40 hours
From Mysuru to Chennai via Bengaluru
Departure (from Mysuru): 1.05 pm
Arrival at KSR Bengaluru: 2.55 pm
Departure from KSR Railway Station: 3 pm
Arrival at Chennai: 7.35 pm
Total time: 6.30 hours
Shatabdi Express
From Chennai to Mysuru via Bengaluru
Departure (from Chennai): 6 am
Arrival at KSR Bengaluru: 10.45 am
Departure from KSR Railway Station: 10.50 am
Arrival at Mysuru Junction: 1 pm
Total time: 7 hours
From Mysuru to Chennai via Bengaluru
Departure (from Mysuru): 2.15 pm
Arrival at KSR Bengaluru: 4.10 pm
Departure from KSR Bengaluru: 4.15 pm
Arrival at Chennai: 9.30 pm
Total time: 7.15 hours
This post was published on November 3, 2022 6:42 pm