Kerala’s new Vande Bharat express train between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod is going to be faster but also costlier, in fact more so than the Rajdhani. The train is being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.
According to details of the train analysed by News18, the Vande Bharat will complete the journey from Trivandrum Central to Kasaragod in 8.05 hours, which will cost Rs 2,880 in executive class. The same distance is covered by the Rajdhani in 8 hours and 59 minutes but costs Rs 2,770 in the train’s first class.
The base fare of the Vande Bharat is cheaper than the Rajdhani’s but the catering charges are 80 per cent higher. The base fare for Rajdhani is Rs 2,269 to which Rs 245 catering charges are added. For Vande Bharat, the base fare is Rs 2,194 to which Rs 434 catering charges are added, as per the cost breakup.
Other charges, including GST, superfast and reservation charges, are the same for the two trains. The catering, however, for both these trains is optional.
Rajdhani starts from Trivandrum Central at 7.15 pm and reaches Kasaragod at 4.14 am while the Vande Bharat will depart from Trivandrum Central at 5.20 am and reach Kasaragod at 1.25 pm.
Explaining the price gap, a ministry official said Rajdhani only serves dinner while the Vande Bharat will serve passengers tea and snacks along with breakfast.
“The passengers will first be given a cup of tea with some snacks in Vande Bharat followed by breakfast a little later. For Rajdhani, since the evening tea time has passed, the passengers will only get dinner,” an official on condition of anonymity told News18.
If a passenger does not opt for food, the ticket for Vande Bharat will cost Rs 2,465 in executive class and Rs 2,525 in the first AC of the Rajdhani.
From Kasaragod, the Vande Bharat train will depart at 2.30 pm and reach Trivandrum Central at 10.35 pm. The complete journey will cost Rs 2,815 for the executive class.
On the return journey, when the Vande Bharat will be serving dinner, the catering charge is Rs 369, which is still more than Rajdhani’s. “This is because the passengers will be served evening tea as well,” the official added.
When it comes to chair cars, Vande Bharat costs Rs 1,590 from Trivandrum Central while the cost is Rs 1,670 for third AC in Rajdhani. Also, while Vande Bharat will be running all days of the week except Thursday, Rajdhani runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday only.
Commercial journey from Wednesday
The commercial journey of the new Vande Bharat will start from Wednesday, a day after it will be inaugurated by the prime minister, officials said.
A Southern Railway official told News18 that the train, when it starts its journey from Kasaragod, will stop at Kannur, Kozhikode, Shoranur, Thrissur, Ernakulam town, Kottayam and Kollam before ending the journey at Trivandrum Central in Thiruvananthapuram.
“At all the stations, the train will stop for two minutes apart from Ernakulam, where it will be three minutes,” the official told News18, adding that the Vande Bharat will complete the journey in eight hours and five minutes.
The next fastest train between Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram is the Rajdhani, which takes 10 hours and 45 minutes to complete the journey.
“Since this Vande Bharat will not run on Thursday, the commercial run from TVC will start from Friday,” another ministry official told News18, adding that it will have the same stops and time.
The other regular trains between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod are Maveli Express, which runs all days of the week and takes 11 hours and 13 minutes to complete the journey; and the Nethravathi Express that completes the journey in 11 hours and 53 minutes.
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