The Railway Board is understood to have taken cognisance of the persistent requests by rail passenger associations in Coimbatore region for reduction in the travel duration of the Bengaluru-bound Vande Bharat Express in both directions, by at least half an hour.
The passenger associations have cited the travel time of three hours and 50 minutes taken by Ernakulam to Bengaluru Intercity city express to cover Salem- Bengaluru Cantonment section, as against four hours and and 15 minutes by the Vande Bharat Express, to justify their demand, which has been duly communicated by the Southern Railway to the Railway Board. According to official sources, the Railway Board usually takes a positive note of the requests from travelling public for reduction in running, provided the possibility exists.
“In this case, there is sufficient scope for tweaking the duration of the running time”, former member of divisional railway users’ consultative committee and director of Kongu Global Forum J. Sathish said, pointing out that the duration of time reduction could be leveraged to re-schedule the departure timing from Coimbatore. “The departure at 5 a.m. is too early,” Mr. Satish said.
According to officials, the onus on reducing the overall running time vests with the Bengaluru-based Southwestern Railway, which has jurisdiction till Omalur near Salem.
Following representations made by passenger associations, Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan, in a letter to the Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, sought re-scheduling of the departure of Vande Bharat Express after 6 a.m., saying the 5 a.m. departure timing was too early for passengers to reach the station.
“This train takes only six hours to complete the journey between the two cities, whereas the official timetable provides six hours and 30 minute of travel time. This needs an immediate relook, as it could cause confusion among travellers,” the MLA said in the letter.
According to representatives of rail passenger associations, a small change in the travel duration will help the cause of travellers in the Vande Bharat Express which was introduced by the Railways after studying the potential based on hitherto movement of passengers between the two cities utilising over 130 bus services, besides the dependence on about 2,000 passenger car units.
