India’s semi-high speed train ‘Vande Bharat Express’ to make its maiden run today

India’s much-awaited locally manufactured semi high-speed train ‘Vander Bharat Express’ (coded as Train 18), will make its maiden run on 15th February 2019.  The train is built by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of Chennai under PM’s ‘Make in India’ programme.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the train on New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route from the New Delhi Railway Station.

However, there will not be any festivities and the train will run without any flower decorations, on the event of terror attack in Pulwama, Kashmir last night. A two-minute silence will also be observed before the launch in memory of CRPF soldiers who lost their lives in one of the deadliest attacks in the Valley.

Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph and has travel classes like Shatabdi Train but with better facilities. It aims to provide a totally new travel experience to passengers.

The Train will cover the distance between New Delhi and Varanasi in 8 hours and will run on all days except Mondays and Thursdays.

All coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS based audio-visual passenger information system, on-board hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and very comfortable seating. All toilets are bio-vacuum type. The lighting is dual mode, viz. diffused for general illumination and personal for every seat. Every coach has a pantry with facility to serve hot meals, hot and cold beverages. The insulation is meant to keep heat and noise to very low levels for additional passenger comfort.

Vande Bharat Express has 16 air-conditioned coaches of which 2 are executive class coaches. The total seating capacity is 1,128 passengers. It is much more than the conventional Shatabdi rake of equal number of coaches, thanks to shifting of all electric equipment below the coaches and seats in the driving coach also.

Adding up the green footprints, the train has regenerative braking system in the Vande Bharat Express coaches which can save up to 30% of electrical energy. Speed, Safety and Service are the hallmarks of this train.

In keeping with the vision of Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Make in India’, the major systems of the train have been designed and built in India.  Impact of this train, matching global standards of performance, safety and passenger comfort and yet costing less than half of global prices, has the potential to be a game changer in the global rail business.