Vande Bharat Express was launched by Indian Railways as a train with high speed and state-of-the-art facilities. It was claimed that this train will run at a speed of 110 km per hour and will give passengers a fast journey experience. But the average speed of the Vande Bharat Express running between Gorakhpur and Prayagraj has remained only 66 to 70 km per hour. This speed is almost equal to that of normal trains, due to which passengers are not getting the expected benefit.
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More than double the fare
The fare of the train is also becoming heavy on the pocket of the passengers. The fare for the chair car class of Vande Bharat Express on the Rae Bareli-Lucknow and Rae Bareli-Prayagraj routes is Rs 680, and the fare for the executive class is Rs 1305. At the same time, in Triveni Express covering the same distance, a sleeper class ticket is available for just Rs 160 for Lucknow and Rs 265 for Prayagraj. That is, despite there being no significant difference in speed, the fare is being charged many times more.
Decreasing trust of passengers
The effect of slow speed and high fares has started showing on the number of passengers as well. Initially, given the rush of passengers, the number of bogies of the train was increased from eight to 16, but now the situation is such that more than half the seats are going empty. The train is also gradually becoming a victim of delays, due to which the trust of passengers is getting weakened further.
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Railway’s clarification
Senior Divisional Operations Manager Rajneesh Kumar says that at present, repair and switch replacement work is going on at various places on the track, due to which the speed of the train has been reduced by applying caution. He claims that as soon as the work is completed, Vande Bharat Express will start running at a speed of 130 kilometers per hour.