From Malayalis’ favourite city to Goa in 13 hours: new Vande Bharat train coming

BENGALURU: Bengaluru is a city where many people, including Malayalis, live for work and studies. For holiday trips, a large number of travellers from Bengaluru prefer to visit Goa. Now, these journeys may become easier as a new Vande Bharat Express service from Bengaluru to Goa is likely to be introduced, according to a report citing officials of the South Western Railway.

The timetable of the semi-high-speed train has been planned in a way that passengers can reach Goa in about 13 hours. A report regarding the proposal has been submitted to the Railway Board. Once the board approves the proposal, the official schedule of the new Vande Bharat service will be announced.

As per the proposed plan, the Vande Bharat service will run six days a week. The train is expected to depart from Yeshwantpur at 6:05 am and reach Madgaon at 7:15 pm, taking around 13 hours and 10 minutes to complete the journey. The train will have stops at Hassan, Sakleshpur, Subrahmanya Road and Padil. On the return journey, it will leave Madgaon at 5:30 pm and arrive at Yeshwantpur at 6:40 am.

As per South Western Railway's decision, the train will run via the Padil bypass route, skipping Mangaluru Junction and Mangaluru Central stations. The railway has also proposed increasing the train’s speed between Chikkabanavara and Hassan from 110 kmph to 130 kmph. Trial runs will be conducted before finalising the timetable. The trials will be carried out using two Vande Bharat train sets equipped with an automatic emergency braking system.