Vande Bharat Express for Kerala to reach Thiruvananthapuram today; Southern Railway authorities take over train

CHENNAI: Southern Railway has taken over the Vande Bharat Express rakes set to run in the Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur route in Kerala. The rakes will reach Thiruvananthapuram today. Two rakes with 16 cars were handed over to the Southern Railway authorities at Villivakkam in Chennai. Southern Railway General Manager RN Singh has set off to Thiruvananthapuram on a special train on Thursday night.

The train will reach Kerala via Palakkad. It has been decided to conduct the trial run on April 22 from Thiruvananthapuram. The train will conduct service from Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur via Kottayam. The train will be stopped for some time at Thiruvananthapuram, Varkala, Kollam, Chengannur, Ernakulam South and Ernakulam North. With the Prime Minister flagging off on April 25, the third Vande Bharat of the Southern Railway will start running in Kerala. This will be the 14th Vande Bharat Express in the country.

Features

• Cost- 97 crore per train
• Fully airconditioned coaches
• Automatic doors and steps
• Wi-Fi and GPS in the coaches
• Bio vacuum toilet

200 sharp bends
High-speed trains in Kerala are hampered by sharp bends in railway tracks. There are 620 bends in the 560 km stretch from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram. Of these, the feasibility study to straighten two hundred sharp bends have not reached anywhere. The current speed on the tracks is 60 to 80 kmph.

Ticket prices will go up

From Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur, the ticket charge may be around 1345 rupees for a chair car and 2238 rupees for an executive coach. This is inclusive of the Rs 320 catering charge. The fare may be Rs 605 and Rs 1144 to Ernakulam and Rs 1130 and Rs 2138 to Kozhikode.