Railway withdraws superhit Kochi-Bengaluru Vande Bharat service; ignores Kerala again

KOCHI: Despite good passenger traffic, railway has decided to withdraw the highly lucrative Ernakulam- Bengaluru Vande Bharat train service. The notification of extension of the service, which was announced till August 26, has not been issued, which has now forced the Railway to end the service.

In terms of occupancy rate, the train was head-on-head with the other two Vande Bharat trains in Kerala. The Southern Railway had put forward a proposal to extend the time of the train departing from Bengaluru at 5.30 am by one hour to 6.30 am.

Officials say the service will be extended after the new schedule is approved. Meanwhile, there are also rumours of the railway bringing back their old shenanigan of ignoring Kerala. Some others have raised doubts about railway curry-favouring private bus lobbies to end the service, so as to given them back total reign over the route. The Ernakulam - Bengaluru special service was started on July 25 as a three-day-a-week service.

Mangaluru-Goa Vande Bharat, which has been running for 8 months, has just 31 per cent of bookings. Meanwhile, the occupancy rate of Ernakulam Bengaluru service is 105% and Bengaluru - Ernakulam service is 88%. Earlier there were talks about the railway mulling options for making the service permanent on the route.

Madurai-Bengaluru Cantonment and Nagercoil-Chennai Vande Bharat are the two new trains about to be inaugurated by PM Modi. However, the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat train, despite popular demand, has not yet received the green signal from Railway.