Vande Bharat trains connecting three major cities; Good news for Manguluru Malayalees

MANGULURU: Vande Bharat Expresses are running packed all across the country. In Kerala, the Vande Bharat trains are a big hit with great passenger traffic, if not the best in the country. The mighty introduction of this elite train service has yielded results. However, experiments in some routes ended up in dissapoinments. One such train is the Mangaluru-Goa Vande Bharat. Almost half of the seats on most of the services are unoccupied. As a countermeasure, plans were made to reroute the service from Kozhikode to Goa, but were dropped due to Karnataka's opposition.

The eighth-raked Vande Bharat is currently running on the Goa-Mangalore route. Therefore, the number of coaches cannot be reduced further. However, the Railways are now considering extending this service to Mumbai. Currently, there is a Vande Bharat service running on the Mumbai- Goa route. Similarly, there is a service from Mangaluru to Goa. The railways are planning to combine the services of these two trains and run them as a Mangaluru- Goa- Mumbai service. However, some obstacles remain.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is one of the busiest railway stations in the country. It will be a challenge for railways to reschedule all other trains reaching CST if the proposal gets approved. A Lok Sabha member from Karnataka met the Railway Minister the other day and requested that the service from Mangalore to Goa be extended to Mumbai.

The malayali population are sizeable in Mangalore and Mumbai. The new service, if turned into a reality, will prove to be a solace for them.