Two Vande Bharat trains discontinue services; blames shortage of passengers 

NEW DELHI: Two Vande Bharat trains have discontinued services due to the shortage of passengers. The services of Udaipur-Jaipur and Udaipur-Agra have been stopped. The railways have decided to change the route and run the Udaipur-Asarwa (Ahmedabad) service instead.

Out of the 82 Vande Bharat trains operating services in India, three trains from Kerala are leading in terms of passengers. The occupancy in these is 200 percent. However, if we examine the total number of Vande Bharats, the number of passengers and occupancy in about half of the trains are low. Reports say seats are empty in more than 30 Vande Bharats. It is assessed that the route was decided based on regionalism, which is the reason for the decrease in passengers in Vande Bharat.

Meantime, it is indicated that the Bengaluru-Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat sleeper train service allocated to Kerala will be via Kottayam. The schedule will be such that it will depart from Thiruvananthapuram at 7.30 pm and reach Bengaluru at 7.30 am. The railway board will take a final decision in this regard soon. There will be 16 AC coaches. The approximate fare from Thiruvananthapuram to Bengaluru will be Rs 2,300 for third AC, Rs 3,000 for second AC, and Rs 3,600 for first AC. There will be no RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) or waiting list.