The Railway Board has announced plans to upgrade Vande Bharat trains with more coaches on seven operational routes following high passenger occupancy, officials said. The move aims to enhance capacity and provide a better travel experience for passengers on these popular routes.
Routes and Upgradation Details
The seven routes selected for augmentation are Mangaluru Central–Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad–Tirupati, Chennai Egmore–Tirunelveli, Madurai–Bengaluru Cantt, Deoghar–Varanasi, Howrah–Rourkela, and Indore–Nagpur. The trains released from these upgrades will also be introduced on some new routes to expand the network.
At present, four 8-coach (also called cars) and three 16-coach Vande Bharat trains operate on these routes. “The 16-car train will be upgraded to 20-car and those having 8-car will be increased to 16-car,” Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said.
Tentative Plans Based on Occupancy
“On the basis of occupancy for Financial Year 2025-26 (up to 31.07.2025) and feasibility for augmentation, a tentative augmentation of three 16-car Vande Bharat train services with 20-car and four 8-Car Vande Bharat train with 16-car has been planned,” he added.
The Board officials also said that in addition to these upgrades, more 20-car Vande Bharat trains will be ready for launch, and one 16-car train will be available for augmentation. “A tentative replacement plan of Vande Bharat train service is planned on the basis of occupancy. After this, the released rakes (trains) of 16-Car and 8-Car will be utilized for running new services,” Kumar said.
As per the scheduled upgradation, the three routes currently operating 16-car Vande Bharat trains — Mangaluru Central–Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad–Tirupati, and Chennai Egmore–Tirunelveli — will be upgraded to 20-car trains. The remaining four routes, which currently have 8-car Vande Bharat services, will be augmented to 16-car trains.