Four years of Vande Bharat Express: A true example of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, the semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express has managed to reserve a special place in the heart of Indian middle-class travellers. When the first Vande Bharat train was launched four years ago, the sheer interest in its look and speed generated a lot of curiosity in the media and the people. None of the other trains made such noise before their launch, ever.
Showing confidence in the Vande Bharat Express trains, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last year said that people who are used to flights, will switch to Vande Bharat and prefer travelling in it once they gain the experience of it. There is no doubt in the fact that Vande Bharat is the future of Indian Railways. Let’s decode what makes it the average Indian traveller’s preferred choice.
Vande Bharat: A gamechanger in reducing travel time
This is an obvious factor but also, an important one. Vande Bharat Express is, as of now, the fastest train in India, with a top speed of 180 km/h which naturally reduces the travel time of the passenger. Now, one doesn’t have to squeeze themselves into the ever-overcrowded general coaches of slower trains. Originally known as ‘Train 18’, Vande Bharat trains can also accelerate to a speed of 100 km/h in 54.6 seconds and reach its maximum speed in 145 seconds.
Vande Bharat: Comfort with rotating seats
The transport system in any country should be as comfortable as their easy connectivity. Unlike the stiff blue seats of average Indian rails, the Vande Bharat has reclining seats in all classes which makes long-distance journeys, a cakewalk for the passengers. Executive coaches on the other hand have an added feature of seats that rotate 180-degree. Comfort makes Vande Bharat an obvious choice for middle and even upper-middle-class passengers. After all, who wouldn’t want to travel comfortably? Even the seating capacity is much more than the conventional Shatabdi trains. Vande Bharat has a total seating capacity of 1,128 passengers.
Vande Bharat: State-of-the-art amenities
Gone are the days of staying disconnected from the world while travelling via trains. For many, wifi has become as important as getting food on the train! All coaches in Vande Bharat are equipped with automatic doors and GPS based audio-visual passenger information system. The train also has onboard hotspot Wi-Fi. Even the toilets are bio-vacuum type. The lights in Vande Bharat are in dual mode including one for general illumination and personal one for every seat. There is also insulation in all coaches. This keeps noise levels and heat under control for sheer comfort of passengers.
Vande Bharat: Modernising the Indian Railway with high-tech
The Indian Railways have introduced a very modern and intelligent brake system in the Vande Bharat trains. It provides better acceleration and deceleration of the train. There are also Divyang-friendly washrooms and seat handles with seat numbers in Braille letters. There are CCTV cameras and in case there is an emergency, loco pilot and train guard have the provision of communicating with each other as well as with the passengers.
Vande Bharat: On-board infotainment and entertainment
All coaches of Vande Bharat Express trains are equipped with 32-inch screens providing Passenger Information and Infotainment. In fact, to amuse the travellers during their journey, the Indian Railways recently introduced board games like snakes and ladders on Vande Bharat Express trains which run on Mumbai-Solapur and Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi routes. The game has been designed quite intelligently. The board looks like the route of the blue and white color train. In Mumbai- Sainagar Shirdi and Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat Express, the board game will start at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and the ladders are replaced with Vande Bharat trains. If you land on the board where the train does not halt, you will go down and if you land at the halt, you will end up jumping via the Vande Bharat (ladder) to higher rows. How interesting is that!
Vande Bharat: Sleeper coaches to take over Indian transport system
The semi-high-speed trains are soon going to incorporate sleeper class coaches. Reports suggest that these trains will have an aluminum body and will be 2-3 tons lighter if you compare them to the current versions of Vande Bharat. As per Ministry of Railways, a tender for manufacturing 200 new rakes of these new-generation Vande Bharat trains has already been floated. No wonder Vande Bharat is going to be the future of transport system in India.
