Vande Bharat Express: Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod Service Tops The Chart With 193 Per Cent Occupancy; Mangaluru-Goa At Bottom With 36 Per Cent

The Vande Bharat Express trains for Kasaragod, Varanasi and Katra are having maximum occupancy despite two such trains being run for each of these three destinations.

However, Goa-Mangaluru-Goa Vande Bharat Express is having less than 50 per cent occupancy, the lowest among all 41 Vande Bharat trains launched so far.

While Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod Vande Bharat Express is showing nearly 200 occupancy, the highest among all Vande Bharat trains, followed by Delhi-Varanasi-Delhi and Delhi-Katra-Delhi Vande Bharat trains with above 120 per cent occupancy rates for both.

Considering the higher demand, the Indian Railways had launched two Vande Bharat trains on all these three routes.

Chennai-Tirunelveli-Chennai Vande Bharat Express is also clocking about 119 per cent occupancy rate, followed by Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Vande Bharat Express with nearly 110 per cent occupancy, Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express with 114 per cent occupancy rate.

The recently launched Delhi-Ayodhya Vande Bharat Express is also showing full house since its launch last month.

However, Vande Bharat Express for Ahmedabad from Jodhpur is showing 54 per cent occupancy while the return journey is having 59 per cent occupancy rate, according to the latest Railway data.

Though Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Mumbai service is showing full house, Jamnagar-Ahmedabad-Jamnagar is just 50 per cent much below the expectation.

Bhopal-Rewa-Bhopal Vande Bharat Express is also showing just over 50 per cent occupancy, while Bhopal-Delhi-Bhopal Vande Bharat Express is nearly 80 per cent occupancy rate.

Indore-Nagpur-Indore Vande Bharat service is having over 50 per cent occupancy, while Ajmer-Delhi-Ajmer Vande Bharat is showing nearly 80 per cent occupancy rate.

Kolkata-Patna-Kolkata, Patna-Ranchi-Patna, Delhi-Dehradun-Delhi and Kolkata-Puri-Kolkata Vande Bharat services are having more than 100 per cent occupancy rates.

Jaipur-Udaipur-Jaipur Vande Bharat and Mumbai-Shirdi-Mumbai Vande Bharat trains are not showing full occupancy as expected.

Similarly Mumbai-Goa-Mumbai is also having less than 100 per cent occupancy, despite being tourist destinations — a cause of concern for the Railways.

Since the input cost is more in Vande Bharat train, less occupancy rate will be adding burden to the passenger sector which is already running in losses.

Rajdhani Express, Duronto Express, Shatabdi Express and and now, Vande Bharat Express are premier train services and less occupancy in these trains are worrying factors for the national transporter.

The Railways has launched 41 Vande Bharat Express till now and four more such semi-high speed trains are expected to be rolled out next month.

The prototype of the first Sleeper Vande Bharat train is also expected to be out in March end this year.