Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat Express likely to reduce travel time to 7 hours; Check details

The Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat trial will start today (16 May), paving the way for an official launch soon. Mumbai has three Vande Bharat trains at present--Mumbai Central – Ahmedabad – Gandhinagar Capital; Mumbai – Sainagar Shirdi, and Mumbai – Solapur Vande Bharat Express trains. The fourth Vande Bharat semi-high-speed train will be operated soon as the trial starts today.

The electrification of the Mumbai-Goa railway route was completed last month and the new train service will be introduced following an inspection.

Vande Bharat trains are capable of running at a maximum speed of 180 km/hour. These advanced trains comprise GPS-based passenger information systems, bio-vacuum toilets, automatic doors, wi-fi, and regenerative braking systems.

These are the first category of trains to ascend and descend the steepest ghats between Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Nashik without any supporting rear engines.

According to an RTI, Vande Bharat Express has been running at an average speed of around 83 kmph over the last two years due to poor track conditions while having a permissible top speed of 130 kmph for commercial services.

Last month Madhya Pradesh-based Chandra Shekhar Gaur filed an RTI which mentioned that the average speed of Vande Bharat is lower than the permissible top speed of 130km/hour for commercial services.

The average speed of the semi-high-speed train was 84.48 kmph in 2021-22 and 81.38 kmph in 2022-23.

Mumbai CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Express has the lowest average speed of around 64 kmph while the fastest average is maintained by the country's first Vande Bharat Express train -- the New Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express -- which was launched in 2019 and runs at an average speed of 95 kmph.

The Rani Kamalapati (Habibganj)-Hazrat Nizamuddin Vande Bharat Express comes a close second, maintaining an average speed of 94 kmph.

Officials said the average speed of Vande Bharat trains is better than Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains due to their faster acceleration/deceleration.

The Vande Bharat Express is an electric multiple-unit train operated by the Indian Railways. They were designed by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation and manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai.