Ernakulam – Bengaluru Vande Bharat: Flagging off before election notification

Kochi: Discussions are rife about introducing a new Vande Bharat train service in the busy Ernakulam – Bengaluru route. The railway board is considering flagging off the service before the election notification is published. The recommendation was earlier submitted to the Southern Railway Board.

The service was scheduled to begin at 5 am from Ernakulam and reach Bengaluru by noon. The same train returns to Ernakulam by 11 pm. However, passengers who need to reach Kottayam or Alappuzha may not be able to find proper transportation facilities at night. So, the request has been made to the authorities to change this schedule.

Passengers demand that the Vande Bharat service should reach Ernakulam by morning and return to Bengaluru in the evening. Meanwhile, the authorities said that the maintenance facilities for the Vande Bharat train at the marshalling yard in Ernakulam would be commissioned within a week. Thiruvananthapuram division is likely to get the new Vande Bharat rake that is allotted to the Southern railway. However, the number of staff should be increased to fully utilise the third pit line that was built by spending almost Rs 11 crore. Besides, the construction of the drainage at the yard isn’t complete yet.