[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

Also a bit confused with the near clash in timings with the Shatabdi!

Ya, the younger sibling has to prove the mettle on the same track as the older sibling. Instead of the false nose cone, they could as well design it as the Kingfisher beak.

Originally Posted by Ferruccio

I foresee before this decade is over there will be hourly departures of VB+ trains traveling at 180 km/h connecting key cities from all state capitals. This is just the beginning.

The current avg speed VB/Shatabdi is ~75Kmph between Mysore & Chennai. It is unlikely to improve unless they lay a different track.

[audioholic]

I think the clash with Shatabdi timings is mostly to do with the fact that the train is homed in Chennai and the usual babudom and impracticality comes into picture in a meeting room where they decide that the train shall run daily such that it returns by evening or night to its home base. Other than that I see no sense in the timings especially when the shatabdi doesnt really see huge demands during off peak season and days. This applies even to the Brindavan express and Double decker along with the Shatabdi. Same way the Bangalore Chennai shatabdi also has this schedule where it plans to return by evening. They should at least decongest the afternoon schedule ex-SBC and move the Brindavan or the Double decker to an evening departure. Of course it will reach home late but can gather some late passengers as well instead of them having to wait for the Chennai Mail.

[Sridhar K]

@vigsom. Thanks for the wonderful thread and pictures.

DRM of Southern Railway had mentioned in his twitter id (@DrmChennai) that while VB is only marginally faster than Shatabdi now, it will be speeded up further post the track upgrade work happening in this stretch and expected to complete by early next year. As part of the upgrade, top permissible speed is being increased to 130 kmph instead of the current 110 kmph through upgrade of bridges/culverts, straightening of curves etc. Certain sections are already done while some are getting picked up.

Perhaps they launched it a bit earlier than they should have from a track readiness perspective, probably due to upcoming polls in KA and to address the right criticism that southern states haven't got any VB while Northern and Western zones got 4. Originally the 4th VB was supposed to be Chennai- Mysore but changed in the last minute to Una in poll bound HP.

[tharian]

I stay very close to the Chennai-Bangalore mainline and can see the trains pass by.
It was interesting to note how much quicker VB is when compared to the Shatabdi which has the same number of coaches and the same stop at Katpadi and follows the same MPS and caution orders.

VB starts 10 minutes ahead of Shatabdi, but when it passes by here (close to Bangalore East station), the difference is 30 minutes. It is 20 minutes faster mainly because of its faster pickup. The 16 coach rake has 4 pantos of which just two are used now, probably because it doesn't need all 4 to be powered for the current speeds it does.

As mentioned above, once the MPS goes up to 130 kmph from 110 between Chennai and Jolarpet, the duration will reduce, but that would hold good for Shatabdi as well.

As for timings, there was news that the timing would be revised by the railways based on the feedback from travelers, but my guess is that they will replace the Shatabdi with this eventually.

[Arun_S]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Introduction

I consider myself fortunate to have seized an opportunity to travel by the new star of Southern Railway - the Mysuru Chennai Vande Bharat Express, on just its fourth day of operation.

As usual excellent review Sir, with respect to Trains.

I feel it was launched in haste due to political considerations, definitely timing\operational days will change soon.

[ambivalent_98]

I am not a regular on this railway route , but the regular commuters might comment , I saw the comparative timings of Shatabdi vs VB. I felt VB is being under utilised vis-a-vis speed and it can take much lesser time than the Shatabdi.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by audioholic

I think the clash with Shatabdi timings is mostly to do with the fact that the train is homed in Chennai and the usual babudom and impracticality comes into picture in a meeting room where they decide that the train shall run daily such that it returns by evening or night to its home base. Other than that I see no sense in the timings especially when the shatabdi doesnt really see huge demands during off peak season and days. This applies even to the Brindavan express and Double decker along with the Shatabdi. Same way the Bangalore Chennai shatabdi also has this schedule where it plans to return by evening. They should at least decongest the afternoon schedule ex-SBC and move the Brindavan or the Double decker to an evening departure. Of course it will reach home late but can gather some late passengers as well instead of them having to wait for the Chennai Mail.

Honestly, in my opinion, the Bangalore - Chennai route has ample choice of options for trains (especially if you also account for the long-distance trains heading towards East India). On any day, one can/will be able to get tickets on one of the trains for sure - the highest probability being the Shatabdi and Double Decker trains which aren't that popular for different reasons.

For example, for Diwali, I could get tickets a few days before the holiday weekend both ways without even waiting for tatkal (both sides I took trains to Bihar/Assam for which I only had to get off/on at Perambur). And if not, tatkal always will get you tickets on one of the numerous options if one is not finicky with regards to the time.

I wish they had flagged the train going to some other routes instead (e.g. Mysore/Bangalore - Mangalore/Kerala/South TN cities) but I guess there are multiple factors to argue against those.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by tharian

once the MPS goes up to 130 kmph from 110 between Chennai and Jolarpet

What is the MPS between Jolarpettai and KR Puram? I've travelled on Shatabdi, have seen speeds only around 60 to 80 kph being maintained. Any reason for that?

Am a bit surprised how the Madurai Tejas is able to do 90 kph on Madras-Trichy section that BG conversion done in 1999 and FEDL sometime in early 2010s vs Vande Bharat on the Madras-Jolarpettai section which became a FEDL a lot earlier. I think the Central-Jolarpettai section has a quadruple line right now.

For others FEDL means fully electrified double line and MPS means Maximum Permissible Speed.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by narayans80

What is the MPS between Jolarpettai and KR Puram? I've travelled on Shatabdi, have seen speeds only around 60 to 80 kph being maintained. Any reason for that?

Am a bit surprised how the Madurai Tejas is able to do 90 kph on Madras-Trichy section that BG conversion done in 1999 and FEDL sometime in early 2010s vs Vande Bharat on the Madras-Jolarpettai section which became a FEDL a lot earlier. I think the Central-Jolarpettai section has a quadruple line right now.

For others FEDL means fully electrified double line and MPS means Maximum Permissible Speed.

- From what I remember it is 110 and 100 or less in some sections. The reason I assume for that is the numerous curves between Jolarpet and Bangarpet. There is also a small ghat section between Patchur and Mulanur where the MPS is lower. This section also sees a lot of freight trains between Whitefiled and Jolarpet which will delay an express if it is behind it.
The other delay is with track works which will reduce the speeds to crawling depending on the Caution Order and that is where I think the VB makes up time with better acceleration.

-Yes it is surprising that Chennai-Jolarpet section is still 110 kmh and this is more or less a straight section with no gradients. The Chennai-Arrakonnam section is quadruple and after that is double all the way.

[DigitalOne]

VB should have a stop in KR Puram or Whitefield.

Given the EMU like acceleration that this train has, a 2-minute stop is hardly going to impact it's schedule.

The advantages are obvious - KR Puram station has better accessibility to East Bangalore (and will further improve when purple line metro opens next year). So many people will avoid going to KSR City station that it will positively impact India's sustainability goals .

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Introduction

I consider myself fortunate to have seized an opportunity to travel by the new star of Southern Railway - the Mysuru Chennai Vande Bharat Express, on just its fourth day of operation. Having had some bittersweet experiences on trains in the recent months, I was just looking forward to another point A (Bengaluru) to point B (Chennai) journey, but was blown away by the effort taken by several teams in building this train. Just like how I found the Tejas coaches feature rich, this one has its great points. Read on.

Excellent review as usual. You are converting Team BHP into Train BHP

One question - Is there Executive and Anubhuti class like coaches available in VB also?

[tharian]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

One question - Is there Executive and Anubhuti class like coaches available in VB also?

From what I noticed in many videos on Youtube, there is one executive coach which has wider seats and is in 2+2 configuration and those seats can be rotated as well like in the Vistadome coach.

[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

One question - Is there Executive and Anubhuti class like coaches available in VB also?

Originally Posted by tharian

From what I noticed in many videos on Youtube, there is one executive coach which has wider seats and is in 2+2 configuration and those seats can be rotated as well like in the Vistadome coach.

All VB train-sets have 14 Economy Chair-Cars and 2 Executive Chairs. There's no Anubhuti Class in any of the 5 operational VBE. IR doesn't intend to bring in any other accommodation class either, to achieve higher rake rationalisation.

[fhdowntheline]

I happened to watch a very interesting conversation on YouTube yesterday on the Vande Bharat trains and general aspects of high speed railways. Seems there is a lot to be done beyond symbolism and hype.

https://youtu.be/562Y-ZCpIHY

[sa_kiran]

I had the opportunity to travel on 12th Nov, SBC-MYS. I got to know that this was the first run on this sector (The inaugural run on 11th Nov was from SBC to MAS).

The train started at 10:23 (10:25 is the scheduled time) and reached Mysore at 12:03; travel time of 1 hr 40 min.I heard that there are over 130 curves between Mysore and Bangalore. Hence, the speed is limited to around 100 kmph. This top speed achieved by other trains as well. However, they have stops and also stop of crossing by other trains. Hence, they have longer running times.

The compartment that I was in was full, whereas, other compartments were not so full. Overall, it was a good experience and I wish that railways looks at ways of increasing the running speed between Mysore and Bangalore.

I saw a comment about noise insulation. During the ride I was outside the driver cabin and saw a train pass in the opposite direction. I did not hear any noise of that train. So, I suppose that the insulation is pretty good.