Vande Bharat speed down from 84 kmph to 76 kmph in 3 years

New Delhi: The average speed of Vande Bharat trains has decreased from 84.48 kmph in 2020-21 to 76.25 kmph in 2023-24, the railway ministry said in a response to an RTI query. Railway officials said not only Vande Bharats but many other trains are also maintaining cautionary speed at places were “huge infrastructural work” is underway.

“Besides this, some Vande Bharat trains have been launched in difficult terrain areas where there are speed restrictions due to geographical reasons or extreme weather conditions,” a railway official said. Citing the example of the Vande Bharat train between Mumbai CSMT and Madgaon, an official of the Central Railway Zone said, “Most of the Konkan railway area is ‘ghat’ section where trains pass through low height mountain ranges. It is a difficult terrain area where increasing speed could compromise safety.”

“Things become very challenging during the monsoon season when we have to keep the maximum speed for all trains at 75 kmph,” he added. The RTI applicant, Madhya Pradesh-based Chandra Shekhar Gaur, said, “The data, obtained through the RTI, shows that the average speed of Vande Bharat trains was 84.48 in 2020-21, which decreased to 81.38 kmph in 2022-23.

It further deteriorated in 2023-24 to 76.25.” Launched on February 15, 2019, the Vande Bharat is a semi-high speed train which can run at a maximum speed of 160 kmph. However, it cannot go beyond 130 kmph anywhere in the country, except on the Delhi-Agra route, due to unsuitable track conditions.

“There are certain segments of tracks between Delhi and Agra which were developed in 2016 for India’s first semi-high speed train Gatiman Express to run at 160 kmph. Only on those segments, the Vande Bharat also runs at 160 kmph speed. Rest of the places, its maximum speed is either 130 or less than,” another railway official said. He said the railways has been upgrading tracks to meet the speed requirement of the Vande Bharat and “it is because of these reasons there are cautions at various places”.