Chennai-Tirunelveli Vande Bharat Express trains capacity to be doubled to 16 coaches soon

CHENNAI: The highly popular Vande Bharat Express will soon offer double the number of seats on the train between Chennai Egmore to Tirunelveli, with the Indian Railways deciding to extend it to a 16-car rake from the present 8-car composition.

This would benefit the passengers heading to south Tamil Nadu – and other important stations along the way like Madurai and Tiruchy – to travel faster and cozier.

Prabhakar Gunaseelapandian, Deputy Chief Operating Manager (COM), Southern Railway, issued a circular on November 11 for the proposed conversion of Train no 20665/20666 Chennai Egmore – Tirunelveli – Chennai Egmore Vande Bharat Express into a 16-car train.

The transportation branch circular was issued based on the request from the commercial department seeking the conversion of the Vande Bharat trains into 16-car trains in view of high patronage.

The Chennai Egmore – Tirunelveli Vande Bharat Express is one of the most sought-after VB trains with an occupancy rate of around 119 per cent, which was understood to have encouraged the SR management to double the seating capacity.

The operations department has advised the Chief Coaching and Rolling Stock Engineer and Senior Divisional Operational managers of Chennai, Tiruchy, and Madurai to make arrangements to communicate the feasibility at the earliest possible. As per the deputy COM's circular, the primary and safety check maintenance for the train would be done at the Tirunelveli yard.

The Chennai – Tirunelveli Vande Bharat Express under operation is an eight-car train comprising seven chair cars (each with 78 seats) and an executive car that has 56 seats.

Though the SR circular did not mention the coach composition after the capacity doubling, it has been reliably learnt that the headquarters would double the chair car and executive car composition of the train. After doubling, there would be more than 1,100 seats, which is much more than the Shatabdi Express of equal number of coaches, as the latter has a conventional rake.

With the commercial department recommending the capacity addition, it is only a matter of time before the transportation branch fulfills the formalities and attaches additional coaches on the route, which is among the high-demand sectors in the zone.

The express train covers the 650 km distance between Egmore and Tirunelveli at an average speed of 83 km per hour in 7.5 hours.