Vande Bharat Express is a medium to long-distance semi-high speed superfast express service train. It is operated by Indian Railways. It is a reserved, air-conditioned chair car service. It connects cities that are less than 800 km apart or take less than ten hours to travel. This train was a part of the 'Make in India' initiative by the government. It entered commercial service on 15th February 2019.
Additionally, it is hailed as India's first self-propelled, engineless train. It has two classes of accommodation including AC Executive Class and the AC chair being the other. The executive class coach can seat 52 passengers whereas the chair car coaches can seat 78 passengers per coach.
These coaches are air conditioned. They are equipped with electric outlets, reading lights, CCTV cameras, automatic doors, bio-vacuum toilets, Sensor-based water taps and Passenger information system as well.
The first commercial Vande Bharat train was from Delhi to Varanasi. Following this, the Indian Railway also launched a Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat train in order to cut down travel time from 12 hours to just 8 hours.
Additionally, Vande Bharat trains were also launched on routes including Delhi-Amritsar, Mumbai-Gandhinagar, Chennai-Mysore and Mumbai-Shirdi.
How to book tickets for Vande Bharat Express online?
- Passengers who want to purchase Vande Bharat train tickets can either book the tickets from the counters at Indian Railways' stations, they can visit the IRCTC web portal or they can book the tickets through the IRCTC Rail Connect app.
- Passengers need to log in to the existing IRCTC account or create a new account by following the steps if they are not registered yet.
- Following this, passengers can go to "Book your ticket" section and fill out the "From" and "To" stations.
- Passengers can choose a specific departure date and select Vande Bharat Express Train.
- After this, passengers can choose either "Executive" or "AC Chair" in the coach type.
- Now, passengers need to add their details and review them before proceeding.
- Following this, passengers can make the payment for the tickets.