Vande Bharat Express also known as Train 18 announced its arrival on October 5. The first commercial run of the Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express kick started on October 5, 2019. The train was introduced with the ultimate aim of cutting down the travel time between Delhi and Katra, the final station on the way to Vaishno Devi temple, to 8 hours from 12 hours.
Train number ‘22439’ New Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express will start from the New Delhi railway station at 6 am to reach the final destination Katra at 2 pm. The train will operate on all days of the week except Tuesdays.
En route, the train will stop at Ambala Cantt, Ludhiana and Jammu Tawi for 2 minutes each. As far as the return journey is concerned, on the same day, train number 22440 Katra-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express will depart from the Katra railway station at 3 pm to reach the New Delhi railway station at 11 pm. The minimum fare is Rs 1,630 whereas the maximum fare is Rs 3,015.
Meanwhile, the third and new Vande Bharat train hogged the limelight after it has broken the record of bullet trains to reach 100kmph speed from zero in just 52 seconds during the test run, Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.
The train also has an air purification system that can neutralise germs and viruses with 99% effectiveness. The semi-high speed train will operate on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route in the next few weeks.
Announcing the test results, Vaishnaw said, “Vande Bharat train’s third testing got completed on Thursday. It completed 0-100kmph in 52 seconds, while bullet train takes 54. 6 seconds to achieve this speed.
The new train has a maximum design speed of 180kmph while the earlier version could travel at a maximum speed of 160 kmph. This train has several features for a comfortable journey. The quality and riding index has improved. On these parameters, the trainscores 3. 2 while globally the best score is 2. 9. ”