With a Vande Bharat Express rake that was brought to Kochuveli earlier this week being taken to Mangaluru on Thursday, possibly for operating on the Mysore-Chennai route, the probability of a Vande Bharat Express service on the high-in-demand Ernakulam-Bengaluru route looks bleak in the immediate future.
Commuters from Kerala will thus in all probability have to contend with the announced extension of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod Vande Bharat Express (through Alappuzha) to Mangaluru, it is learnt.
Yet another demand was to extend the Bengaluru-Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express to Ernakulam, to improve its patronage. With the pair of Vande Bharat trains operating in Kerala having approximately 150% occupancy, thanks to the average speed of express trains in the State hovering at around 50 kmph, there was also a demand to extend the Goa-Mangaluru Vande Bharat Express to either Kozhikode or Ernakulam. The Goa train has been operating with relatively low occupancy.
