Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat Express likely to reduce travel time by 45 mins hours; may launch next month

The Mumbai-Goa Vande Bharat trial will start today, May 16, which will be followed by an official launch soon. The train is expected to cut travel time by at least 45 minutes as compared to Tejas Express.

A senior official said, "Our tentative plan is to have morning departure from CSMT around 6 am so it can reach in the afternoon at Madgaon, from where it will resume its return journey the same day to CSMT, where it expected to arrive close to midnight."

Currently, Mumbai has three Vande Bharat trains; Mumbai Central, from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar Capital; Mumbai to Sainagar Shirdi and Mumbai to Solapur Vande Bharat Express trains. 

This will be the fourth Vande Bharat semi-high-speed train that will start operating soon as the trial starts today.

Last month, the electrification of the Mumbai-Goa railway route was completed, and this new train service will be introduced following an inspection of the route.

Vande Bharat trains can travel at a top speed of 180 km/h. In addition, these cutting-edge trains have bio-vacuum restrooms, automatic doors, wi-fi, and regenerative braking systems in addition to GPS-based passenger information systems.

According to an RTI filed, Vande Bharat Express has been running at an average speed of around 83 kmph over the last two years due to poor track conditions while having a permissible top speed of 130 kmph for commercial services.

Madhya Pradesh-based Chandra Shekhar Gaur, last month, filed an RTI which mentioned that the average speed of Vande Bharat is lower than the permissible top speed of 130km/hour for commercial services.

The average speed of the semi-high-speed train was 84.48 kmph in 2021-22 and 81.38 kmph in 2022-23.

Mumbai CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Express runs at the lowest average speed of around 64 kmph. In comparison, the country's first Vande Bharat Express train from New Delhi to Varanasi has the fastest average speed of 95 kmph, this train was launched in 2019.

Officials said the average speed of Vande Bharat trains is better than Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains due to their faster acceleration/deceleration.