The average occupancy of the first eight pairs of Vande Bharat trains stands at 99.97% with at least five of these pairs having more than 100% occupancy, official data shows, settling doubts on the popularity of these trains.
The data pertains to trains running between April 1, 2022 and February 8, 2023. For trains that were launched later this financial year, the data period considered is from the first commercial trip till February 8.
The ministry data, seen by News18, shows that the average occupancy of only three pairs of Vande Bharat trains was below 100% – New Delhi-Amb Andaura, Chennai-Mysore, and Bilaspur-Nagpur. These have occupancy between 52% and 78%.
There are currently 10 pairs of Vande Bharat trains running across the country, with two of these inaugurated on February 10.
Among the most popular trains were Mumbai-Gandhinagar (126.43%) and Gandhinagar-Mumbai (127.67%). Trains with more than 100% occupancy included passengers in the waitlist as well. This pair was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 30, 2022.
“The demand for this train is so high that it has a long waiting list. This shows how successful this train is,” a ministry official told News18.
Next in line is the Varanasi-New Delhi (125.89%) and New Delhi-Varanasi (121.51%) train inaugurated on February 15, 2019. This was the first pair of trains that was inaugurated.
The second pair of Vande Bharat was inaugurated in October 2019 between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra. The train towards Katra had occupancy of 106.35% while that running between Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra and New Delhi had occupancy of 104.89% between April and February during this financial year, the data shows.
Inaugurated on December 30, 2022, the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri (103.67%) and New Jalpaiguri-Howrah (102.01%) are also running at full capacity. Further, the latest edition in the eight pairs – the Vande Bharat between Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad (106.18%) and Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam (124.5%) are also witnessing full house. This was inaugurated in January 2023.
The Vande Bharat trains running with lowest occupancy were Bilaspur-Nagpur (55.25%) and Nagpur-Bilaspur (52.86%). This train was flagged off on December 11, 2022.
Further, the Amb Andaura-New Delhi had an occupancy of 57.18%. On the other hand, the train running from New Delhi had an occupancy of 77.92%, data shows. This pair of trains was inaugurated on October 13, 2022.
The Chennai-Mysore (78.12%) and Mysore-Chennai (68.26%) also have a lower occupancy when compared to the overall average. This was flagged off on November 11, 2022.
The latest addition were trains between Mumbai and Sainagar Shirdi and between Mumbai and Solapur inaugurated on February 10.
Mumbai-Solapur train more popular than CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi
Last week, Maharashtra became the first state in India to have intra-state Vande Bharat trains. The Prime Minister flagged off two trains from Mumbai. One of these was between Mumbai and Sainagar Shirdi and the other between Mumbai and Solapur.
According to data up to February 13, the CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat had four trips — two on Sunday and two on Monday with an average occupancy of 79%. The Ministry data seen by News18 shows that the CSMT to Sainagar Shirdi had the occupancy of 73% and Sainagar Shirdi to CSMT 85% during the two days.
“The train has a passenger capacity of 1,128 per trip. In four trips, the capacity was 4,512 passengers. The actual occupancy was 3,565 passengers,” a ministry official told News18, demanding anonymity.
For the CSMT-Solapur Vande Bharat train, they said there have been six services up to Monday – two per day starting from Saturday. “The average occupancy was 87.5%,” the official said.
For CSMT to Solapur, the occupancy was 93% and for Solapur to CSMT Vande Bharat, the occupancy was 82%. “The train has a passenger capacity of 1,128 per trip. In six trips, the capacity was 6,768 passengers. The actual occupancy was 5,932 passengers,” the official added.
The popularity of these trains have been questioned as they were charging more when compared to other trains. The Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi train is charging Rs 975 for the chair car class and completes the journey in 5.20 hours. While no other train is running between CSMT and Shirdi, there are two trains from Dadar. Dadar-SNSI SuperFast Express, which completes the journey in six hours, charges Rs 645 for third AC class.
For Solapur, the Vande Bharat is charging Rs 1,300 for a trip of 6.35 hours. While CSMT Gadag Express, which also runs between CSMT and Solapur, charges Rs 645 for chair car and Rs 1,100 for second AC and completes the journey in 7.50 hours.
“We can see how popular these Vande Bharat trains are. The occupancy of these trains in the coming days is expected to go up further with more and more people getting to know about them,” the official added.
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