Bengaluru: A comfortable Vande Bharat Express ride between Bengaluru and Mangaluru could be right around the corner, with the much-anticipated trials for operating the train along the ghat section taking place in June.According to sources in South Western Railway (SWR), the zone has tentatively proposed carrying out a trial run of the self-propelling train this week. Officials in SWR’s Bengaluru and Mysuru divisions have already been informed.While the terminals for the service are yet to be finalised, the trials will take place between Yeshwantpur and Mangaluru Central stations. An eight-car version of the Vande Bharat trainset retrofitted with an auto emergency brake (AEB) will be deployed for the tests, which will kick off early from Yeshwantpur.As of now, a single-direction run will take around 8.5 hours, during which the train will halt at all its likely stops on the route, such as Hassan, Sakleshpur, and Subrahmanya Road, following a fixed timetable.Leading up to the trials, the railways faced significant challenges in running the train along the route due to the ghat section. The terrain within the ghats is extremely complex, with no approach road to the railway track. It features 57 tunnels, 226 bridges, and 108 sharp curves, and the railways took almost two years to electrify the stretch.As reported by TOI in Feb, despite the Railway Board sanctioning the newly electrified stretch between Sakleshpur and Subrahmanya Road for all other goods and passenger trains, Vande Bharat wasn’t shown the green flag. The Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) flagged that the conventional Vande Bharat trains aren’t equipped with AEB systems. Because of the complexity of the ghat section, which has steep gradients (rise or fall of the track), the 55km stretch mandates AEB, which will limit the loco’s speed to 30kmph, and brakes are automatically applied if it crosses the limit.What’s up next?To solve the problem, the railways chose to retrofit the system in the existing model of Vande Bharat rakes. Once the trials are completed in June, SWR will have to wait for safety certificates before launching commercial operations.During the trial run, SWR will observe the origination, termination, crew interchange, and stoppage timings, and will prepare a report before confirming a final operational timetable. While Mangaluru is one of the most important cities in the state, the entire coastal Karnataka could benefit once the trials are completed.“Now, we will provide Vande Bharat service to the entire coastal Karnataka, all the way from Madgaon (Goa) to Mangaluru and then from Mangaluru to Bengaluru,” railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in an earlier interaction with TOI.
