16-coach Secunderabad-Tirupati Vande Bharat Express becomes instant hit with passengers

HYDERABAD: Reflecting the huge demand for the Secunderabad-Tirupati-Secunderabad Vande Bharat Express, the first trip of the train with double the number of coaches (from earlier position) and enhanced speed witnessed spontaneous response from rail passengers.

On Wednesday, May 17, 2023, the first trip of the Secunderabad-Tirupati Vande Bharat Express began with 109 percent patronage. Since its introduction the Vande Bharat Express performed well consistently with the patronage of more than 130 percent in both directions.

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To meet the ever-growing demand for the train, Indian Railways has doubled the number of coaches from the earlier composition of eight coaches to 16 coaches from Wednesday. As a result, the seating capacity of the train was more than doubled from 530 to 1,128 seats, including 104 seats in executive class and another 1,024 seats in the chair car. In all 1,228 passengers made bookings for this first trip.

The South Central Railway has also reduced the travel time of the journey in each direction by 15 minutes from Wednesday. As a result, the journey in either direction will now be covered in 8 hrs 15 minutes, instead of the earlier duration of 8 hrs 30 minutes.

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The Secunderabad-Tirupati-Secunderabad Vande Bharat Express train facilitated a faster way of reaching the temple town of Tirupati. The indigenously developed train contained several world-class features like a GPS-based passenger information system, automatic sliding doors, reclining seats, CCTV cameras in all coaches, diffused LED lighting and mobile phone charging points beneath every seat providing better riding comfort.

Arun Kumar Jain, General Manager, South Central Railway (SCR), has said that the addition of the coaches would help the zone in meeting the travel demands of more rail passengers. He added that meeting the demands of the rail passengers had been the top priority of railways and all efforts would be made for meeting their aspirations.