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Bengaluru-Mumbai Vande Bharat Sleeper flagged off: timings, stops and fares from Rs 2,810
Ashwini Vaishnaw flagged off the 16-coach Bengaluru-Mumbai Vande Bharat Sleeper on 1 November. It runs six days a week, leaving Bengaluru at 7:45 pm and reaching Mumbai CSMT at 11:55 am. Fares are reported at Rs 2,810 (3AC), Rs 3,630 (2AC) and Rs 4,450 (1AC); regular service starts 2 November.
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Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw flagged off the Bengaluru–Mumbai Vande Bharat Sleeper from Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal in Bengaluru on Sunday, 1 November. The 16-coach train is run by South Western Railway and links Bengaluru with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai overnight. The inaugural run was due to reach CSMT at 6:15 am on Monday, and regular services start on 2 and 3 November.
The timetable
| Train | From | Departs | To | Arrives | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27652 | SMVT Bengaluru | 7:45 pm | CSMT Mumbai | 11:55 am next day | Six days a week, not Mondays |
| 27651 | CSMT Mumbai | 8:10 pm | SMVT Bengaluru | 12 noon next day | Six days a week, not Tuesdays |
The journey takes about 16 hours 10 minutes from Bengaluru and 15 hours 50 minutes from Mumbai, calculated from the timetable. The reports differ on which direction starts on which day: one says that regular services start on 2 November from Bengaluru and 3 November from Mumbai, and another reverses them in its wording. One report describes the inaugural run as a one-way special numbered 06503, which left Bengaluru at 12:15 pm.
The stops
The train stops at Anantapur, Guntakal, Raichur, Yadgir, Kalaburagi, Solapur, Pune and Kalyan. Headlines in some reports give 8 stops and others 12, depending on how the stations are counted.
One report gives the fares as Rs 2,810 for Third AC, Rs 3,630 for Second AC and Rs 4,450 for First AC. Another report says that the fares have not been notified and gives an approximate range of about Rs 2,684 for Third AC to Rs 4,250 for First AC. The first set is the more specific, and passengers should check the figures with IRCTC and South Western Railway before booking. The reports do not give the number of berths in each class.
Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and H D Kumaraswamy, Ministers of State V Somanna and Shobha Karandlaje, and MPs Tejasvi Surya, P C Mohan and C N Manjunath were at the flag-off. Vaishnaw said that Vande Bharat chair car and sleeper trains are reaching global standards in their categories, and that India will start exporting Vande Bharat trains within three to four years.
The train has a separate toilet inside the locomotive cabin for loco pilots and special facilities to help passengers on the middle and upper berths. Upgraded inter-coach couplers are meant to reduce jerks, and Vaishnaw said that passengers do not experience jerks during the journey. The design was finalised after people with different abilities tested the train for accessibility. He said that the propulsion system and bogie design are upgraded with each Vande Bharat version.
India TV links the launch to a separate report about the Varanasi–New Delhi Vande Bharat Sleeper, which runs six days a week and stops at Prayagraj, Kanpur Central, Aligarh and Ghaziabad before reaching New Delhi. The reports on the Bengaluru service do not give details of other sleeper trains.
The reports found do not give the maximum or average speed of the train, or the number of berths. They do not say how many passengers can travel on each run, and they do not say when the booking window opens for the second direction.
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