A Vande Bharat Express between Mumbai and Goa is scheduled to commence from next month. The Express will leave Mumbai at around 6 am reaching Madgaon at 12.30 pm and return the same day, much like the Tejas Express and Jan Shatabdi Express.
As a regular traveller on this route I am of the opinion that high speed trains are not desirable on the single line route. Already the route is saturated, with too many crossings and resultant delays.
Other trains will get further delayed as they will have to make way for a premium train like Vande Bharat.
While there is a big demand for tickets all year round, the Tejas Express runs relatively empty except during summer holidays, Christmas break and extended weekends. The reason being that an AC chair car ticket by Tejas costs around Rs 1,500, whereas an AC chair car ticket by Jan Shatabdi Express/ Mandovi Express costs Rs 1000. Hence the Vande Bharat Express will fare no better than the Tejas Express and will run empty.
The Vande Bharat Express train to Goa will be no more than an ego trip for the Indian Railways.
My take: Scrap Tejas or Vande Bharat and add 5 AC chair car coaches to the very popular Jan Shatabdi Express which has only 3 AC coaches out of 16 coaches and hence has scope for expansion up to 22 coaches in total.
