How successful is Gujarat’s first Vande Bharat express, occupancy-wise?

Gandhinagar: Among all Vande Bharat trains operating across India, the second most successful pair of trains in terms of occupancy are those operating on Gandhinagar – Mumbai Central – Gandhinagar route. While Gandhinagar – Mumbai Central Vande Bharat trains operate at 134% occupancy, the Mumbai Central – Gandhinagar Vande Bharat trains operate at 129% occupancy rate. The only route of Vande Bharat where occupancy is even higher than Gujarat is Kasaragod – Trivandrum, with 183% occupancy, followed by Trivandrum – Kasaragod route which has 176% occupancy.

Vande Bharat Express trains, the fastest passenger trains in the country run in all states that have electrified-railway tracks, with a maximum permissible speed of up to 160 kmph. The data available here shows the occupancy of seats in 23 pairs of Vande Bharat Express trains. Four trains are launched after the release of this data recently.

Vande Bharat train route Occupancy %
Kasaragod-Trivandrum 183
Trivandrum-Kasaragod 176
Gandhinagar-Mumbai Central 134
Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar 129
Varanasi-New Delhi 128
Ranchi-Patna 127
Patna-Ranchi 125
New Delhi-Varanasi 124
Mumbai-Sholapur 111
Howrah-Jalpaiguri 108
Dehradun-Delhi 105
Sholapur-Mumbai 104
Jalpaiguri-Howrah 103
Delhi Cantonment-Ajmer 83
Ajmer-Delhi Cantonment 60

It’s worth noting that when India was planning to introduce the bullet train (high-speed train), several routes were identified but after all scrutiny, the route connecting Sabarmati to Mumbai was found most feasible and commercially viable. Therefore the bullet train was approved for only this route to start with. The route covers major cities like Vadodara and Surat apart from Mumbai and Ahmedabad on both ends. The route has also several towns that have 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh around population, such as Nadiad, Anand, Bharuch, Valsad, and Vapi. However Vande Bharat trains on Gandhinagar – Mumbai Central route stop only at Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Vapi, and Borivali.  DeshGujarat