Case Study: The Success of Vande Bharat Express in Kerala
Since the 1st Vande Bharat express has been launched in the state of Kerala, there has been a big demand for tickets for the train, the demand which was beyond the capacity of the train. In fact, as the railways took notice of the immense success of the 16 Coach Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod Vande Bharat, they then went onto launching a second 8 coach Vande Bharat, which was also the 1st Saffron Color Vande Bharat.
No.1: White Vande Bharat (16 Coach)
Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod (8 Hours 5 Minutes)
No.2: Saffron Vande Bharat (8 Coach)
Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore (8 Hours 40 Minutes)
Vande Bharat Success Factors
Only 4 Airports in the whole state: The coastal state of Kerala has several major cities with a good distance between them, however, only the top cities of Kerala have an airport for them which are
Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)
Kochi (Cochin)
Kannur (Cannanore)
Kozhikode (Calicut)
Lack of frequent flights: Now with already only 4 airports in the entire state, those 4 airports do not have a frequent service schedule amongst themselves, this leads to shortage of tickets & puts a second thought into flying intercity.
No wide major expressway running through the state: This has been a serious problem for the state. While there has been constant improvement into widening & straightening the major highways such as the NH66 [Kanyakumari-Mumbai Highway] & the other major highways, the roads for most of the stretch are a regular 2 lane road, which does not allow for vehicles to travel at speed.
Lack of safe & reliable buses: Kerala has a large availability of buses running across the state at a frequent basis, however, with the underdeveloped roads & the pressure from bus companies on drivers & buses to operate for over the limit working hours, the intercity bus services become unsafe for travel. Improvements have been made, however the bus industry in Kerala has to go a long way.
No major intercity ferry service: With almost the entire major population centers being located on the coast, water transport would be a very good way to travel, however there are no well known, reliable & frequent ferry services in Kerala.
Shortage of trains as according to KL Population: The Trains running within Kerala are reliable & frequent, however they face the same problem trains face all across India, which is overcrowding. Many times, even in AC coaches, there are standing passengers for short journeys.
Response from Indian Railways
By witnessing an immense success of the 1st Vande Bharat in Kerala, the railways decided to launch a second Vande Bharat Express, which was the 8 Coach Saffron Vande Bharat Express which originally was routed between Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod but then later extended to Mangaluru.
This new train was also running all 7 days of the week which is quite unique considering that the other Vande Bharat Trains in India only operate for 6 days a week.
The Second Vande Bharat starts from the opposite direction (opposite of the 1st Vande Bharat) which means that in the morning, 1 train leaves from Mangaluru & 1 from Thiruvananthapuram, providing for Morning & Evening travel for passengers travelling in both directions.
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