TVM-Kannur in 7 hours 10 mins! Indian railways completes first trial run of Vande Bharat in Kerala

The train departed from Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway station at 5.10 am.  

Thiruvananthapuram: The Indian Railways on Monday successfully completed the trial run of Kerala's first allotted Vande Bharat Express from Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur. The train took just 7 hours and 10 minutes as compared to other local trains which usually take more than 7 hours. The train departed from Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway Station at 5.10 am.

Vande Bharat is expected to return from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram at 2.30 pm.

The following are the stations that the Vande Bharat train stops at along with their arrival times:

Thiruvananthapuram to Kollam: 50 minutes (Arrival- 6.00 am)

Thiruvananthapuram to Kottayam: 2 hours 18 minutes (7.28 am)

Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam North: 3 hours 18 minutes (8.28 am)

Thiruvananthapuram to Thrissur: 4 hours 27 minutes (9.37 am)

Thiruvananthapuram to Kozhikode: 6 hours 7 minutes (11.17 am)

Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur: 7 hours 10 minutes (12.20 pm)

Currently, the fastest train from  Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur is Rajdhani Express. Rajdhani Express departs Thiruvananthapuram at 7.15 am and reaches Kannur at 3.12 am. The train takes about eight hours to reach Kannur. However, Vande Bharat Express reached an hour earlier than Rajdhani in the trial run. 

Visuals from earlier today

Meanwhile, the schedule of the train is expected to be officially announced by the Railways today. This notice will contain the official announcement of train departure time, stops and fares from Thiruvananthapuram.

High officials of the Thiruvananthapuram Division and various engineering department authorities also joined the trial run to Kannur.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the express on April 25. Vande Bharat Express will operate between Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur. It will have stops at Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam Town, Thrissur, Tirur, Kozhikode and Kannur.

The Vande Bharat Express is an electric multiple-unit train operated by Indian Railways. It was designed by RDSO and manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), located in Chennai. The Vande Bharat can reach a maximum speed of 180 km/h (110 mph). It can accelerate to a speed of 100 km/h (62 mph) in 54.6 seconds and reach its maximum speed in 145 seconds.