New Vande Bharat Express: A boon for Mangaluru, but a long haul for Bengaluru -Goa

mangaloretoday.com

Mangaluru, November 10, 2026: The proposed Vande Bharat Express connecting Bengaluru with Goa via coastal Karnataka has drawn mixed reactions, with the improved connectivity for Mangaluru being welcomed but the long travel time to Goa raising concerns.

The Railway Board, on October 30, notified the introduction of the semi-high-speed service between Yeshwantpur and Madgaon via Mangaluru Junction.

The new service, however, will bypass Mangaluru Central, sparking disappointment among passengers who have been using the existing Mangaluru Central-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express.

As reported in August, the Railways plans to introduce the new service by extending the existing Mangaluru Central-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express (20645/20646), which will be discontinued.


According to the notified timetable, train No. 26655 will depart from Yeshwantpur at 7.35 am, reach Mangaluru Junction at 3.05 pm and arrive at Madgaon at 8.55 pm. In the return direction, train No. 26656 will leave Madgaon at 8.20 am, reach Mangaluru Junction at 1.50 pm and arrive at Yeshwantpur at 9.15 pm.

The train will operate from Yeshwantpur on Wednesdays and from Madgaon and Mangaluru Junction on Thursdays.

In a first for a Vande Bharat chair-car service, two rakes will be deployed for the route.

One will be the existing Mangaluru-Madgaon rake, while the other will be an additional rake, as the extended service is set to become the country’s longest Vande Bharat chair-car route. Both rakes are expected to have eight coaches each.

The Yeshwantpur-Mangaluru Junction journey will take seven hours and 30 minutes, approximately 90 minutes less than the fastest existing train service on the route.

This is expected to benefit passengers travelling between Bengaluru and Mangaluru.

However, the Mangaluru-Madgaon section will take an hour longer than the existing Vande Bharat service. With the entire journey from Yeshwantpur to Madgaon taking around 13 hours, questions have been raised over the practicality of operating such a long-distance route with a chair-car train.

K.N. Krishna Prasad of Karnataka Railway Vedike attributed the extended journey time to the single-line railway section along the route.



He said the longer travel time between Mangaluru and Madgaon was also due to revised timings designed to accommodate other trains operating on the section.

"It will be a good train service between Bengaluru and Mangaluru, but extending it all the way to Goa makes the journey too long," he observed.

The actual date of commencement of the new service remains unclear.

However, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has indicated that the train is expected to be introduced within a few weeks.