Meerut (Uttar Pradesh): A huge crowd had gathered at Meerut city railway station on Saturday to witness the inauguration of a new Vande Bharat train that was flagged off on a virtual mode by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Delhi. This train will ply between Meerut and Lucknow and is the sixth Vande Bharat train of the state.
This semi high-speed Vande Bharat Express will cover a distance of 560 km in 7 hours 10 minutes. On the first day, around 200 children from four private schools were taken on a ride free of cost. This train will start plying from Sunday and will run six days a week except Tuesday. This train running six days' a week except Tuesday, is the country's first engineless train.
This new Vande Bharat train will ply from Meerut to Lucknow via Moradabad and Bareilly. The existing five Vande Bharat trains are Delhi-Varanasi, Lucknow-Gorakhpur, Ayodhya-Prayagraj, Lucknow-Agra and Lucknow-Jhansi.
Presently, there are only a two trains connecting Meerut to Lucknow. These are Nauchandi Express and Rajya Rani Express.
The Meerut-Lucknow Vande Bharat has eight AC chair car bogies and passengers can travel in general chair car or executive class. The chair car fare ranges from Rs 920 to 930 and the executive class, fare is between Rs 1590 and 1610.