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.
The country's first semi high-speed train has many features. The doors are fully automatic and there are revolving chairs in the executive class that can rotate up to 180 degrees. ADRM Vikram Singh Rana said that the train will be operated regularly from September 1 and today some passengers, mostly school students got the opportunity to travel free of cost from Meerut railway station. During the inauguration, Meerut MP Arun Govil and other public representatives were present at the railway station.
After departing from Meerut, the Vande Bharat will stop at Moradabad and then Bareilly for five and two minutes respectively. Equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, Vande Bharat train will serve lunch on way to Lucknow and tea and dinner while returning to Meerut. There is also onboard Wi-Fi along with a GPS-based system.
The Meerut-Lucknow Vande Bharat will depart from Meerut railway station at 6:35 am and reach Moradabad at 8:35 am. It will reach Bareilly at 9:56 am and reach Lucknow at 1:45 pm. On its return journey, the train will leave Lucknow at 2:45 pm, then reach Bareilly at 6:02 pm and Moradabad at 7:32 pm.
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