Railways has increased the route of the second Vande Bharat train of Uttar Pradesh. Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat route has been extended to Prayagraj.
At present this train runs from Gorakhpur to Lucknow Junction (Up-Down). This is the 25th Vande Bharat train of the country. It is operated and maintained by North Eastern Railway Zone. This train was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 7 July 2023.
Now this train will run from Prayagraj-Gorakhpur-Prayagraj. This train will travel a distance of 355 kilometers in one direction. It will take 7 hours 25 minutes to complete the journey. This will be the fastest train running on this route. Before Vande Bharat, the fastest train on this route was LTT-GKP Superfast and Chaurichaura Express. Both trains complete their journey in 7 hours 30 minutes and 9 hours 5 minutes respectively.
Gorakhpur-Prayagraj-Gorakhpur Vande Bharat (22549/22550) will operate 6 days a week . This train will not run only on Saturdays. There will be 8 coaches in this train. Like the rest of Vande Bharat, it will have AC chaircar and executive car. The total capacity of this train is 530 passengers. Talking about timing, this train will leave from Gorakhpur at 06:05 am as before and will reach Lucknow at 10:20 am.
After this, it will leave from Lucknow for Prayagraj at 10:35 am and will reach Prayagraj at 1:35 pm. In return, the train will leave from Prayagraj at 3:15 pm and will reach Lucknow by 6:15 pm. It will leave Lucknow at 6:30 pm and reach Gorakhpur by 10:40 pm. This will be 40 minutes earlier than its current time.
Increase in demand:
If reports are to be believed, earlier there was not much demand for Vande Bharat on this route but now it is increasing. The seats in Vande Bharat going from Gorakhpur to Lucknow are often full. However, Vande Bharat coming from Lucknow to Gorakhpur is not seeing much demand right now. Whereas 3 trains going from Gorakhpur to Prayagraj run only through Dadar, Durg and Chaurichaura. Therefore, now it has been decided to run Vande Bharat on this route.
