Bengaluru-Ernakulam Vande Bharat fully booked for Christmas; Passengers demand more coaches

The Bengaluru-Ernakulam Vande Bharat Express has reached maximum capacity weeks ahead of Christmas, pushing passengers to seek an increase in coaches to manage the festive rush.

With the Christmas season approaching, the Bengaluru-Ernakulam Vande Bharat Express has reached full capacity far ahead of the festive week, leaving many travellers without a ticket. Although Christmas is still over three weeks away, tickets on the route have not only sold out but have also exceeded waiting list limits. This sudden surge has prompted regular passengers to push for urgent expansion of the train’s capacity.

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The daily service, which skips operations only on Wednesdays, has been witnessing heavy demand since it began regular operations on November 11. The train completes its journey in eight hours and forty minutes, covering major transit points across Kerala and Tamil Nadu, including Thrissur, Palakkad, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, and Salem, before reaching Krishnarajapuram and KSR Bengaluru.

Travellers trying to book seats between December 20 and 25 found no availability, and the situation is similar for the return journey from Ernakulam between December 28 and January 4. The complete halt in bookings has caused widespread concern among those planning holiday travel.

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Currently, the train operates with a single rake consisting of seven chair cars and one executive chair car, allowing a maximum of 600 passengers per trip. Passengers argue that increasing the number of coaches from 8 to 16 would double capacity to 1,200 seats, significantly easing festive-season congestion.