Ever since the highway to Gujarat was dug up and road conditions deteriorated I have wanted to travel to Udvada by the Vande Bharat Express. As I don’t like to get up early in the morning, we took the evening Vande leaving Bombay Central (BC) on Friday, September 6, 2024. It was Behram roz — I follow the Fasli calendar where Hormazd roz and Fravardin mah fall on March 21. Our plan was to depart at 3:45 p.m., reach Vapi at 5.45 p.m and proceed to Udvada by taxi. We were to return the following day, boarding the train at Vapi at 6.15 p.m. and reaching BC at 8:25 p.m.
Since the doors of the Vande Bharat Express open exactly 30 minutes before departure, if one reaches BC an hour early one will have to wait on the dirty platform. The train was good — even the window panes were clean, so the view was excellent. However, I discovered that despite the media hype the Vande Bharat Express is not faster than other trains plying between BC and Vapi. In fact, it takes just as long as the Karnavati Express whose fare is about Rs 200 cheaper. The train reached Vapi 10 minutes late. Fortunately, since I know that Vapi comes after Bhilad and Karambele, we got up just after passing Karambele and prepared to alight.
The Vande Bharat Express
Photo: Wikipedia
On our return journey, the Vande Bharat Express was 10 minutes late arriving at Vapi. Although I had an app to locate the train, it was not very accurate. Fortunately, there was plenty of space for us to sit down at Vapi station as many anxious travelers chose to stand on the platform. The train reached Borivli 20 minutes late with passengers standing in the aisle resulting in dhakka dhukki (jostling). However, it reached BC at the scheduled time.
While going from Udvada to Vapi, our taxi driver suggested we install the Where is My Train app. I did so at Vapi station while waiting for the train and found it useful, better than the NTES app. The Where is My Train shows the location of the train, the position of one’s bogie from the engine as per one’s seat number and the position of the seat inside the train, so that one does not have to search for it after entering the compartment.
The Vande Bharat Express runs between BC and Ahmedabad six days a week. The train leaving BC at 6 a.m. does not run on Wednesdays, while the train leaving BC at 3.45 p.m. does not run on Sundays. The Vande Bharat Express leaving Vapi at 9.25 a.m. does not run on Sundays while the evening train leaving Vapi at 6.15 p.m. does not run on Wednesdays. I hope sharing my experience will be helpful to readers.
RUSTOM A. HAVEWALLA
rustomhavewalla@gmail.com