It is unfortunate that society, as a whole, is pressuring the government to include additional stations in the stoppage list of Vande Bharat trains to offer assistance to more people. While this may appear to be a valid concern initially, succumbing to this pressure could lead to undesirable consequences. If the government or the relevant railway authorities yield to these demands, it won’t be long before the travel time of Vande Bharat trains matches that of existing express or superfast trains. This outcome would undermine the intended purpose of providing state-of-the-art convenience and exemplary travel time between the source station and the destination.
In this regard, the protest held by the Congress Party activists in Udhampur seeking stoppage for Vande Bharat train at this station is unjustified and should not have been endorsed by the meaningful citizens because the specialty of Vande Bharat trains is the guarantee of less consumption of time in ferrying passengers to their destinations.
Already, Katra- New Delhi Vande Bharat Train has added a few stations in its new stoppage list adding more time to the journey thus if the sequence continues the train will gradually turn into the normal rake of trains which should not be the case. The political parties whether in power or in opposition should shun this culture of pressurizing the government to change the status of trains as this is not in the interest of the country?
It is pertinent to mention that Vande Bharat Trains become efficient only due to less stoppage time and very less stoppage at stations falling in the way as the speed of the train is not the only factor behind less time taken in completing the journey although top speed time is more than compared to other trains and in some cases extraordinary speed has also been achieved to ensure time efficacy.
There is a need to spread the narrative under right perspective so that Vande Bharat trains running across J&K could maintain their supremacy through the inherent qualities which they offer as stipulated by the concerned authorities when these special trains were envisaged for adding comfort and time efficiency into the travel on rails.
