Vande Bharat Metro: Will these trains get their routes right?
₹8 crore, which is way higher than the second-class coaches of Mail/Express/Ordinary trains and EMU/MEMU trains. It was reported that Vande Bharat Metro trains will be introduced on five routes to begin with: Agra-Mathura (55km), Delhi-Rewari (83km), Lucknow-Kanpur (73km), Tirupati-Chennai (141km), and Bhubaneswar-Balasore (206km).
Although Indian Railways has introduced Vande Bharat trains in 51 Origin-Destination (O-D) pairs so far—some O-D pairs have more than one train and hence more than 80 VB rakes have been introduced—there are at least ten O-D pairs where user patronage is less than 85%. Since Indian Railways claims that it recovers only 47 paise of every ₹1 spent on passenger transport, it must identify O-D pairs with the most potential before introducing premium services—or that ratio would stand to worsen.
Indian Railways may have to evaluate the willingness of passengers to pay, the frequency of the services, their time schedule and number of coaches in a rake before choosing the right O-D pairs for Vande Bharat Metro services. Had it chosen O-D pairs with more than 85% occupancy by means of a study, Vande Bharat services would have added ₹100 crore to its topline annually.
Indian Railways should not make the same mistake it made with Vande Bharat for Vande Bharat Metro services. A systematic study of demand forecasts for various O-D pairs before picking routes would go a long way towards achieving optimal patronage and superior revenue outcomes.
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