Two Vande Bharat Sleeper Trains Were Flagged Off in Two Days, Varanasi to New Delhi on 31 October and Bengaluru to Mumbai on 1 November 2026, Taking the Indian-Built Overnight Trainset to Three Routes

Indian Railways flagged off two Vande Bharat Sleeper trains on consecutive days. On Saturday 31 October 2026 the Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, flagged off the Varanasi to New Delhi train from Banaras station, according to All India Radio (AIR). On Sunday 1 November Vaishnaw flagged off the Bengaluru to Mumbai train at Sir M. Visvesvaraya Terminal in Bengaluru, the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s release agency, reports.

Both are 16-coach, fully air-conditioned trains with a capacity of 823 passengers. The Ministry’s release of 1 November says the Bengaluru service follows the Howrah to Guwahati sleeper service of January 2026 and the Varanasi flag-off “yesterday”, which makes three sleeper corridors. The Statesman quotes Vaishnaw in Bengaluru as saying, “This will be the third Vande Bharat service.” Everything below is as of 2 November 2026.

Varanasi to New Delhi, overnight in about nine and a half hours

PIB’s release of 30 October gives the timetable. The train leaves Varanasi at 20:50 and reaches New Delhi at 06:10 the next morning, which is 9 hours 20 minutes. In the other direction it leaves New Delhi at 21:40 and reaches Varanasi at 07:10, which is 9 hours 30 minutes. It stops at Prayagraj, Kanpur Central, Aligarh and Ghaziabad. The United News of India (UNI) agency gave the train numbers as 27421 for Varanasi to New Delhi and 27422 for the return.

The Ministry compares it with the existing Shiv Ganga Express and says the new train is faster by 55 minutes from Varanasi and by 35 minutes from New Delhi. It runs six days a week, except Fridays from Varanasi and Saturdays from New Delhi.

AIR gives the coach layout as one First AC, four AC 2-tier and eleven AC 3-tier coaches, 823 passengers in all. It reports Vaishnaw saying the train would suit middle-class families, and that two new MEMU services (short-distance electric multiple-unit trains) linking Varanasi were flagged off at the same ceremony. The Statesman, which called it the country’s second sleeper Vande Bharat, reports him saying passengers could sleep in Varanasi and wake up in Delhi.

Bengaluru to Mumbai, about 1,118 km in about 16 hours

PIB’s release of 1 November lists the Bengaluru to Mumbai timetable. The train leaves SMVT Bengaluru at 19:45 and reaches Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in Mumbai at 11:55 the next day, which is 16 hours 10 minutes. Returning, it leaves CSMT at 20:10 and reaches Bengaluru at 12:00, which is 15 hours 50 minutes. It runs six days a week, except Mondays from Bengaluru and Tuesdays from Mumbai.

The route passes through three states. PIB names Anantapur and Guntakal in Andhra Pradesh, Raichur, Yadgir, Wadi and Kalaburagi in Karnataka, and Solapur, Pune and Kalyan in Maharashtra. AIR’s list of halts is the same without Wadi. Business Standard and Swarajya both put the distance at about 1,118 km. The Statesman gives the train numbers as 27652 from Bengaluru and 27651 from Mumbai, and says South Western Railway operates and maintains it.

In PIB’s account, Vaishnaw said the route serves parts of north Karnataka that previously lacked access to premium trains. The Prime Minister, in a social media post that AIR reported, said the train would benefit Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, especially young people, IT professionals and students. The Statesman reports that the launch fell on Kannada Rajyotsava, Karnataka’s state formation day.

Business Standard and Swarajya report that regular runs start on 2 November from Mumbai and on 3 November from Bengaluru. That matches the days off in PIB’s schedule.

What is inside the trainset

PIB’s 30 October release lists the features. The body is austenitic stainless steel and meets the EN 15227 crash standard. Fire safety is graded EN 45545 hazard level 3, with fire barrier doors at the end walls and a smoke and fire detection system. The propulsion is under-slung, meaning mounted beneath the coaches, and the train has regenerative braking. The release also lists automatic sliding doors, CCTV, toilets with vacuum evacuation, Wi-Fi, charging sockets and USB ports, and a hot-water shower in First AC.

PIB’s January release says the trainset can run at up to 180 km/h and that it carries the indigenous Kavach automatic train protection system. The 30 October release names a Train Collision Avoidance System. AIR reported on 31 December 2025 that the final high-speed trial of the “indigenously designed and manufactured” trainset reached 180 km/h on the Kota to Nagda section.

The Statesman gives the berth split on the Bengaluru train as 611 in AC 3-tier, 188 in AC 2-tier and 24 in First AC, which adds up to the 823. The Ministry’s January release promised region-specific menus on the first route, Assamese from Guwahati and Bengali from Kolkata.

From a September 2024 unveiling to three corridors

Vaishnaw unveiled the first sleeper trainset at BEML’s Bengaluru complex on 1 September 2024. PIB’s release from that day says BEML, which it calls India’s leading rail and metro manufacturer, designed and manufactured it, and that the trainset was built in nine months. BEML’s chairman, Shantanu Roy, called it a landmark for India’s transport infrastructure.

The Ministry’s January 2026 release says trials, testing and certification were complete and the first service would run between Howrah and Guwahati. The Prime Minister flagged it off from Malda Town on 17 January 2026, according to PIB’s release of that day, and also virtually flagged off the return train from Guwahati. On 21 January AIR reported the Ministry as saying all seats on the first commercial run were booked within a few hours of ticket reservation opening.

The 2026 releases for the Varanasi and Bengaluru trains do not name the factory that built those rakes, so tuput does not attribute them to BEML.

What the Railways says comes next

At the Bengaluru ceremony Vaishnaw said, in PIB’s account, that Karnataka’s next sleeper would start in Bengaluru, connect the northern part of the state around Hubballi and go on to Pune and Mumbai. No date was given. He also said a Vande Bharat service between Bengaluru and Mangaluru was expected within a few weeks, after electrification and testing finish. The existing chair-car Vande Bharat trains are covered in the Vande Bharat numbers, and the wiring work behind routes like this is in how Indian Railways electrified in a decade.

Business Standard reported on 2 November that Vaishnaw said India plans to begin exporting complete Vande Bharat trains in three to four years. The same report quotes him saying components, including propulsion systems and bogies, already go to countries such as Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and the United States. It adds that, per the Ministry’s reply to Parliament in March 2026, rolling stock and component exports were about Rs 26,000 crore between 2016-17 and January 2026.

Details that differ between reports

Fares are not in the Ministry releases tuput read, and news outlets give different figures for each class, some of them marked as estimates before launch. IRCTC, the Railways’ ticketing site, is the place to check a fare.

The time saved on Bengaluru to Mumbai is reported in two ways. Business Standard quotes Minister of State V. Somanna saying nearly eight hours less than existing trains. Swarajya says about six hours, against services that generally take 22 to 24 hours. On the first route, the Ministry’s 14 January release expected about 14 hours against about 17 hours for the Saraighat Express, and its 17 January release gave a reduction of around 2.5 hours.

Tuput found no passenger figures for either new service as of 2 November 2026.