The Bengaluru – Mumbai Vande Bharat Sleeper

Indian Railways has announced that the third Vande Bharat Sleeper (VBSL) on the network will start service between Mumbai and Bengaluru. This will be the first Vande Bharat Sleeper train for South India and the first one outside the New Delhi – Varanasi route. As of the information available as of now, the inaugural run is expected to happen on November 1, 2026 which is also Karnataka Rajyotsava or the Karnataka state formation day from both Bangalore and Mumbai as a special service. The actual commercial run will commence from the next day. The train will be operated by the Bengaluru division of the South Western Railway (SWR) using two dedicated 16-car Vande Bharat Sleeper rakes that will be based at the Bengaluru SBC depot.

27652/27651 SMVT Bengaluru – Mumbai CSMT – SMVT Bengaluru Vande Bharat Sleeper Superfast Express (SWR)

Divn: SBC | 16 coaches | Distance: 1113 km | Halts: 8 | Time: 16h 10m | Avg Speed: 69 kph | No service: Mon/Tue

Detailed Timetable and Schedule

The 27652 Vande Bharat Sleeper to Mumbai will depart from SMV Terminal Bengaluru SMVB every day of the week except on Mondays at 1945 (7:45 pm) to reach reach Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus CSMT at 1155 (11:55 am) the next day. On its return journey, the 27651 Bengaluru Vande Bharat Sleeper train will leave Mumbai CSMT at 2010 (8:10 pm) every night except on Tuesdays to arrive at SMVT Bengaluru SMVB at 1200 at noon the next day. The detailed timetable for both services is given below.

Route and Stoppages

There was a lot of speculation as of which route the new Vande Bharat Sleeper would take. Would it be via the Hubli – Miraj route which passes through the heartland of Karnataka but is longer, has more ghat sections and is less speed-rated, or would it be via Dharmavaram – Guntakal – Wadi via the old trunk line which passes through Telangana and Maharashtra while briefly re-entering Karnataka only for Raichur and Kalaburagi but is shorter, faster and more direct? It looks like Guntakal route has won for now, with the VB Sleeper following the route of the Udyan Express. From Bangalore it will head north via the Baiyappanahalli-Thanisandra bypass line to reach Yelahanka (no stop) where it will join the Yeshwanpur – Dharmavaram – Guntakal line, and from Guntakal it will run via the Chennai – Mumbai trunk line to head further north towards Raichur and Wadi, from where the line turns north-westerly to reach Pune and finally Mumbai. The train will cover 1113 kilometers in total though the states of Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra.

The Bengaluru – Mumbai VB Sleeper will have commercial stoppages at Anantapur, Guntakal, Raichur, Yadgir, Kalaburagi (Gulbarga), Solapur, Pune and Kalyan on both sides of its run.

Accommodation

The Vande Bharat trains are technically MEMU train sets with a fixed configuration of coaches and distributed traction power. This means that they do not have locomotives (engines) but have motors attached to bogies (wheel sets) distributed throughout the train. The equipment used to feed power to the bogies is also distributed throughout the train. The regular Vande Bharat day trains and Vande Bharat sleeper trains only differ in the accommodation they provide.

The 27652/27651 Bengaluru-Mumbai Vande Bharat Sleeper service will be run using two 16-car VB Sleeper (VBSL) rakes that are fully air-conditioned and fully reserved with only sleeping accommodation consisting of 11 AC 3 tier coaches (B1-B11) with a total of 611 berths, 4 AC 2 tier coaches (A1-A4) with 188 berths available and one AC First Class coach (H1) with 24 berths. This 16-car Vande Bharat Sleeper hence has a total capacity of 823 berths available for commercial passengers. The coach composition of the 16 car VB Sleeper rake used for the Bengaluru – Mumbai Vande Bharat service is as follows.

The third row denotes number of berths in the coach and the fourth row shows the type of the coach. MC means the coach is a Motor Car with motors on its bogies (wheels) driving the train forward while TC means it is a Trailer Car or just an ordinary coach with no motors and is just being pulled along. DTC means the coach is a Driving Trailer Car present at the either ends of the train (with a driving cab) which also does not have motors. If you are wondering, 3 tier AC accommodation occupies the remaining part of the driving cab coach.

Pricing (Ticket Charges)

The fares for the Bengaluru-Mumbai Vande Bharat Sleeper and comparative fares for the regular Udyan Express on the same route are given in the table below. The fare is for the end-to-end Bengaluru-Mumbai journey. Charges to intermediate stations will reduce as per distance. For example, the Bengaluru-Pune 3AC fare on the VB Sleeper will be Rs.2330. The VB Sleeper class of trains do not allow RAC or Tatkal Ticketing.

The Vande Bharat Sleeper Class charges a hefty premium compared to other trains on the same route. The AC 3 tier fare on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route is nearly double that of the Udyan express, though the difference in fare reduces with increase in class of travel.

A few remarks and observations about the Bangalore Mumbai VB Sleeper

The timetable of the new SBC-CSTM-SBC Vande Bharat Sleeper is slightly disappointing. The first is that it is slated to depart from the Bangalore SMV Terminal which has terrible connectivity infrastructure instead of the centrally located Bangalore City Jn. It is unbelievable that SWR and Bangalore division could not find a slot at SBC for their most premium train! The departure and arrival times at both ends are neither here nor there. They should’ve either departed later at night (between 9 and 10) or arrived early in the morning at both ends. To reach SMVT at 7:30 one would need to leave from a place around 15 km away at around 5:30. It arrives at midday which means that half a day is already gone. This timetable ensures that passengers will lose nearly two days travelling. If they had stuck to the earlier timetable (10 pm departure at both ends) passengers would’ve lost only one day. It is however the nearly perfect timetable for Pune though, which sees a late night departure and a morning arrival.

The timetable has also messed up the stoppage pattern. There was no need for stops at Yadgir or Anantapur. Dharmavaram and Wadi are added in as technical halts but they will very well be converted into commercial stops later. Also, why have technicals halt at these stations when the next commercial halts are barely 30-40 km away? However, what the officials at Indian Railways still don’t understand is that trains should now be given more stoppages within their origin and destination cities rather than outstation towns, especially on trains like this one that will have more than 80% of passengers travelling end-to-end. Cities have grown and spread out, and the majority of the population does not live near the central stations anymore. What used to be the outskirts of the city have grown into extensive urban agglomerations with populations in the hundreds of thousands. Indian Railways should start considering mandatory stoppages on the agglomeration outskirts of major cities as that is where large populations now live. Yelahanka is one such in this case. It would currently take two hours or more on a bad day for a person to reach SMVT from Yelahanka. In the same way, the train should have stoppages at Thane and Dadar Central. Travel time to the station should also be considered while designing timetables.

And finally, the train is not as fast as one expected it to. The VB Sleeper is capable of 160 kph but it will max out at the allowed top speed of 130 kph on this route. It is baffling why it is given such a lax timetable when it could’ve been made more aggressive. For instance, 27651 takes 3.5 hours between CSMT and Pune, that too without having to wait for bankers. 27652 has been given an additional slack of 40 min. Both journeys could’ve easily been completed in 14 hours if they planned it well. However, it does still decimate all existing trains. The VB Sleeper covers the 1110 odd kilometers between Bangalore and Mumbai in less than 16 hours, which is a massive EIGHT hours faster than the currently running (crawling) trains. To put it in context, VB Sleeper leaves from Bangalore an hour before the 11302 Udyan Express. By the time it reaches Mumbai, the Udyan would’ve only left Solapur (375 km away) and would be starting on its return journey by the time the Udyan pulls into CSMT. Well, even with all the drum beating, the VB Sleeper still has an average speed of only 69 kph, which though is a substantial improvement over the Udyan’s 51 kph, shows more than anything how long we still have to go before we get actual modern infrastructure in India.

Why a Vande Bharat Sleeper between Bangalore and Mumbai is still a big deal

You will be hard pressed to find another rail route in the country that was as neglected as Bangalore – Mumbai. It was for ages a matter of unending wonder as to why there was only ONE dedicated daily connection between these two economic powerhouses, one the “Silicon Valley” of India with its technology and IT companies, and the other that is the undisputed financial capital of the country and the biggest and most populous city in the country and one of the megacities of the world. And then there is also Pune which can stand to itself to Bangalore as a IT powerhouse that also have only a fleeting, quota-based rail connection to it. And it is not just that there’s only one train between the cities, it is also that it takes an entire 24 hours to cover the distance, which has not changed since this legendary crawler the Udyan Express was first introduced 43 (yes, FORTY THREE!) years ago in 1983!

Yes, there are a few other trains Between Bangalore and Mumbai, but they just happen to stop at the city on their way to Coimbatore or Tirunelveli or Pondicherry. Despite so many trains and premium classes launched over the decades by the Indian Railways, the Bangalore-Mumbai route never saw any of them. No Duronto, no Tejas, no Antyodaya, no Garib Rath, in fact, not even a regular Superfast train or even a weekly until 2025! You know what is funny? During the Meter Gauge and Steam era of the Southern Railway there were at one time four direct daily services to Bombay from Bangalore! (though it meant changing trains at Pune or Miraj or Guntakal). Though we seemed to be progressing over the decades of independence, we were actually standing still or regressing in terms of many aspects with the railways, especially travel times and speed. Though time overall timetable of the SBC-CSTM VBSL is disappointing, SBC/SWR will hopefully review it in the coming days and make changes.

Any way, there is now finally redemption on the horizon after half a century of suffering. The Vande Bharat Sleeper is for all intents the most “Premium” class of service that Indian Railway has ever introduced. And most deservedly the Bangalore-Mumbai route gets the third of them and the first in South India! There is now finally a way to get between the cities fast, in style and in comfort as nature always intended it to be, and out of the clutches of the airline duopoly mafia! The VB Sleeper will without doubt unleash a revolution in rail travel on this route and all the others it would later be introduced on.

Hopefully this Vande Bharat Sleeper is a start to connect the chronically underconnected capitals of South India will also be connected by Vande Bharat Sleepers soon. VB Sleepers connecting Bangalore with Trivandrum, Hyderabad with Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai and Mumbai with Chennai should be the next priorities. And of course, another VB Sleeper via Hubli-Miraj to commemorate the iconic route of the historic Bombay-Poona “One” Mail should also be on the cards.