The upcoming Vande Bharat Express trains will get a new orange-dark gray paint scheme as compared to the current generation of white-blue livery semi-high speed trains. Photos of the Vande Bharat Express with the new color scheme have been shared by India’s Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on his Twitter account. Various media reports have claimed that this decision has been taken by the Indian Railways as the traditional white and blue livery of Vande Bharat Express trains, which has been the color of the trains since 2018, is difficult to maintain.
However, neither Indian Railways nor Ashwini Vaishnav has confirmed the reason for the new paint scheme. What we know so far is that this will be the 28th rake of Vande Bharat in India. The semi high speed train already runs on 25 routes across India, while the 26th and 27th rakes are ready with the common color scheme. Along with this, the Railway Minister said that this saffron color is inspired by ‘Tricolor’. That is, this train set is ready for inauguration on 15 August on the occasion of Independence Day.
Inspected Vande Bharat train production at ICF, Chennai. pic.twitter.com/9RXmL5q9zR– Ashwini Vaishnav (@AshwiniVaishnaw) 8 July 2023
Also, as seen in the video, the train has a wider spread of color scheme, giving it a more prominent appeal than the current Vande Bharat Express trains, where a blue stripe runs along the side of the train. While more details about the new trains are awaited, the Railway Minister shared pictures of the trainset from ICF, Chennai as the train is seen getting ready to depart.
Pictures and videos from ICF Chennai show the original Vande Bharat Express standing parallel to the new Vande Bharat Express train. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off two Vande Bharat Express trains from Gorakhpur Railway Station during his visit to Uttar Pradesh. While one train runs on the Gorakhpur-Lucknow route, the other train runs on the Jodhpur-Sabarmati (Ahmedabad) route.
With the opening of these two routes, the total number of Vande Bharat Express trains in India has gone up to 25 routes, in which 50 up and down trains are operational. Recently, in a first for Indian Railways, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off five Vande Bharat Express trains from Rani Kampalapati railway station in Bhopal during his visit to Madhya Pradesh.
These semi-high-speed trains cover 24 states and union territories across India. Of these, Delhi and Mumbai have the largest number of services provided by indigenously developed upgraded trains. At the same time, the three states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat have got the second Vande Bharat train.
