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IN Vande Bharat

The Vande Bharat (VB) trainset is a prestigious long-distance intercity EMU used by Indian Railways for fast air conditioned passenger services under the "Vande Bharat" branding. With a service speed of 160 km/h, the trainsets are the highest speed services in India, shared with a handful of top-tier loco hauled services.

During the 2010s, Indian Railways put out several tenders for semi-high-speed EMU trainsets to international parties, including Talgo test runs between Delhi and Mumbai. However, dissatisfaction with the costs, robustness of the sets, and their adaptation to Indian conditions led to an internal development project by IR's Integral Coach Factory (ICF), dubbed "Train 18" after the expected introduction date of 2018. The first 16-car trainsets began testing in 2018 and the first services began in 2019. However, manufacturing issues and allegations of corruption halted the project with only two sets built.

Following a lengthy re-design and re-tendering process, a contract for 44 second-generation trainsets was awarded in 2021, with an additional 58 ordered in 2022. The new sets began entering service in 2022, followed by development of shorter 8-car and longer 20-car trainsets.

A sleeper train variant is being constructed and tested as of September 2025, with initial introduction into service with the first two trainsets expected imminently. These sets are intended to serve routes over 1,000 km in length, which cannot be served by daytime seating-only services due to the travel time.

Early trainsets were delivered in a blue and white livery. From mid-2023, a new saffron and grey livery was introduced, reportedly due to the difficulty of keeping the white livey sufficiently clean.

For a 16-car chair car set:

• Introduction: 2019
  
• Speed: 160 km/h
  
• Capacity: 1128 seated
  
• Mass: 871 t
  
• Power: 6720 kW
  
• TE: 851 kN
  
• Cost: $16,400,000

For a 16-car sleeper set:

• Introduction: 2025
  
• Speed: 160 km/h
  
• Capacity: 823 sleeping
  
• Mass: 871 t
  
• Power: 6720 kW
  
• TE: 851 kN
  
• Cost: $18,000,000

Thumbnail credits: vadakkus, source[www.flickr.com], CC-BY-SA 4.0