Vande Bharat Creator Sudhanshu Mani Reviews Train After 7-Year Wait: Praises Innovation, Highlights Occupancy Challenges

In 2018, Sudhanshu Mani participated in the prototype Train 18's test run, which would later become India's celebrated Vande Bharat Express.

Seven years following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2019 inauguration of the first Vande Bharat train, Sudhanshu Mani, the principal engineer behind India's pioneering indigenous semi-high-speed train, finally experienced the service as a regular passenger.

Boarding at Lucknow's Charbagh station en route to Prayagraj, Mani shared a nuanced review of his journey. He commended the train's external appearance, the Executive Class cleanliness, and the quality of food service, while noting concerns about low passenger numbers and questioning design choices like the "unnecessary" red carpeting throughout the coaches.

"The exterior maintained much of our original design, with perhaps slightly more pronounced wave patterns on the sidewalls, yet still presenting better than most trains in India," Mani observed in his detailed blog post.

"While reasonably clean, the Executive Class coach featured an unnecessary red carpet strip that seemed to conceal what should have been proudly displayed," he further remarked.

Regarding passenger comfort, Mani noted improvements in the seating design, with the current back-recline mechanism being superior to the prototype's slide-forward system.

"The toilet facilities were clean and functional, though the fixtures clearly showed evidence of cost-cutting and multi-sourcing issues that persistently plague our procurement processes," Mani commented.

"The ride quality remained solid, though claims of significant improvements over the prototype seem overstated. The distributed power system continues to deliver impressive acceleration, a key selling point since the train's inception," he added.

While praising the "pleasant" interiors and "hygienic and reasonably palatable" food, Mani expressed disappointment regarding the train's occupancy levels.

"Occupancy was disappointingly low—Executive Class below 25 percent and Chair Car barely reaching 50 percent capacity," he observed.

"We anticipated this challenge years ago: without sleeper accommodations, the day-train model inevitably struggles on routes where passenger demand cannot justify the premium service," he stated, advocating for expedited development of a sleeper variant.

Explaining his seven-year delay in experiencing the Vande Bharat as a passenger, Mani said, "I wanted this experience to occur naturally rather than as a planned event." "My typical business travel takes me to cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, and occasionally Indore, Kochi, Bhubaneswar, and Thiruvananthapuram—none of which offer practical train connections from Lucknow," he clarified.

"Perhaps someday the long-awaited sleeper version will make such journeys practical and comfortable, though currently this remains more promise than reality," Mani remarked, criticizing the railway ministry for repeatedly missing deadlines for introducing the Vande Bharat sleeper variant.

The train's creator also expressed dissatisfaction with operational speed limitations. "Even Delhi feels excessively distant for day travel at the current 130 kmph limit, despite the train's 160 kmph capability," he noted.

In 2018, Mani participated in prototype Train 18's test run before it was officially named Vande Bharat. He concluded his distinguished 38-year railway career as the general manager of Chennai's Integral Coach Factory, retiring on December 31, 2018.