Onam Rush Turns Nightmare as Bengaluru-Ernakulam Vande Bharat Delayed Six Hours

Kochi: Malayalis in Bengaluru who were hoping to reach home quickly for the Onam holidays were dealt a blow by the Indian Railways on Sunday, when the Bengaluru-Ernakulam Vande Bharat Express ran six hours behind schedule. According to reports, aggrieved passengers lodged complaints on Rail Madad and other platforms. Several passengers said they were left waiting at the station for hours as they had not been informed of the delay in advance.

The train, which was scheduled to depart at 5.15 am from Majestic, ran six hours late, causing a cascading delay to the Vande Bharat service departing from Ernakulam Junction towards Bengaluru as well.

A similar incident had occurred two months ago, when the train was delayed by several hours. Railway authorities had at the time attributed it to track-doubling works at Whitefield.