Navsari: With the recent introduction of a stop at Navsari for the Gandhinagar–Mumbai Vande Bharat Express, the overall journey time has increased by five minutes. This comes shortly after another recent increase in travel time last month when Valsad was included as a stoppage.

According to the updated timetable effective today, Train No. 20902 (Gandhinagar–Mumbai Vande Bharat) will depart Gandhinagar at 14:00 hrs, travel till Surat at the existing schedule to reach Navsari at 17:27 hrs. After this, the timings of the train have been revised for Valsad, Vapi, and Borivali, with the train now arriving at its final destination, Mumbai Central, at 20:35 hrs—five minutes later than the previous arrival time of 20:30 hrs.

For the return journey, the train will depart Mumbai Central at 06:00 hrs, travel to Navsari without changes at Borivali, Vapi, and Valsad, and arrive at Navsari at 08:43 hrs. After a two-minute halt, it will depart for Surat at 08:45 hrs. Subsequent timings for Surat, Vadodara, Anand, and Ahmedabad have been revised, with the train now reaching its final station, Gandhinagar Capital, at 12:30 pm instead of the earlier 12:25 pm.

For comparison, another Vande Bharat Express on the same route, Train No. 22962, which runs in the morning and does not stop at Anand, Navsari, or Valsad, takes 3 hours and 16 minutes to travel between Ahmedabad and Vapi. Meanwhile, the afternoon Vande Bharat Express, which now includes halts at Anand, Valsad, and Navsari, takes 3 hours and 28 minutes to cover the same Ahmedabad–Vapi stretch.

Initially, the afternoon Vande Bharat Express did not have halts at Anand, Valsad, or Navsari. These stops were later introduced after requests from local MPs. On social media, several commuters have questioned these politically approved halts, suggesting that such decisions could gradually turn the Vande Bharat Express into a service similar to the Shatabdi or Karnavati Express.

For context, the morning Vande Bharat Express from Ahmedabad covers six stations—Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Vapi, Borivali, and Mumbai Central. With these latest stoppages, the afternoon semi-high-speed train now covers ten stations in total, which on one hand improves connectivity to the towns but also dilutes the purpose of the semi-high-speed train due to increases in travel time.

It is important to note that the current halts at Navsari and Valsad are experimental. Local railway officials have been instructed to monitor ticket sales before making a final decision on the viability of these stops. DeshGujarat