Editing Vande Bharat (section)

== Speed ==

This was the biggest disappointment for me. I remember Vande Bharat being advertised as a superfast high-speed service and didn't realize that it isn't even close to it. For the majority of the ride from Bangalore to the first stop at Katpadi, the train ambled along at 108 km/h (67 mph). That's about what you get driving down I-5 from SF to LA. Hong Kong's Airport Express does 135 km/h from the Airport to the City so I was hoping that something built 25 years after that would be faster. I'm told this is because the trains are fast but the rails aren't fast yet. I'm all for incrementalism, so I hope things get faster by the time I'm there next!

[[File:Vande Bharat - Top Speed in Karnataka.png|frame|center|This is also how I discovered that Chennai Central is called MGR Chennai Central]]

The train slowed to a crawl around Katpadi junction. The route has a strange looping curve to get there, probably because of geography, so this part makes sense. We'd pass a couple of trains that were shunted to sidings so that we could get past.

After Katpadi (where my parents boarded farther down the train), in the Tamil Nadu section, the train sped up quite a bit and was at its peak speed of 128 km/h (80 mph) for most of the time.

[[File:Vande Bharat Express - Top Speed in Tamil Nadu.jpg|frame|center]]

Overall, the ride was quite smooth. There was a little bit of lateral rocking but not much sound.