Those travelling between Bengaluru and Mangaluru by the tri-weekly day trains and one weekly train may savour the natural beauty of the Western Ghats as the South Western Railway has decided to add two each Vistadome coaches to these trains and detach one each general second class coach from them.
Passengers used to witness the beauty of the ghats either through the windows or by standing at the doors of coaches when trains passed through the ghat section between Sakleshpur and Subrahmanya Road stations.
Vistadome coaches with their transparent ceiling, wide window panes and 180-degree rotatable recliner seats, however, will offer greater outside view for passengers.
A release here said that Train No 06211/06212 Yeshwantpur-Karwar-Yeshwantpur tri-weekly express special will get the Vistadome coaches from July 7 from Yeshwantpur and from July 8 from Mangaluru Junction. The service between Mangaluru Junction and Karwar remains temporarily cancelled.
Train No 06575/06576 Yeshwantpur-Mangaluru Junction-Yeshwantpur tri-weekly special (Gomateshwara Express) will get these coaches from July 8, from Yeshwantpur and from July 9, from Mangaluru Junction.
The weekly special, Train No 06539/06540 Yeshwantpur-Mangaluru Junction-Yeshwantpur, will get these coaches from July 10 from Yeshwantpur and July 11 from Mangaluru Junction.
Booking starts on July 3 and the fares will be the same as Executive Class of the Shatabdi service. The fare between Yeshwantpur and Mangaluru will come to be nearly ₹1,500.
South Western Railway received the Vistadome coaches about four months ago and made plans to introduce them on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru trains to boost tourist traffic. However, the onset of the second wave of COVID-19 discouraged the Railways from going ahead with the proposal. The train services, including day and overnight, however, continued despite the lockdown during the second wave.