The social media update comes alongside Southern Railway's latest performance data, which shows strong growth in passenger numbers and earnings across its Vande Bharat network.
Southern Railway on Sunday (June 28) highlighted the sustained popularity of its Vande Bharat Express services, saying several trains are operating at occupancy levels above 100 per cent and are "running full every single day".
In a post on its official social media handle, the railway zone said passengers' continued preference for modern rail travel had kept demand consistently high. Among the services identified as regularly recording full occupancy were the Mangaluru–Thiruvananthapuram, Kasaragod–Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai Egmore–Nagercoil Vande Bharat Express trains, all of which serve large sections of southern India, including Kerala.
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The social media update comes alongside Southern Railway's latest performance data, which shows strong growth in passenger numbers and earnings across its Vande Bharat network.
Passenger numbers and earnings continue to grow
According to Southern Railway, its 24 Vande Bharat services carried 77.38 lakh passengers during 2025-26, up from 54.12 lakh in 2024-25. Revenue rose to ₹803.86 crore from ₹540.65 crore during the same period.
The growth has continued into the current financial year. During April and May 2026 alone, the trains carried 15.21 lakh passengers and generated ₹162.96 crore in earnings.
Southern Railway also attributed the higher occupancy to its current-booking initiative, which allows passengers to reserve vacant seats at originating and intermediate stations up to 15 minutes before departure. The facility, initially introduced on pilot routes, has now been extended to all 17 Vande Bharat trains originating under the zone.
The initiative significantly increased last-minute bookings. Average monthly current-booking passengers on the pilot services rose by nearly 81 per cent, while revenue from such bookings increased by around 78 per cent after the scheme was introduced.
National network records similar trend
The growth mirrors the broader performance of the Vande Bharat network across India.
The figures from Southern Railway follow data released earlier this year (April) by the Press Information Bureau, which said the Vande Bharat network carried around 3.98 crore passengers across India during 2025-26, a year-on-year increase of nearly 34 per cent from 2.97 crore in 2024-25.
Since the service was launched in 2019, more than 9.1 crore passengers have travelled on Vande Bharat trains through over one lakh trips, according to the government.
Among the busiest routes nationally, the New Delhi-Varanasi service has carried more than 73 lakh passengers, followed by the New Delhi-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra route with around 56 lakh passengers.
In southern India, the Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat has served more than 48 lakh passengers, while the Chennai-Mysuru service has carried over 36 lakh passengers.
The government also said the Vande Bharat Sleeper service, introduced in January 2026, carried 1.21 lakh passengers across 119 trips during its first three months of operation, with occupancy exceeding 100 per cent.
Published: 28 Jun 2026, 12:46 pm IST
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