The window of a train is more entertaining than TV - Kirti Solanki

Comparison of the two decades old Satabdhi btw Ndls and Bhopal, Four decade old Bengaluru Rajdhani with one year old VB (NDLS - Bhopal I presume), and comparing economics is too premature. The operational cost of VB is double of Satabdhi, which is incorrect. Again, rajdhani express is more revenue generating as it's a long distance train. Benefits from VBs are (1) Around 102 VB services added 1 lakh AC seats for Indian travellers. (2) Instead of travelling overnight, one can return by night or reach by afternoon, this saves hotel stay for biz travellers (3) VB trains on an average occupancy of even at 70 percent will be a good start. (4) We are used to travel with waiting lists, booking 3 months before train travel, etc and VB gives an option to book with confirmation now for next day travel in most sectors (5) Suppose another 150 VB...
more...

services are introduced, which will eliminate waitlist at least for medium distance travel by March 2025. (6) Indian Railways says they lose 55 percent in passenger travel as per 2017-18 data, but passenger services are giving revenue of 80000 crores in current financial year 2024-25, compared to 50,000 crores in 2017-18, and obviously the losses from passenger services are down from 50,000 crores in 2017-18 to around 20,000 crores in current financial year. (7) Introduction of VBs definitely decreased the stress on the long distance trains mainly in AC 2 and 3 tier classes and made them available for long distance travellers