You could say Southern Railway has made a lot out of a minor tweak to the rules. The 15-minute current booking option is putting butts in Vande Bharat seats all over the zone, with a few routes running at well over 100 per cent and no sign of slowing down as we head into FY27. It is the backbone of how we do premium intercity travel now.
The numbers for FY26 back this up. On 24 Vande Bharat runs, we put 77.38 lakh people on board and put Rs 803.86 crore in the till, a step up from 54.12 lakh and Rs 540.65 crore the year before. Just in April and May of 2026, those trains were responsible for 15.21 lakh in passenger volume and Rs 162.96 crore in revenue.
What the rule does is let you buy any unbooked seat right up to 15 minutes to go, whether you’re at the point of origin or some station along the way. “That kind of last-minute flexibility is what is driving better utilisation and healthier cash flows,” says SN Narain, the CPRO for Southern Railway.
Network effects and premium positioning
Our Vande Bharats run the gauntlet between the big cities in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. We see such a lot of demand that you can have 100 per cent plus occupancy on a service like Mangaluru-Thiruvananthapuram or the one from Chennai Egmore to Nagercoil.
But don’t read too much into the high occupancy. It’s a measure of how well we are using the space. A seat isn’t just for one person; as folks get on and off at various stops, that same spot can be home to two or more in the course of one trip.
If you want to see what SR is touting, here are the highlights:
– 77.38 lakh in FY26 ridership (24 services)
– Rs 803.86 crore in Vande Bharat revenue for FY26
– 15.21 lakh in April-May 2026
– Rs 162.96 crore in the same period
– Over 100 per cent on a few of the more popular ones
From pilot to full rollout
We started with a test on July 17, 2025, opening up current booking on eight of our Vande Bharats. That meant if you were at an intermediate station, you could still snag a seat 15 minutes before departure. In the three months after, we saw it was working.
Put the figures for April-June 2025 side by side with August-October and the difference is plain. Take the Mangaluru Central to Thiruvananthapuram Central: we went from an average of 3,335 a month to 6,954. Revenue followed suit, from Rs 22.24 Lakh to Rs 45.01 Lakh.
It was the same story going the other way. On the Thiruvananthapuram to Mangaluru run, we saw 11,896 a month instead of 5,164, with the money coming in at Rs 73.35 Lakh rather than Rs 32.79 Lakh. Nagercoil to Chennai Egmore also put up 3,846 against 1,788, and Rs 36.34 Lakh to Rs 15.51 Lakh.
Then there’s the Chennai Egmore-Nagercoil, which inched up to 2,832 from 1,501 and nearly doubled its take to Rs 28.98 Lakh. Not every line has seen the same thing, but for the most part, SR is happy with the uptick in both bookings and the bottom line.
So we have made it standard. All 17 Vande Bharats that start in the South can now be booked with the 15-minute window, from the source or any stop in between.
Why some trains cross 100 per cent occupancy
It’s not a case of being packed in. We put it down to good turnover. You have some getting off and others on for the next leg, so the seat is sold twice in one go. You’ll see it on the likes of the Chennai Egmore-Nagercoil and the Mangaluru-Thiruvananthapuram.
What travellers and SR gain
It makes life easier for the passenger who hasn’t quite planned ahead. A seat that would have been left to rot after the chart is prepared is now available to you until 15 minutes to go, even if you’re not at the first station.
For us, it is a way to be nimbler with inventory. We don’t need to put on extra coaches to close the gap between what we have and what is wanted. “When you add in the current booking, it has given our Vande Bharat portfolio a lift all round,” Narain will tell you.
SR is in no rush to change course. We have the 15-minute window in place on all our origin Vande Bharats and we are counting on that convenience to keep the trains running full, the books in order and the odd last-minute traveller happy.
