Coimbatore currently has 2 Vande Bharat services that connect the city with Chennai and Bengaluru. Now there is a demand for a service between Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram, and the same has been directly taken to the attention of Indian Railways Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw by MLA from Coimbatore South, Vanathi Srinivasan recently. 

Vanathi, who also serves as the National President of BJP's Women's Wing shared the details of her meeting with the Minister on Tuesday via her official X handle. 

In her letter to the Minister, she highlighted that there is an "overwhelming demand" for a Vande Bharat service between Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram from the people of Western Tamil Nadu. 

She asked the minister to grant this service with an eight-rake Vande Bharat train, and assured him that it will be a success.

"Please do the needful to expedite this request from the voters of my Tamil Nadu Assembly constituency, who feel that this Vande Bharat train could connect western Tamil Nadu residents with Kerala cities and towns such as Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kottayam, and Palakkad, and help boost tourist traffic to and from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, apart from catering to the regular travelers from either state," Vanathi wrote in her letter. 

She also appealed to the minister to order the rescheduling of Coimbatore - Bengaluru Vande Bharat's departure time from Covai to 6 a.m. instead of the present 5 a.m.

Recent reports in the media state that there is a good welcome to this train, however the occupancy is not 100% but 83%. Many believe that if the train departs from Coimbatore at 6 a.m., the welcome will be far greater than what it receives now.

Vanathi also shared with the Minister the need to restart 5 train services between Coimbatore and cities in Southern Tamil Nadu, as countless people who hail from Southern districts and cities work in Western Tamil Nadu, and these train services would greatly help them return home during weekends and special days.

"These trains were stopped 13 years ago (Year 2009) when the Meter Gauge line was converted to the Broad Guage. There are proposals for introducing and restarting 11 trains between Coimbatore and cities in southern Tamil Nadu pending with the Indian Railway Timetable Committee, which needs approval at the earliest. Currently, only one weekly train is operated between Mettupalayam (near Coimbatore) to Tirunelveli via Tenkasi," she wrote.