Vande Bharat Express is impressive but it still has some way to go

For an eight-hour journey, it neither has the reclining seats of the Shatabdi nor a personal LCD screen option of the Tejas Express

In May 1972, when the Mumbai-New Delhi Rajdhani Express was launched, many believed that it was going to be the king among Indian trains. And rightly so. Clocking 110 to 120 kilometre per hour (kmph), it ruled the Indian tracks till the 1980s. Then came the Shatabdis in the 1990s and the Gatimaan in 2016, which touched speeds of 140-160 kmph.

When Train 18, or Vande Bharat Express, running between New Delhi and Varanasi, was inaugurated on February 15, it spelt the arrival of the new crowned prince of the Indian Railways. Despite hitting the tracks in the shadow of