Railway Board sanctions six-day Vande Bharat Express linking Bengaluru's Yesvantpur to Madgaon in Goa via 12 stops

Key facts

• The Railway Board has sanctioned a new Vande Bharat Express service between Yesvantpur in Bengaluru and Madgaon in Goa, to run under train numbers 26655 and 26656 six days a week in each direction, as per a Railway Board letter dated October 30, 2026.
• Train No. 26655 will depart Yesvantpur at 7:35 am and reach Madgaon at 8:55 pm, covering the journey in 13 hours and 20 minutes, with Wednesday as the weekly off.
• Train No. 26656 will depart Madgaon at 8:20 am and reach Yesvantpur at 9:15 pm in 12 hours and 55 minutes, running six days a week except Thursdays.
• The train will have 12 intermediate stops: Shravanabelagola, Sakleshpur, Hassan, Kabaka Puttur, Mangaluru Junction, Kundapura, Subrahmanya Road, Udupi, Mookambika Road Byndoor, Gokarna Road, Murdeshwar and Karwar, providing direct connectivity from Bengaluru to Karnataka's coastal destinations.
• The Railway Board has also permitted discontinuation of the existing Madgaon-Mangaluru Central Vande Bharat Express, which ran under train numbers 20645 and 20646.
• The approval follows completion of electrification of the Bengaluru-Mangaluru railway route in December 2025, a project begun in December 2023 involving five switching stations and overhead electrification through the Western Ghats, with an electric locomotive trial held on December 28, 2025.
• The commencement date of the new Yesvantpur-Madgaon Vande Bharat service has not yet been announced.