Vande Bharat Sleeper: Routes, Fares and How It Compares

The original Vande Bharat Express is a same-day chair-car train. The Sleeper version takes the same modern rolling stock, higher acceleration and onboard features, and adds berths, aimed at overnight routes that are currently served by older Rajdhani-era rakes. It's a genuinely new product category for Indian Railways rather than just a rebadge, and it's being introduced route by route rather than as a single nationwide launch.

Which routes currently run the Vande Bharat Sleeper?

The first Vande Bharat Sleeper, the Howrah-Kamakhya (Guwahati) service, was flagged off on 17 January 2026: the Howrah to Kamakhya train (27575) and the Kamakhya to Howrah return (27576) each take about 14 hours and run six days a week. A Bengaluru-Mumbai CSMT sleeper has been approved, and the railways plan more rakes over the next few years. Because this is one of the fastest-changing parts of the Vande Bharat programme, treat any specific route list as provisional and check the current status on IRCTC or the Press Information Bureau before planning around it. Once a Vande Bharat Sleeper service is running and trackable, we'll list it on its own train page with live running status like any other train.

How do its fares compare to Rajdhani?

Vande Bharat Sleeper fares are set higher than Rajdhani for equivalent classes. Under the Railway Board's January 2026 fare rules, the minimum chargeable distance is 400 km (at that time Rs 960 in 3A, Rs 1,240 in 2A and Rs 1,520 in 1A before GST), with a per-km rate beyond that, and only confirmed tickets are sold: there is no RAC and no waiting list. At launch, Howrah to Guwahati in 3A was quoted at Rs 2,299 plus GST. Fares can be revised, so check the live fare for your exact route and date on IRCTC at the time of booking, and compare it directly against the Rajdhani or other AC sleeper options on the same corridor before deciding.

Is catering included in the fare?

Meals are served on board, with vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, and the meal service depends on the journey's timing: an overnight run typically covers dinner and breakfast. As with other premium trains, check at booking whether catering is being added to your fare and whether you can opt out on your route.

When will more Vande Bharat Sleeper routes launch?

New corridors are announced periodically as more Vande Bharat Sleeper rakes are manufactured and cleared for service, and PIB press releases are the most reliable place to track upcoming routes as they're confirmed. Rather than a fixed schedule we can quote here, the honest answer is that this is an active rollout: check the official Ministry of Railways announcements for the latest confirmed routes rather than relying on any single article's route list, including this one, to stay current for long.

How this fits against Rajdhani and Shatabdi

If you're weighing a Vande Bharat Sleeper against the older Rajdhani or a same-day Shatabdi and aren't sure which category actually fits your trip, our comparison of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Vande Bharat covers the basic decision rule: overnight and want a berth, same-day and chair car is fine, or the newest available option on a route that has one.

Comparing against the chair-car Vande Bharat

If your route is served by the original chair-car Vande Bharat rather than the Sleeper, and your journey is short enough to complete in daylight, the chair-car version is a well-established, fast option with a solid track record on most of its corridors. The Jodhpur-Sabarmati Vande Bharat (12461) is a good example of the format: fast, comfortable executive and standard chair car seating, on-board catering, no overnight berths.

What's actually new about the design

Beyond the berths themselves, the Vande Bharat Sleeper is built on the same self-propelled, distributed-power design as the chair-car version, rather than a locomotive pulling a fixed rake. That gives it faster acceleration and deceleration than a conventional Rajdhani, which in principle shortens overall journey time on a given route even without a higher top speed, since less time is lost at each stop. Interior features carried over from the chair-car Vande Bharat include sealed gangways between coaches, automatic doors and a quieter ride than older rolling stock, now adapted to a sleeping-berth layout.

What to check before booking

• Confirm the train is actually listed as bookable on IRCTC for your specific date; a route being announced in the press doesn't mean it's running yet.
• Compare the fare directly against the Rajdhani or other AC sleeper option on the same corridor rather than assuming either is automatically cheaper.
• Check whether your class of choice (1A, 2A or 3A equivalent) is available on the specific rake serving your route, since not every corridor launches with every class from day one.
• Once the route is trackable on our site, check its live running status and delay history the same way you would for any other train before relying on a tight connection.

How to check once your route is covered

Once a Vande Bharat Sleeper service is confirmed and running on a route you're interested in, search for it by train number or name using our site search, or check the relevant route on our trip planner, which will show it alongside Rajdhani and other options with live seat availability and running status once it's trackable, the same way any other train on the network is shown.