On February 17, 2019, the Indian Railways launched the first commercial run of the new Vande Bharat Express, also known as Train 18, on New Delhi - Varanasi route. The Indian Railways are now ready with their second Vande Bharat Express, scheduled to start its first commercial run on October 5, 2019. The train will operate on the Delhi-Katra (Jammu and Kashmir) route and bookings are now open on the IRCTC website. 

Good news for tourists visiting Vaishno Devi Temple as Katra, which is also the station nearest to Vaishno Devi, now will be just eight hours away (6am-2pm) from Delhi. Currently it takes over 12 hours to reach Katra from Delhi. The train is scheduled to run all days of the week except on Tuesdays with minimum fare of @INR1630 and maximum fare of @INR3015.