Will Vande Bharat Express open up merchandising opportunities?

Soon after introducing the Vande Bharat Express in southern India connecting Mysuru, Bengaluru and Chennai in early November. Indian Railways has announced that a Vande Bharat Express will soon connect Sealdah station in Kolkata to the New Jalpaiguri station in the north Bengal city of Siliguri. 

Given that a significant section of passengers on these trains are travelling for the novelty of the experience, on business travel or as tourists, there is perhaps an unexplored opportunity of making the travel even more novel by introducing Vande Bharat merchandising on the lines of some of the airlines’ merchandising.

Those who were among the early travellers on this train will have the opportunity to collect memorabilia.

The other Vande Bharat Express trains are connecting Una in Himachal Pradesh and New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahemdabad, New Delhi and Varanasi, and New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra.

Each Vande Bharat has a total seating capacity of 1,128 passengers with all coaches equipped with a GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, onboard hotspot Wi-Fi for entertainment purposes, and a host of other passenger amenities.