Yesterday my brother traveled from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam by Vande Bharat express. Checked the availability at 1100 to find the position WL33. Then checked SC Vskp current availability is 366 and asked him to book the ticket . At 1430 still they are 300+ which are carried forward to Vja. At 1500 the ticket check confirmed and still they are 300+ seats available and another 50 booke in current till 1830.

Coming to the journey part arrived at Vja station PF6 which is the fixed PF for both up and down trains...
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train arrived at 1902/1912 RJY at 2102/12 don't know why they stop VB for 10 min though could leave in 4-5 mins as 200 travellers get down on daily basis. Overtook Chennai NJP exp which arrived at 2046/2116 at RJY. The train covered around 110 km in 60 mins some where bewteen RJY and AKP crossed Bayyavaram 9km from AKP at 2246 and started to crawl and reached Anakapalle at 2255. I left my house at 2300 as its 4km away and reached Rly station by 2312 as it's expected at 2320. checked the position it just left AKP at 2310 and a word and told him that the train will reach at 2340 train was running at 100kmph at Thadi and got good signal at shotup to 125kmphnwhile i talking. Finally arrived at 2340 on PF 1 C5 coach position is near to Gate 1.

Now coming to train interiors he asked me why they are only 2 washrooms instead of 4 for 80 seats like in normal trains. The passage floor is messy with sanddust and washrooms are wet all through.The seat is comfortable and high with footrest but the reclining lever is not working for some seats. The reclining angle for night long distance buses is 135deg VB being a day intercity it should be min 120deg but don't know what angle is in VB. The outside walls appear to be dusted brown and showed it's age of 6 months as it's white. Then food the travellers are served with 2 chapatis, a chicken curry, dal, rice, Curd and an icecream. Chapatis are very thick and sagging and cannot be teared with fingers ( ideally pulkas should be served soft and lesser thickness) chicken is half cooked and hard and dal tasted less salt and North Indian style South Indian take cuuries with salt and chili powder with masala added and the taste is missing, Rice is also soft and weel cooked, curd is Vijaya brand and good and icecream Butterscotch which is ok. He saw some travellers bringing packed food from outside on PF while boarding and after having food thought it's right choice. One litre IRCTc water bottle is served, i think it's standard which ideally should be 500 ml for 4 hrs journey as most of them drink half an d waste the remaining. Rs 242 is collected for dinner and its not worth the price.

His final verdict is a plus for speed which covered 350km in 4.5hrs against the normal train time of 5.5-6hrs and a big no for food. To opt out of food for premium trains in food options drop-down select NO Food or Veg/non veg as choice.