Bengaluru: Railway passengers travelling between Bengaluru and Mangaluru may soon get a much-awaited Vande Bharat Express service, with the South Western Railway set to begin trial runs on the challenging Sakleshpur–Subrahmanya Road ghat section from August 11. Although Vande Bharat trains are equipped with advanced electro-pneumatic disc brakes and regenerative braking technology, additional safeguards are necessary for operations through the ghat section. Using banker engines with the Vande Bharat train is also operationally difficult, as it requires removing the train’s aerodynamic nose cone before an additional locomotive can be coupled. To address this challenge, Indian Railways has introduced a specially equipped Vande Bharat rake featuring an Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) system. Once approved, the Bengaluru–Mangaluru Vande Bharat Express is expected to become the first Vande Bharat service to operate through Karnataka’s challenging Western Ghats using the new safety technology, offering faster and more comfortable travel between the state capital and the coastal region.