The Railway Board has revised the route of the Amritsar-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Vande Bharat Express. This train, which was given a one-day trial run from Jalandhar City on August 10, 2025, will no longer stop at Jalandhar City. Instead, the Vande Bharat Express will pass through Batala, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, and Jammu. Regular stops will be made at Batala and Gurdaspur. Jalandhar City has been removed from the list of stops completely. This means people from Jalandhar will have to board the train from either Jalandhar Cantt or Phagwara. This has proved to be an inconvenience for people traveling from Jalandhar daily. This change was made after a trial run was conducted from Jalandhar City. This was done as the addition of Jalandhar City was causing a delay in the timing of trains on the busy Delhi-Amritsar route. Trains like the Shatabdi Express and Shaan-e-Punjab were being delayed.
The trial also revealed that the inclusion of the Jalandhar stop was causing a delay to other trains operating on the route. The Shatabdi Express and the Shatranj-e-Punjab, two very popular trains, were also being delayed. It was also very hard to accommodate the Vande Bharat train. The railway officials, including the senior DCM Parmdeep Saini, are planning to take up the matter with the Ministry of Railways to see if the Jalandhar stop could be made available at a later time. Until then, the city needs to make do. The current status is that the Delhi-Jalandhar City Vande Bharat Express (22447/22448) operates daily to Jalandhar City and reaches at 5:30 PM from New Delhi. In addition to this, the 22487/22488 Delhi-Amritsar and 22439 Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat express also stop at Jalandhar Cantt.
The officials, including the Senior DCM Parmdeep Saini, have stated that they will look into the matter and try to include the stop at Jalandhar in the future. Until then, the citizens of the city will have to get used to the new route.
Meanwhile, there is some relief for the citizens as the Delhi-Jalandhar City Vande Bharat Express is still running every day, reaching the station at around 5:30 PM, and other Vande Bharat Express trains are also halting at Jalandhar Cantt, providing connectivity to other major cities.