Indian Railways Year-End Review 2025: 164 Vande Bharat Services Operational, Sleeper Service Launched in January 2026

The Ministry of Railways released its Year-End Review on December 28, 2025, highlighting major progress in modernisation, passenger services, and infrastructure expansion during the calendar year. As of December 26, 2025, 164 Vande Bharat train services are running across the Indian Railways network, and the Vande Bharat Sleeper service launched in January 2026, following the successful expansion of Amrit Bharat trains for non-AC passengers. During 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated 42 projects to the nation, inaugurated 13 projects, and laid the foundation stone for 21 projects, together worth over ₹25,000 crore. Key track expansion projects delivered this year include the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), which involved 36 major tunnels and 943 bridges and placed the Kashmir Valley directly on the Indian Railways map, and the 51-km Bairabi-Sairang broad-gauge line inaugurated in September 2025, which brought Aizawl on the national rail network for the first time. On digital security, Indian Railways and IRCTC deactivated or temporarily suspended 5.73 crore suspicious and inactive user accounts to curb Tatkal ticket misuse and bot-based bookings. The year also saw steady progress on Kavach automatic train protection deployment, rollout of the RailOne App as a one-stop passenger portal, and extension of free Wi-Fi services at thousands of stations. The review positions railways as a core pillar of India's logistics and passenger transport ecosystem under Viksit Bharat 2047.