No, video doesn’t show water leaking inside India’s Vande Bharat Express

What is the claim?

A video showing rainwater pouring heavily into an AC coach of a train is widely circulating on social media. Those sharing the video claimed that the incident was captured inside the Indian government’s flagship train, the Vande Bharat Express.

Sharing the video, an X (formerly Twitter) account named Mahua Moitra Fans wrote, “Abki baar #Leakage Sarkar. After Temple, Bridge & Airports…. Here comes the video from Vande Bharat Train. Roof of WORLD CLASS #VandeBharat train is leaking. Passengers in train gets free SHOWER FACILITY. Thank you @AshwiniVaishnaw & @narendramodi. (sic)” 

The video (archived here) has also been shared on Facebook by an Assamese media outlet, The Crosscurrent, with a caption, “This time water leaked inside the Vande Bharat train. (Translated from Assamese)”

Screenshots of posts sharing the viral video. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshots)

The Vande Bharat Express is India’s first-ever ‘indigenously designed and manufactured’ semi-high-speed train introduced by the Indian Railways. It aims to provide passengers with a modern and comfortable rail travel experience. It was first launched in February 2019 and is touted to be equipped with world-class passenger amenities.

However, we have found the video actually captures water leakage inside the Garib Rath Express train and not the Vande Bharat Express.

What did we find?

We performed a reverse image search and found that the video (archived here) was originally posted by a X user on June 28, 2024, claiming that the incident happened on the Garib Rath train. The caption reads, “Thank you Modi. We also have free waterfall in brand new 3rd AC coach of Gareeb Rath. #IndianRailways @RailMinIndia.”

Further, at the 0:17 mark of the viral video we noticed the train number (12215/12216) displayed on a yellow plate inside the coach. We checked this number on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation website and the RailYatri website, which further corroborated that the train in question was actually Bandra Terminus-Delhi Sarai Rohilla Garib Rath Express (BTDS Garib Rath Express) and not the Vande Bharat Express, as claimed.

A screenshot of the train number (12215) in the video and the corresponding entry on the IRCTC website. (Source: X/IRCTC/Modified by Logically Facts)

We also found that the official X account of Western Railway (archived here) issued a clarification refuting the viral post by the Mahua Moitra Fans account. It noted that the leakage was observed inside a coach of the Garib Rath Express on June 27, 2024. 

Western Railway has issued a clarification on X. (Source: Screenshot/X)

Moreover, Hindi news channel Zee Business (archived here) has also uploaded the viral video on its YouTube channel on June 29, stating that the water leakage was observed inside the Garib Rath train.

The verdict

A video showing water leakage inside a coach of the Bandra Terminus-Delhi Sarai Rohilla Garib Rath Express train was falsely shared as leakage in the Vande Bharat Express.