Apr 13, 2010 12:15 PM
17565 Views
The current Railways Minister's brainchild does not deliver what is set out to deliver. The train is not a non-stop, in fact it has many more stops as compared to Rajdhani, but it just does not pick-up passenger's from those stops. And thus, only in that sense, is it a non-stop train. Further the time it takes is higher by 4-6 hrs as compared to what the Rajdhani takes on the same route - hence could not comprehend the need for such a train.
The coaches are new, but the staff is absolutely untrained on maintaining the same. The coach that I was traveling in, had developed some snag in its A/c unit (train dated 10th April 2010 from Delhi). The poor staff sat through out the night and day but just could not make the system operational as they could not pin-point the fault. When I talked to them, it seems that the new style coaches were just put in operations without adequate staff training.
The exterior of the train is beautifully done up, but to my horror I saw that the colour and the design is pasted paper - once that starts coming off, aesthetics will go for a toss.
The toilets were clean though, not due to cleaning staff (much better seen in Delhi-Puri route), but just due to the good design.
The caterers were thieves, right from the managers and down to the man serving in the coach. First, there was just one person serving (compared to two in Rajdhanis). Second, the person just try to reduce the things here and there. Third, the things which should have cold (such as water) was warm, and things which should have been hot (food) was cold.
Lastly I had specifically taken a train (against booking a flight) to see the picturesque Konkan rail section (between Mumbai to Karwar). If you are also taking this train for the same reason, please stop right now, the whole of that section comes in night time!
Hence, stick to tried and tested trains or known devils until railways finds out what to do with these new trains.
