Rail service and travel by rail in the Indian subcontinent

[caravanman]

What a great video, and an honest portrayal of the reality of the daily life of station!

I have taken one of the oldest established trains mentioned, the Kalka mail all the way to Kalka, as well as that Rajdhani in the other direction, from Delhi to Howrah.

Also on another visit, I took the Coromandel Express to Chennai from the other part of the station.

Back in 1983, it was a different time, I was much younger and fitter of course, but we slept on the Howrah station floor one night, wrapped in a sheet!

Video was whetting my appetite for another trip, very enjoyable viewing.

 

[jis]

What a great video, and an honest portrayal of the reality of the daily life of station!

I have taken one of the oldest established trains mentioned, the Kalka mail all the way to Kalka, as well as that Rajdhani in the other direction, from Delhi to Howrah.

Also on another visit, I took the Coromandel Express to Chennai from the other part of the station.

Back in 1983, it was a different time, I was much younger and fitter of course, but we slept on the Howrah station floor one night, wrapped in a sheet!

Video was whetting my appetite for another trip, very enjoyable viewing.

I thought you might enjoy it.

BTW, 12311/12312 Kalka Mail is now called Netaji Express. Once upon a time long long ago during the famous National Rail Strike, Kalka Mail was the only train running between Delhi and Calcutta. It was loaded like a Suburban EMU in rush hours. I hung outside a door from Delhi to Kanpur. I was able to get inside at Kanpur. That was some experience. Normally I used to travel by the AC Express (now Poorva Express) until 1969 and then by Rajdhani Express. I remember traveling by Rajdhani Express in the middle of the 1971 Bangladesh War. There was a blackout upto Kanpur from Delhi, beyond that it was out of Pakistan Air Force range, so all the lights came on. That was another interesting experience.

Speaking of sleeping on station floor, A group of us on a school trip slept on the platform under the stars at Dehri-on-Sone Station on the Grand Chord (route of Kalka Mail and Rajdhani Express). There was a freight train (actually Coal trains mostly) passing by every so often interspersed occasionally by a passenger/express train, shaking up the whole place. Back then significant stations like Dehri-on-Sone had electricity, but most wayside stations on the Grand Chord had yet to get electricity. AC Express then was powered by one of those lovely bullet nosed WP Class Pacific Steam Locomotives. Kalka Mail had just transitioned to Diesel. Electrification to Delhi had not been completed yet. It had reached Kanpur. Actually we had a power change from Diesel to Electric at Kanpur during my adventure on the Kalka Mail.

 

[Rambling Robert]

Excellent video. Interesting experiences and stories! The experience outside the door was something else!

 

[jis]

That station board at the end .... it is so familiar! It is at the end of Platform 9, one of the longest platforms at the old complex (Terminal 1).

I forgot to point out an interesting thing in the Howrah Station video.

If you watch the last car of the Rajdhani Express departing Howrah you can see a a small dome shaped thing visible above the roof line of the last car. That is a satellite antenna for the WiFi service provided on the train. Apparently the setup works very well as people have commented on the good quality of WiFi service on the train. The train does pass through three tunnels, but that is usually in the middle of the night and would probably cause a short outage, unless they have terrestrial fallback using land based internet connection. I don't know what the full setup is. But it does show that satellite based WiFi service on trains is possible as one of the connectivity channels in areas that do not have adequate terrestrial service.

 

[BlackDiamond]

In the video, it is interesting that important government officials are traveling by train rather than flying as they would in many places even Europe. In the US it would be the equivalent of a state governor using the Capitol Limited from Chicago for a meeting in Washington DC.

 

[jis]

In the video, it is interesting that important government officials are traveling by train rather than flying as they would in many places even Europe. In the US it would be the equivalent of a state governor using the Capitol Limited from Chicago for a meeting in Washington DC.

The timing of the train may have something to do with it, leaving aound5pm and arriving around 10am. It is used by a lot of government and even private industry leadership. It is the only train (other than the International trains to Bangladesh which does not have lot of OBS) that carries more than one First Class AC. Its normal consist has 2, but quite often it has 3 depending on the demand on a particular day.

The class mix on that train is also interesting - 2-3 AC First Class, 5 AC 2 Tier Sleeper and 10-11 AC 3 Tier Sleeper. The other interesting feature is that it carries a full Parcel/Mail Van. Presumably it is only for end to end carriage since the train does not stop anywhere en route for handling any significant on/off loading. The longest stop at 3 places (Dhanbad, Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Station, previously known as Mughal Sarai, and Kanpur Central) where there is T&E crew change is 5 minutes each. The rest are all 1-2 mins each.

On a side note to @caravanman Coromandal Express does not originate and terminate in Howrah anymore. It has been moved to the Shalimar Terminal down the road from Howrah. Also it has been sped up as part of the across the board speed increase of all LHB equipped trains to MAS of 130kph.

 

[caravanman]

One of the side effects of the Govt. VIP's having first claim to the 1st class berths is that the seat allocations for 1st class are not confirmed until the last moment.

The aforementioned Kalka train was the first I ever took in India, back in 1983. We went from Delhi to Kalka overnight, in 1st non a/c class. It was numbered 1 Up Kalka Mail at that time.

Not been to Shalimar Terminal, it "sounds" beautiful...

It had ICF coaches when I last rode the Coromandel Express. (I was saddened to note that the Coromandel Express was involved in that accident in Odisha...)

 

[jis]

One of the side effects of the Govt. VIP's having first claim to the 1st class berths is that the seat allocations for 1st class are not confirmed until the last moment.

I think that is true of all AC First Classes on all trains, but I could be wrong. I have seen that on several Rajdhanis and Durontos. Of course only a minority of LD trains carry AC First Class too.

The aforementioned Kalka train was the first I ever took in India, back in 1983. We went from Delhi to Kalka overnight, in 1st non a/c class. It was numbered 1 Up Kalka Mail at that time.

Yes, Kalka Mail originally was Delhi Mail and was introduced soon after the line between Calcutta (howrah) and Delhi Jn. was completed in the 19th Century. The original train ran via what is known today as Sahibganj Loop, later moved to the Main Line through Jhajha, and finally to Grand Chord in early 20th Century. It was extended to Kalka in 19th Century when the line to Kalka was completed. It was the main link between the Summer Capital (Shimla) and Winter Capital (Calcutta and after 1911 New Delhi) of the British Raj.

Not been to Shalimar Terminal, it "sounds" beautiful...

It is currently under constructing. The artists renditions that I have seen suggests that it will indeed be a very nice terminal when done. Unfortunately public transit is limited at Shalimar, so many people take either a taxi from Howrah to Shalimar or a local train from Howrah to Shantragacchi where all trains from Shalimar stop, to catch it.

It had ICF coaches when I last rode the Coromandel Express. (I was saddened to note that the Coromandel Express was involved in that accident in Odisha...)

Yup. Now it is LHB, as is the more venerable Chennai (old Madras) Mail. Yes. that accident was a weird one and was very destructive of life and property.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Not mainline rail, but possibly of interest to those interested in transportation in India
The UK train video company Video 125 has issued a video in their "Drivers Eye View" series of the Kolkata tram system.
Besides DVD (which will be in the UK region format) you can also get it as a download.

Kolkata Tram video

From looking at the preview I would say being a tram driver there would take a lot of patience!

I have a number of Video 125 videos and they are excellent.

 

[Steve4031]

I am curious to travel to India to sample the rail system. The Vande Bharat Express services interest me. Is there a simplified map that shows where these trains operate? Which Vande Bharat Express is the most scenic? Is it possible to reserve window seats when booking, or are you stuck with what they give you?

 

[jis]

I am curious to travel to India to sample the rail system. The Vande Bharat Express services interest me. Is there a simplified map that shows where these trains operate? Which Vande Bharat Express is the most scenic? Is it possible to reserve window seats when booking, or are you stuck with what they give you?

This is the most upto date map I could find as of Sep 8, 2023 is this one:

It is probably already out of date as new ones are being introduced rather frequently.

Four come to mind as far a scenic goes:

Mumbai - Sholapur - the section between Mumbai and Pune is quite spectacular as it climbs the escarpment from the plains at sea level to the top of the Deccan Plateau on 1 in 37 gradient through numerous tunnels.

Delhi - Katra (Jammu and Kashmir) - The section from Jammu through Udhampur to Katra is the foothills of outer Himalays (Pir Panjal Range and Shivaliks). It is part of the route to Kashmir that is under construction. This one will get extended to Srinagar (Badgum) when the route construction is completed. Between Katra and Srinagar a full 2/3rds of the route is in tunnels. It crosses the Chenab on a spectacular 365m high Steel Arch bridge that we have discussed elsewhere on AU. Once you get into Kashmir Valley at the Northe end of the Banihal Tunnel, there are no further tunnels upto Srinaga and beyond to Baramulla Terminus. One interesting thing about this line is that except for a relatively short segment of 1 in 80 grade, for most of the route the ruling gradient is 1% or 1 in 100. THis is actually quite remarkable, achieved through extensive tunneling and bridging.

Mumbai - Madgaon (Goa) - The run through the area where the Sahyadri Range of the Western Ghats meets the Arabian Sea is quite spectacular, as are the beaches of Goa, once you get there that is.

New Jalpaiguri (West Bengal) - Guwahati (Assam) - Spectacular view of the Kanchenjugha (3rd highest peak) if weather permits. Crosses numerous large rivers close to where they emerge from the Himalyas as it passes through the Dooars (Teesta, and Bramhaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet) are two of the half a dozen or so massive bridges that are crossed. Lots of Tea Gardens.

There of course are others, but these stand out in my mind,

Incidentally, New Jalpaiguri is now an International Junction with direct service from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Of course there are many trains from Kolkata (including the famous Darjeeling Mail, and a Vande Bharat and Shatabdi Expresses) and Delhi (including several Rajdhani Expresses to various Northeastern Capitals) too. It is also the Southern terminus of the UNESCO Heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railway operated now by the Northeast Frontier Railway.

 

[Steve4031]

This is the most upto date map I could find:

It is probably already out of date as new ones are being introduced rather frequently.

Three come to mind as far a scenic goes:

Delhi - Katra (Jammu and Kashmir) - The section from Jammu through Udhampur to Katra is the foothills of outer Himalays (Pir Panjal Range and Shivaliks). It is part of the route to Kashmir that is under construction. This one will get extended to Srinagar (Badgum) when the route construction is completed.

Mumbai - Madgaon (Goa) - The run through the area where the Sahyadri Range of the Western Ghats meets the Arabian Sea is quite spectacular.

New Jalpaiguri (West Bengal) - Guwahati (Assam) - Spectacular view of the Kanchenjugha (3rd highest peak) if weather permits. Crosses numerous large rivers close to where they emerge from the Himalyas as it passes through the Dooars (Teesta, and Bramhaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet) are two of the half a dozen or so massive bridges that are crossed. Lots of Tea Gardens.

There of course are others, but these stand out in my mind,

Incidentally, New Jalpaiguri is now an International Junction with direct service from Dhaka. Of course there are many trains from Kolkata (including the famous Darjeeling Mail, and a Vande Bharat and Shatabdi Expresses) and Delhi (including several Rajdhani Expresses to various Northeastern Capitals) too. It is also the Southern terminus of the UNESCO Heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railway operated now by the Northeast Frontier Railway.

Thank you. India is quite overwhelming in size. This will give me a starting point for planning. I am not the most adventuresome eater, so I am thinking of day trips from cities where I can stay in a Hyatt, Marriott, or Hilton so I can eat breakfast and dinner consisting of food I am comfortable with.

 

[jis]

Thank you. India is quite overwhelming in size. This will give me a starting point for planning. I am not the most adventuresome eater, so I am thinking of day trips from cities where I can stay in a Hyatt, Marriott, or Hilton so I can eat breakfast and dinner consisting of food I am comfortable with.

Wait till next year and the inauguration of the full Kashmir Rail Link. Then take either the Rajdhani or the Vande Bharat from New Delhi to Srinagar. You could entirely avoid staying in any hotel in Srinagar and just turn around and head back the same day. Of course in Delhi you can find some of the best of American chain hotels if you so desire, some even right close to IGIA (Indira Gandhi International Airport) which is connected to New Delhi Railways Station by an Express Airport Line Metro.

However, I would strongly recommend exploring a few places around Srinagar if you do land up there. It is spectacular, specially now that the political situation has stabilized after India removed the special status and made it a full fledged Union Territory a few years back.

 

[Steve4031]

Thank you, Jishnu, I will follow your advice. I think once I get acclimated to India, and figure out how to manage the differences in culture and environment, I can make multiple trips to see more.

 

[west point]

JIS" Came across this

https://www.goldenchariot.co.uk/

 

[jis]

JIS" Came across this

https://www.goldenchariot.co.uk/

These are tourist operations with eye watering prices, not everyday commercial operations. Personally they don’t interest me much since I would not spend my money on such. But of course others may find them interesting. They are quite lavish in their appointment I understand. They are apparently popular with rich Westerners, and even some rich Indians.

 

[jis]

Nine more Vande Bharat Expresses are being introduced this week (week of 9/25/23). Unlike the previous Vande Bharat Expresses which were all 16 car consists, many of these are 8 car consists for routes with lesser demand. They are also connecting many lesser know places thus reaching more of those that would normally not be treated to such better service.

The new routes are (suggest arming yourself with Google Map to figure out where)

• Chennai Egmore - Tirunelveli VB [Avg Speed-83kmph, Distance-650km, Time-7hr50m]
• Howrah - Patna VB [Avg Speed-78kmph, Distance-530km, Time-6hr50m]
• Yesvantpur - Kacheguda VB [Avg Speed-72kmph, Distance-612km, Time-8hr30m]
• Rourkela - Puri VB [Avg Speed-67kmph, Distance-505km, Time-7hr30m]
• Thiruvananthapuram - Kasaragod VB [Avg Speed-73kmph, Distance-574km, Time-7hr53m]
• Jaipur - Udaipur VB [Avg Speed-70kmph, Distance-435km, Time-6hr15m]
• Ahmedabad - Jamnagar VB [Avg Speed-71kmph, Distance-331km, Time-4hr40m]
• Howrah - Ranchi VB [Avg Speed-65kmph, Distance-461km, Time-7hr5m]
• Chennai Central - Vijaywada VB [Avg Speed-77kmph, Distance-514km, Time-6hr40m]

Several of these trains operate on secondary routes with substantial single track segments and many segments with speed limits of 100-110kph.

Additionally, one significant matter that has been addressed is that of handling failure situations. Until now there were no additional Vande Bharat protect sets deployed. In case of consist failure a 16 car Shatabdi set was substituted powered by one or two WAP-7s which could more or less maintain schedule and provide equivalent accommodation, though of slightly lower quality and ambiance, on most routes. This time around a number of protect sets have been deployed strategically at significant operational nodes. For example Howrah has been allocated one consist as there are now a number of Vande Bharats (New Jalpaiguri, Patna, Ranchi, Puri and it will also be uswable for the New Jalpaiguri - Guwahati VB) that operate to/from Howrah. About 5 or 6 such have been allocated to various sheds around the country. For now they are all 16 car sets. They are rotated through regular service.

 

[jis]

Indian Railways has just instituted a bunch of new Service Quality assurance procedures. In summary:

1. No ticket inspection between 10pm and 6am, unless you boarded the train after 10pm.

2. If you miss a train on which you have reservation, your accommodation will not be given away for the next 8 stops or one hour, whichever comes first. This gives you a chance to catch up with the train by other means and still get your reserved accommodation. It also gives you time to modify the reservation to an alternate train without losing any associated other reservations.

My observation is that this would be very helpful in slower regional trains and completely useless on the Premium trains which often have runs longer than one hour to the next station. Second observation is that Amtrak could clearly state what its policy is about canceling your reservation under such circumstances.

3. If any vendor on IR property tries to charge you more that the listed price in IRCTC price lists for an item, then you can record it on your smartphone and SMS it to a given telephone number for immediate action.

4. If your train is more that three hours late you can request a full refund of fare using the appropriate section of the IRCTC web site. All that you need is the PNR. If payment was by debit/credit card refund will be to the same. If cash, you will get a QR code that you can take to any ticket counter to get the cash.

5. If toilets or other common facilities are unacceptably dirty report through designated section of the IRCTC web site. Action will be taken within half an hour to correct the situation.

I think this is a pretty impressive set of commitments.

Note that basic functionality smartphones are so common now across the board that services based on the availability of a smartphone can be meaningfully deployed. Afterall, for most people their mobile phone is their watch for quite a while now, but things seem to have moved up the functionality ladder.

 

[TheVig]

Indian Railways has just instituted a bunch of new Service Quality assurance procedures. In summary:

1. No ticket inspection between 10pm and 6am, unless you boarded the train after 10pm.

2. If you miss a train on which you have reservation, your accommodation will not be given away for the next 8 stops or one hour, whichever comes first. This gives you a chance to catch up with the train by other means and still get your reserved accommodation. It also gives you time to modify the reservation to an alternate train without losing any associated other reservations.

My observation is that this would be very helpful in slower regional trains and completely useless on the Premium trains which often have runs longer than one hour to the next station. Second observation is that Amtrak could clearly state what its policy is about canceling your reservation under such circumstances.

3. If any vendor on IR property tries to charge you more that the listed price in IRCTC price lists for an item, then you can record it on your smartphone and SMS it to a given telephone number for immediate action.

4. If your train is more that three hours late you can request a full refund of fare using the appropriate section of the IRCTC web site. All that you need is the PNR. If payment was by debit/credit card refund will be to the same. If cash, you will get a QR code that you can take to any ticket counter to get the cash.

5. If toilets or other common facilities are unacceptably dirty report through designated section of the IRCTC web site. Action will be taken within half an hour to correct the situation.

I think this is a pretty impressive set of commitments.

Note that basic functionality smartphones are so common now across the board that services based on the availability of a smartphone can be meaningfully deployed. Afterall, for most people their mobile phone is their watch for quite a while now, but things seem to have moved up the functionality ladder.

Not trying to be funny. But I wonder what is their definition of a "unacceptably dirty" toilet is?

 

[jis]

Not trying to be funny. But I wonder what is their definition of a "unacceptably dirty" toilet is?

They more or less leave it to the customer to decide, the way the instructions are worded in Hindi.

 

[MARC Rider]

The timing of the train may have something to do with it, leaving aound5pm and arriving around 10am. It is used by a lot of government and even private industry hoi-poloi.

I think you you meant "hoi oligoi." "Hoi Polloi" refers to the riffraff masses who ride in coach, the exact opposite of government and business big shots.

 

[jis]

I think you you meant "hoi oligoi." "Hoi Polloi" refers to the riffraff masses who ride in coach, the exact opposite of government and business big shots.

The word under discussion has been removed from the original post.

 

[jis]

Apropos the question about Sleeper Vande Bharat, there is a recent article on the subject in the Times of India:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...leshow/104077655.cms?mibextid=Zxz2cZ&from=mdr

 

[BlackDiamond]

I notice these Vande Bharat trains do not mention dining cars/restaurant cars but just a "mini pantry" I guess for beverages and maybe a continental breakfast?

I wonder what is the state of catering on Indian Railways these days (outside of the tourist oriented luxury trains)? My impression is that a few trains have kitchen cars that prepare meals that are served at one's seat. Do they still have the system that we see in older videos of meal orders taken, meals prepared on land and loaded onto the train at a stop and distributed to passengers in their compartments?

 

[jis]

I notice these Vande Bharat trains do not mention dining cars/restaurant cars but just a "mini pantry" I guess for beverages and maybe a continental breakfast?

I wonder what is the state of catering on Indian Railways these days (outside of the tourist oriented luxury trains)? My impression is that a few trains have kitchen cars that prepare meals that are served at one's seat. Do they still have the system that we see in older videos of meal orders taken, meals prepared on land and loaded onto the train at a stop and distributed to passengers in their compartments?

There is only one train in India that still has a Dining Car or Restaurant Car as they are sometimes called there, and that is the Deccan Queen between Mumbai CSMT and Pune. Food service on all other trains that have food service (not all trains do) are food delivered at seat.

Vande Bharat has no food service car. Each car has a small food storage closet and a mini-pantry out of which food is served. The food is loaded from en route static kitchens. It is quite similar to the food service on the mid-distance daytime Shatabdi Express trains. Full meals are served on these trains at your seat unless you have opted out. Even if you change your mind after opting out you can purchase a meal by paying an additional service charge.

Only long distance trains that have very infrequent stops have a food service car which is either called a Pantry Car or a Hot Buffet Car. On some premium trains that have AC First Class (not all premium trains do) food for AC First Class is cooked on board. The rest is served food that is loaded from static kitchens en route. Some premium trains have the food included in the ticket but there is an opt out option with a small discount in the fare to go with it.

In all trains with food service, irrespective of whether it has a Pantry Car or not, food can be ordered using an App for delivery at a mealtime stop. In some cases one can choose either to be served food from an IRCTC kitchen or their primary contractor. Additionally one can choose from among a number of local vendors around the station that participate in the program. In all cases it will be delivered to your seat at that station. I have seen people even order stuff like Dominos Pizzas.