Gatimaan Express: Raftaar meri Pehchaan - Sajid Akhtar

I took this train recently for traveling upto JSME/Jasidih. I had originally taken it once from Ayodhya to Asansol in winters when it got late by ~4 hrs. But that was in 3A and I was impressed by the on board cleanliness then. This time, I was supposed to be let down. Let's start, shall we.

I went to Babhnan station to catch the BTT/GKP-AY Passenger for MUR. I could have caught GD-ASN train from either MUR or AY but I chose MUR this time. And what a surprise this Ayodhya bound...
more...

passenger gave me. Only few months ago, I could easily get a window seat in this train from any intervening station. Now, there was no place even to stand. [To make it worse, a passenger was snoring on his bench as if he owned the seat.] I guess the extension to Bhatni and inauguration of Ram Temple has helped this train to get traction. IR should have given it a longer rake instead of this pitiful EMU thing that is both short [ I am not sure, but this is definitely not longer than the previous version and SHORTER than GKP-GD passenger which sees lesser crowd] and slow [mps restricted to 100 kph whilst the route can handle 110 kph upto MUR]. Anyways, we were looped twice for overtaking by special trains which ironically had mostly empty SL coaches. We reached MUR late but hardly few folks deboarded meaning most were meant for Ayodhya only.

Our train came ~30 mins late. We had reservation this time in SL class. This train has loco reversal 3 times. I do not know why it doesn't go straight via GKP. The route length might be the same but it'll easily shave off 1+ hour that these LR's require. I ventured into the lone newly added 2A coach[it wasn't there when I traveled last in it] to see how crowded it was. Yeah, Aryabhatta invented 0 just to define the nos of pax traveling in it. The coach remained quite sparsely occupied and I footplated upto Ayodhya. Saw a student[likely] who spat right into the middle of the standing area near the door. So much for education!

Ayodhya still has lots of work to be done. Even the Station Boards weren't erected at PF 2/3. Only 1 functioning shop was there. I got a side lower seat which wasn't occupied until Azamgarh lately. Saw Shahganj where the train again has an LR. Exchanged my upper seat in exchange for a lower berth since someone asked for it. Turns out I shouldn't have done it. We should remain selfish and only look for our self interest. It shouldn't matter to us whether half a dozen members of a family are scattered halfway across the coach and they need our help or not. Because that guy's reservation was only upto some station in Bihar[ he didn't tell me this before hand] which came in dead of the night. I had to come back to my original berth 3 coaches away by which I had lost my sleep. I hated myself so much for giving under pressure.

Anyways, morning came and half dozing, I got a window seat and the tracks rolled by Jhajha and ultimately JSME came at more/less the same time.