Travelled in yesterday ,14.10.16 Pune departure Chennai mail at 18.10 in S5 coach to Chennai in Mumbai to Chennai Central Express and arrived Chennai Central at 16.40 ,just ten minutes delay.
Maintenance ::
The cleanliness and watering are good.
The coach is good old one operated between Mumbai Metro to Chennai Metro via Pune Mini Metro.
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more... Minimum Facilities :::
This S5 coach 3rd bay does not have dining tray.
No cell charging point provided in all these bays.
No plastic wired water bottle holder in this bsy of berths 25 to 32 .
Our Indian Railway should be provided at least water bottle holder in wired plastic (the cheapest arrangement) or mettalic bottle holder to all the Sleeper class passengers individually in their berth.
Train operation:;;
Mumbai to Chennai express is operated as Fast Passenger in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh with slow speed and more number of stoppages.
This train operated up to Arakkonam in time and departure at Arakkonam at 14.20 today,15.10.16.
This train has no stoppages at Thiruvallur ,but Stopped for 10 minutes in the Thiruvallur western outer signal.Moreover this train stopped at Basin Bridge western outer signal and stopped in the Basin Bridge station around 40 minutes and started at 16.30 and arrived Central station 10 minutes late in No 1 platform.
Arakkonam to Chennai Central takes 2 hour 20 minutes to reach the extreme northern side of the number 1 platform.Platform 1 to 5 may be utilized exclusively for the Northern trains via Gudur .Platforms 6 and above shall be utilized for Arakkonam side trains . Since this train traditionally allotted to the extrem. Northern platform number 1 ,it have to be held up at Basin Bridge more than 40 minutes to cross all the Central station platform from Southern end to the Extreme Northern end.
From Arakkonam to Chennai Central travel 2Expresses and 3 sub- urban passengers over taken this train.
SR shall be received this Express in the southern side of the platforms close to Moore Market Complex ( platforms number 6 and above.
My suggestion for this express train operation between 2 Metros of Arabic coast to Bay of Bengal .
This train have to be operated as Super Fast and arrive Chennai central around 4 hours before ie is 12.30 . Otherwise in the present Express form at least 2 hours before arrival time of Chennai around 14.30.
Pune to Sholapur Hutama ordinary express started at Pune at 18.00 daily and arrived Solapur at 22.00.But Mumbai to Chennai Central express started at Pune at 18.10 and reached Sholapur 23.15 ( additional travelling time of 1 hour and 5 minutes of same category of express with same stoppages for both of distance 263 km only ).
So as this express can be saved at least 2 hour running time and arrived Chennai Central around 14.30.
Hope that our CR,SCR and SR shall be operated this train with lesser travelling time of 2 hours as Expresses and Saved 4 hours of running time as SUPER FAST .and received in platforms in the Southern side close to Moore Market side ( platform no 6 and above ),so as this train can not be blocked all the Central station platforms.