I went on a Delhi trip on 16th Sept 2022 from BZA. As SCR gave 130kmph clearance, I wanted to enjoy the speeds in sleeper class of duronto. So my plan was taking 12269 on friday i.e 16th Sept and returning in 12270 on saturday i.e on 17th Sept. I checked the current availability of sleeper tickets but no luck, So I had to book 3A in Chennai Rajdhani on Friday from BZA to NZM. For return sleeper tickets were available in tatkal for 12270, so went ahead and booked, got a lower berth.
Main...
more... reason to chose Friday trip is Duronto rake will get 1 day space on thursday so that there are no delay effects.
As planned I reached Vijayawada railway station by 11.00AM I reached to PF7 where Konark has arrived already after 5-10min it departed. Rajdhani arrived on time and we started with 5-10min delay from PF 7. At this point Duronto arrived at Krishna canal and waiting.
As 3rd line Non interlocking works are going on at BZA-Kondapalli all trains are moving under Caution order i.e around 10-15kmph. Rajdhani came to halt as soon as we exited BZA. After some 15-20 min it started again. By the time we crossed Kondapallli we are already delayed by good 50min as Rajdhani crawled at 10kmph until kondapalli.
Once after crossing we picked up pace to 110-120kmph mostly, 130 occasionally. Rajdhani overtook Kerala express at Khammam. We were stopped at Dornakal outer for an hour as some track work is going on. There was a freight at Dornakal home signal, then Rajdhani, then Kerala, then Duronto. At this point delay has become 2.5hrs. Once the track is clear we started and as soon as we crossed Dornakal there was consistent 130 until Warangal. By the time we reached warangal, Duronto is just 10km away. As we departed Duronto entered warangal and halted for good time because after that the gap has become 30kms between Rajdhani and Duronto.
As we were approaching to Balharshah 15024 YPR - GKP was stopped at Manikgarh and overtook by Rajdhani to enter BPQ. We were on PF5 and PF4 is occupied by some freight so there was no possibility utilising 2PFs. At this point the delay has reduced to 2hrs thanks to the slack at BPQ. By the time Rajdhani departed BPQ 15024 is waiting at BPQ outer and Duronto is waiting at Manikgarh (1st reason).
By the time we reached NGP gap between Rajdhani and Duronto was 80kms. And the delay was 2hrs for Rajdhani, 2.5hrs for Duronto. I slept and wokeup at Jhansi. Here comes the shocker, Rajdhani madeup 1hr and duronto's delay has become 2hr 40min. By the time Rajdhani reached Okhla delay Rajdhani's projected delay was 10min and Duronto's was 2hrs. As expected I got a msg on phone mentioning that Duronto 12270 got rescheduled to depart NZM at 17.25hrs. Rajdhani arrived at NZM at 11.00AM with 30 min delay and Duronto arrived at 12.25PM with around 1hr 50min delay.
Now I understood my return journey will be screwed. 12270 departed NZM 17.25PM behind AK Rajdhani. The order was GT -22222 CR Rajdhani - Mumbai Tejas Rajdhani - AK Rajdhani -MAS Duronto. I took CR Rajdhani as benchmark out of all these as we will be trailing until ET. Now the distance between CR Rajdhani and MAS duronto was around 50-60kms as it started 30min ahead from NZM.
22222 overtook GT before Agra, By the time 12270 skipping agra gap between GT and MAS duronto was only 10-15kms. I thought OT will be at AGC, instead Duronto was trolled until Morena. Duronto was stopped at Dhoulpur as GT just left after the halt. They could not loop GT in Dhoulpur as there was a freaight standing on the other platform.
As 12270 approached Gwalior it got stopped at outer for good 10min even though station was empty, there was no train ahead of us, no freights on the main line, still we got stopped. In the meantime 22222 is pulling away like crazy. At Gwalior gap between 22222 and 12270 was 100km approx.
22222 reached Jhansi within 1hr from Gwalior, 12270 was badly trolled between Gwalior and JHS as it took 1.5hrs. Now 1.5hrs delay has already become 2.5hrs. I slept at JHS and wokeup between NGP and BPQ.
Here Duronto got trolled once again behind Telangana Express. When I checked gap between Telangana and Duronto was 20-30km. As it stops at chandrapur, when we reached BPQ it's already waiting on PF1 and we were taken on PF3. Telangana was given green as we waited 10more mins in BPQ. As Telangana having more stops still we were not given overtake until Manchiryal.
Finally we reached BZA at 6PM with successful delay of 3.5hrs.
PS: 1) I was blown away by the priority that Rajdhanis get. we literally covered 2.5hrs delay. That means Rajdhani can do BZA-NZM in 20hrs or less.
2) Sad part is Duronto is no longer a premium train. There should be alternate Duronto rake when it gets delayed. As of today i.e 20 sept Duronto is late by 4hrs which is the ripple of the delay stacked up on 16th September of as it's the single rake that gets ready for the next consecutive journey.
3) As far as I know, MAS duronto gets delayed often, I never saw SC Duronto getting delayed like this. (Non foggy seasons)
Had it been a Rajdhani in place of Duronto in return, it would've overtaken GT at Agra, it would've nailed Gwalior -JHS in 1hr, it would've overtaken Telangana in BPQ itself.
IR should give priority on par or more priority to Durontos along with Rajdhani.
Thanks for reading the longgggg POST
