I wanna chat about my fav train, Amritsar Swarna Shatabdi Express. I've been riding it since I was a kid. Today, I wanna point out how its quality has kinda gone downhill in the EC class. Thankfully, the coaches are new, but the service feels old school, especially in the EC.

They used to lay down a red carpet, but now that's missing.
Earlier, there used to be female attendants too, now it's all males.
They'd welcome you with a bowl of sweets, but now that's gone.
For evening snacks, there'd be chocolates like 5 Star, Bar One, plus sweets, samosas, sandwiches, roasted cashews. Now, no chocolates, and soan cake replaces the sweets, rest is the same.
They'd serve juices in glasses, now it's tetra packs.
Soup used to be freshly made with breadsticks and buns, now it's Knorr with just breadsticks.
For dinner, we used to have 4 choices - veg, non-veg, continental veg, continental non-veg. Now, continental options are missing.
Fruits used to be served after dinner, but not anymore.
Dessert's still the same, but back then, they'd give plates to have it.

Talking 'bout 2013-14, I remember paying like 1300-1400 for EC, now it's 2000.

Pehli baar vande bharat ke aane ke baad, maine amritsar shatabdi aur swarna shatabdi express mein acchi bhari hui seat occupancy dekhi. Warna, vande bharat ke aane ke baad, dono train ka patronage kam ho gaya tha.