बिहार संपर्क क्रांति : मिथिला पेंटिंग की सुंदरता और तेज रफ्तार - Keshav Singh

OBSERVATIONS

Most trains only stop for 2 to 5 minutes at the station. Though there are coach indicators, people still sometimes miss their trains since the SL and GN coaches can be quite crowded. I railfanned on my first day and saw a guy being thrown out of the AC Pantry Car of a RUNNING TRAIN because he was probably an unreserved pax boarding in an unauthorised manner. [ Still, throwing from a running train could be limb threathening easily; IMO, shouldn't have been done, better to hand over to in train...
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RPF]. On my last day, I saw many folks missing trains since the GN and SL coaches were stuffed to the brim and train didn't stop for more than 2 mins. Better to board from an AC coach, preferably AC 2 Tier and then make their way to the coach. A longish route, but probably better since the trains stop for quite small amounts of time. I also saw an RPF guy violently stop a person from boarding a running train. The idiot guy still, ran after being thrown, and boarded the train[ despite another train coming bound for same direction couple of minutes later]. The RPF was flabbergasted, saying to passengers, that all his efforts were in vain due to such people.

Coming to the retiring rooms, they are expensive here. I had to pay 1300 for 12 hrs which was much expensive than either Guwahati or Allahabad. There is also a Maharaja suite here which is even more expensive. The services here seem not to be managed by IRCTC or IR but by a third party. The room was cleaned in front of me and was properly maintained. Properly air conditioned with good linens and bathroom. If someone wishes to go to GWL for any reason, the station retiring room is expensive but gives a good experience.

This is technically not train related, but please do your food near the station only. Many locations in the city didn't have proper eateries and I was disappointed at the food choices. There was nothing unique food wise that one would find. Nothing like the romance of finding a good hole in the wall kebab shop when wandering the streets of Lucknow, let's say. It does have pretty good tourist places to see with the flagship being the Gwalior fort [ not too far from the main rail station ]. There is a domestic airport but only to big cities like Delhi and Bombay, do they run. Direct transport from rail station wasn't available, unless one books a cab. I had to change once.