Dear friend you have given good info, and I appreciate your affection for the first Raj of IR network, but with reference to this poll where 2 rajs on different routes are compared, the logic given does not looks so relevant. Point by point explanation:
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(1) Almost all the trunk routes of IR are congested, with saturation level hovering above 150% on many sections. It is not like that there is congestion is in NDLS-HWH only and not in NDLS-Mum route. All other SF trains are having similar avg speed in both...
more... routes, so both are more or less saturated to similar levels. Had HWH Raj route be much more congested, SFs of the route would have much lesser avg speed than the one on Mumbai Raj route. As per the relatively higher traffic in HWH Raj route (esp MSR-HWH), a larger part is tripled. So the cpngestion is at similar level. By the way no. of trains in BCT-VR section of Mumbai Raj route is the highest in the world. Goldmedalist and silver medalist have a difference of only a fraction of second, so difference of 1kmph is good enough. In fact Mumbai Raj is not kid but a King having more priority than all the other Rajs and Durontos. In contrast Sealdah Duronto has higher priority than HWH Raj, which is just like many other Rajs running just one behind the other, hence just a darbaari.
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(2) Trains esp. the premium ones like Raj are introduced to serve the traffic and not the station. Hence it is important to consider the number of passengers for the train at originating station rather than the number of platforms at the originating station. Here HWH is way behind Mumbai.
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(3) Only thing that goes in favour of HWH Raj is that it was first Raj on IR network and introduced in 1969 and Mumbai Raj was second one and introduced in 1972. That was due to fact that till 70s, Kolkata was considered as no.1 city of India by population and importance. Gradually Mumbai over took Kolkata and today it is very much ahead. So present is different than past.
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(4) If MPS is taken as criterial, then at national level, only 2 trains get special privilege i.e. Gatimaan 160kmph and BPL shatabdi i,e, 150kmph. Rest all rajdhanis are just Darbaaris with MPS of 130 which many other trains are running. Then this his poll becomes defunct. You can condisder importance of a train only by its comparision with other trains of same/simialr category on the route. Here Mumbai Raj is king and HWH raj is darbaari i.e. many Rajs like BBS/GHY/RNC have same speed, slot, and avg speed on the same route.
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You conclusion that comparision of two trains on different routes is baseless- implies that this poll itself is useless.
But friend comparison can be done and has been done, by logically choosing and analysing the right & relevant parameters.
