I arrived in Bangalore day before yesterday in the new NZM-SBC Rajdhani with LHB rake. I am a Sr. Citizen. Class 2nd AC. My report:
1. Coaches are spanking new. Very neat and in good condition.
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2. Inside the coach near the toilets, it is written, "Housekeeping has been outsourced to Magna Techno Services"
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3. Ceiling seems to be lower than before. When I sit up in lower berth, my head strikes the upper berth.
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4. Reading lights are like plane. A small point of light activated by a switch. You don't need to have hercules strength to lift up the light-covers like before.
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5. Washbasin faucets are not spring-loaded. You don't need to keep holding for water. You can just set the lever left or right for water flow.
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6. I didn't notice any ads outside the train. But Rail Bandhu magazine is 90% ads. Railways seems to be determined to make maximum profit out of ads in their website and magazine.
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7. Pillow cover was crisp and clean. But pillow inside was very, very dirty and SOILED.
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8. Window table was new and shiny, translucent plastic. (with warning: no luggage or kids to be placed).
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9. My berth was next to AC entrance. The spring-door is NEXT to the berth step to climb into the upper berth. While climbing up, if someone opens the AC spring door, I will fall down. So I have to be very careful, and plan when I am going to climb up. Otherwise, I will fall down.
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10. Food is EXACTLY the SAME bad quality as before. SAME menu. Paneer sabzi for BOTH dinner and lunch. Breakfast of Upma-Vadai, TOTALLY TASTELESS, like mud. Curd was very sour at dinner time, while good at lunch. They are recycling the same lunch curd for dinner. Same Vanilla ice-cream again and again. First day it was tasty. But again and again SAME thing - and it loses taste, like a medical prescription of Vanilla ice-cream. (Except that Vanilla ice-cream is also not good for health, unlike prescription)
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11. There is a paper slip in the food tray with a picture and a caption "Timeless Food". I was wondering if "Timeless" in this context means the same stale food day and night, irrespective of time of day!!!!
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12. After second night dinner, they distributed two assessment/feedback forms - 1 for housekeeping, 1 for food. You may take a guess what the feedback was. But 2-3 people have to SHARE the feedback form. Every passenger does not get it. Seems the Railways is trying to save money in form paper here.
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13. Since train was about 30 minutes late in SBC, we got tea in the morning in paper cup.
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14. Extortion by coolies - both at Nizamuddin and Bangalore. There may be some extra facilities for senior citizens (I am Sr. Citizen), but NOBODY knows about them. So, in the end, you have to resort to coolies . At NZM, they asked for Rs. 500 and I bargained down to Rs. 300. At SBC, they asked Rs . 450, and I got down to Rs. 300. 3 medium-sized suitcases and 3 handbags.
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15. No prepaid taxi counter at SBC. The taxi is Non-AC and has painted "Prepaid Taxi" on the outside, but it is NOT prepaid.
The driver himself "quotes prepaid rates" for different locations, just like any other taxi. That is what "prepaid" means here. You can even bargain with him on the "prepaid rates".
On the whole, the LHB coaches are fine, but IR services remain the same as before.
