horrendous train. cockroaches and rodents everywhere. pest control once a week as indicated in the stickers outside. and its simply not enough. train left on time, reach kgp on time, reached tata 1.5 hrs late. reached ngp 3.5 hrs late. reached igatpuri 3.5 hrs late.. and then on it was horrible. since it was late, all other trains were allowed to pass. in kasara, mangala lakshawadeep went ahead. in kharadi (or something like that), it waited for 1 hr to let 1 local and 2 trains pass. finally reached dadar at 1100 am today. 6 hrs late. i wish i never had taken this train. it stops everywhere and hence the chance of making up for lost time is less. It has been discusssed often here that stops dont really add up much to a running time. true. but it makes trains with many stops difficult to make up for the...
more... lost time. it would run good for 20 mins and then stop again. if the same speed is continued maybe the chances of making up for loss time is more. the only good thing was there was a nice parallel action with azad hind after bilaspur (it reached bilaspur at 10:00 am), and real fast as well. mail left some station and was gradually picking up speed in the middle line. azad hind came from behind and it was doing around 100. mail was then around 70. the action continued for a while and then both trains seemed to match each other. this run happened for a good 10-15 mins and then azad hind had to give up. it had two freight trains ahead of it in its line. mail zoomed ahead. azad hind kept following the mail, which was followed by first howrah - porbander and then samarsata. azad hind finally managed an overtake at dhamangaon in the evening. samarsata did overtake mail in igatpuri but it reached LLT late as well. I could see it waiting outside LTT for a platform while we passed kurla.
Overall an horrible journey. food surprisingly tasted better than duronto. nothing much to speak abt speed. chicken meal costed Rs 80. they have fish for non-veg. chicken cutlet with tons of potato costs Rs 50 and similar paneer cutlet cost Rs 40. Veg meal is Rs 50. not sure if these are irctc rates. i had taken this train so that i can join back office on monday morning. thought it wont be late by more than 2 hrs. I will not take this train ever again. cleaning was awful, not once anyone came to clean the coaches. no one also cleaned the glasses from outside. AC3 and Ac2 coaches were 2004 made. didnt check AC1.
