Travelled in Avadh Assam express End to End from Lalgarh to Dibrugarh this month in 2 AC.
This train is filled up pretty much throughout the journey before Guwahati so don't expect to find any empty seats in intermediate trip.
The...
more... journey goes smoothly till Old Delhi Junction where the timing is maintained so this train is good overnight option from Bikaner to Delhi. After Delhi, this train faces some serious delays all the way till Guwahati. It'll keep getting delayed and make up due to a number of slack in the middle. If you're planning to have any connecting trip, I'd suggest you to go for a different train instead of this one because this train is guaranteed to be delayed in the intermediate stations. It'll start making up for the delays after Guwahati.
The pantry food is barely palatable, it's half cooked rice, thin sal, some potato dish and 2 roti or chapati. For non veg, the option is egg or chicken in lunch and dinner. Either way, they didn't overcharge me and charged the MRP price. Even the water bottle will be sold at MRP price without asking. But the cold drinks will have MRP rubbed off, so I'd recommend you to get cold drinks at station.
The tea is probably their high margin item with which they generate a lot of profit due to which you'll find them every 5-10 minutes roaming around guaranteed. The tea smells good but you'll know that they use less milk in it as per instruction of their pantry manager. You can go to the pantry yourself and demand for a better tea for yourself or threaten to complain because a normal tea is supposed to be sold at 7 rs and only dip tea can be sold at 10 rs. They make "special" tea usually only for first class and TTEs. Even coffee will be sold with same thin milk.
In breakfast, you'll get Bread cutlet and omlette as option. I've never tried omlette but cutlet had decent taste all 3 mornings though they were a bit oily. Cutlet costed 40 rs. Occassionally parathas were sold but I didn't buy them.
The OBHS staff were active in 2AC and actively cleaned all the coaches and bathroom whenever they could. I've been to bathroom several times and not once did I find pungent smell in it in both western and Indian style toilet. You can wake up a bit late and be assured that bathroom will remain clean. And the handwash was always available inside the bathroom.
I'd recommend not to order from IRCTC E catering due to delays this train face. Your order may not show up. At some points, this train got delayed by up to 3 hours and my co passenger had to get food from pantry and deal with IRCTC for the refund as the order was prepaid.
In terms of railfanning, you'll find a lot of crossings and overtakes including one by Rajdhani and Kanchunjunga each.
Be careful of your belongings from day 3 as a lot of unauthorised vendors enter the train to sell food and local passengers too attempt to enter this train. They start coming in from Samastipur till New Bangoigaon. There have been cases where belongings were stolen by these vendors. Don't buy anything from these vendors including water bottle as they sell it at 20 rs instead of 15. In New Jalpaiguri, they'll sell a 2 litre bottle for 20 rs but buy it at your own risk.
I'd recommend you to get upper berth if you're alone where you can keep your belongings with the trust of your copassengers. Thieves will only steal items that are within the reach so keep your belongings at the corner of upper berth.
