Traveled on 12246 on 10 June and returned back on 12245 on 25 June. Was onboard AC 2 Tier (A1) on the both the trips. To be honest, it was one of the worst Duronto Train I have ever traveled on. First thing first, I will break up my trip report into the following ways where I will rate it out of 5;
Food: 0/5. Poor Quality of Food. Totally Poor. In Veg, there is only one option which is Paneer Butter Masala (As per the Caterer), however as per the passenger...
more... it is more of four pieces of paneer in some kind of oily-yellowish curry. There is no other option. Yes, for 12246, in dinner one can get Mix Veg, but that's quality is far worse and inferior than the Paneer. In Nov-Veg, one can choose between Egg and Chicken. Better go with the Chicken, because Egg Curry is more of like two eggs in yellow watery oil curry. No taste, nothing. Atleast, the chicken curry was tasty. In the entire journey, you will get three variation of dal. In first day lunch a watery dal, in dinner, dal looks more like a paste and in next day lunch, the dal is more of a like a yellow water. If they serve Roomali Rotis, then yeah its okay, otherwise if they serve you normal rotis, better not to have it. In place of tea, they are handing out hot water with tea kit. God know how one is going to make a tea, via hands ? No cutlery is provided. Only one plastic white spoon. Ice Creams are served hot, fully melted. During my return journey in 12245, in lunch instead of ice cream they started serving out Soan Cake. And their excuse was that the fridge was not working properly.
Cleanliness: 0/5. Specifically for A1. During both course of my journey and also during my journey in 02245/02246 Duronto COVID Special, each time the A1 was some old coach. Seats were worn out, the toilets were dirty . Howsoever, OBHS cleans it, but the old dents would not got. Seems like were never refurbished. OBHS was sitting all the way in the TTE seat and were seldom cleaning the gallery of the coach. However, during my return journey in 12245, A1 was making some very weird humming noise. First I thought it must be from the EOG. However, it was different. When I went to H1, there was no sound such. Additionally, heavy jerks were experienced throughout the journey.
Security; 1/5. Not a single RPF personal I saw in the entire journey. During each stoppage, vendors and beggers were coming inside the train. I have never experienced the same while travelling in premium trains such as Rajdhani and Duronto.
Punctuality: 5/5. Atleast in this matter, it won't upset you. I had to catch 12341 Agniveena (Bidhan) from Howrah. And my only concern was the evening suburban traffic. However, it pulled in at time. So no complaint on this matter.
Ticket Availability: 3/5. It is the only premium train with the shortest time travel between Kolkata and Bangalore. If you want to book tickets in Sleeper, better book it in time and that too in ARP period. SL gets booked much fast and runs jam packed throughout the year. For AC classes, you can get ticket even if you book 20 days prior to your travel. However, for AC 2, it gets filled much quicker as compared to AC First and AC 3. It is better if IR augments 12245/12246 with one additional AC 2 Tier.
Railfanning: 5/5. I think much is written about it. But in an all, a good train for for rail-fanning. The daylight crossing on the second day is absolutely the best, specifically skipping some of the major stations of Odisha such as Bhadrak and others.
Conclusion: The train was best of its kind, before COVID-19. Everything was good. However, post COVID-19 everything has changed. Food quality to everything. Earlier only Caterer use to ask for tips. Now OBHS and Attendants too ask for "Bakshish". The way things are going, it seems that after few years, even Guards, TTE and LP would also be asking for some Bakshish. Linens were terrible. No blankets were provided. I have traveled in ER's premium trains and in SER's premium trains as well. But to be honest, ER's premium trains have far much better service that SERs.
