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Railways robs Brindavan Express to pay Bangalore double-decker
V Ayyappan,TNN | Feb 7, 2014, 06.17 AM IST
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CHENNAI: It was once billed as the most prestigious day trains of Southern Railway. Now, the Chennai-Bangalore Brindavan Express is in a state of disarray, thanks to railway authorities' attempts to boost patronage of the Chennai-Bangalore double-decker train.
Southern Railway has started to scale down reserved coaches of the popular Brindavan Express to ensure passengers opt for the air conditioned double-decker train which was introduced in April last year. The double-decker departs at 7.25am and Brindavan leaves at 7.50am. Nevertheless, Brindavan Express has a long waitlist everyday. The ill-designed double-decker which has cramped seats goes empty on most of the days.
When the double-decker train was introduced, it evoked curiosity among passengers. However, it failed to take off as passengers complained of cramped seats and aisles, and an air-conditioning system that breaks down often.
Instead of rectifying the flaws of the double-decker coaches, railways found a rather easy way out: It cut down the number of AC chair car coaches on the Brindavan Express from three to one with the hope that passengers would shift to the double-decker train. As Brindavan still remained popular, the only AC coach and four second class chair cars (reserved) were withdrawn from January 16, leaving it with six second class chair cars.
"Railways is destroying a popular train and eliminating a choice of travel for passengers to improve patronage of an ill-designed double-decker," said S Sadagopan, who travels frequently to Bangalore.
Brindavan Express has been getting short shrift for about a year. Railways shifted it to another time slot and introduced the double-decker in its place, thinking it would fetch more revenue. That was not to be. A senior railway official said that trains are introduced more due to political pressure than for passenger convenience. "Garib Rath, Duronto Express, double-decker are all showpieces that neither add value to passengers nor generate revenue for railways. Shortage of staff and high maintenance cost make it worse."
A guard on the double-decker, said: "The double-decker train can be exciting for some passengers, but it can never match the emotional attachment one has towards Brindavan Express which has fewer stops and reaches its destination in less than five hours. For a regular traveller and someone like me who is assigned duty on this route, Brindavan Express is any day better."
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Abraham George (Mysore, Karnataka)
2 Followers
59 mins ago Bronze: 62Frequent FlyerMember
Brindavan lost its charm long time back. Unreserved passengers throng the reserved compartments with impunity . This prestigious non stop train with distinct livery used to take 5 hours when introduced, later became run of the mill with any number of political stops and taking more than 6 hours. It further lost its charm after the introduction of Shatabdi with its LHB coaches. And now with the ill designed DD the final nail has been hit on this once prestigious train!
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G Srinivasan (ahmedabad)
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1 hr ago Gold: 5.1KInfluencer5Wordsmith4Networker
This is called killing the golden goose.
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rnathanbala (Location)
27 Followers
1 hr ago Gold: 9.7KInfluencer7Wordsmith5Networker2
Some one who is aware How and Why LalBagh Express between Bangalore and Chennai introduced during Jaffer Shariff as Railway Minister may not wonnder how certain trains are introducec oe withdrawn with the will and pleasure of Politicians. Incidendtaly it is wromg to say that the travel time for one way in Brindavan is less than 5 hrs. It was when it was introduced in the begining 0f 1970s , afer regulating the speed now it takes little more than 6 hrs with more than half a dozen new stops added. The defaming of this prestige train started not now but a few years back itself. The average age of the bogies in BE are more than 10/15 years old. Anyone travel in this train regularly will vouch these facts.
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vsuresh5 (BLR)
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1 hr ago Silver: 1.2KInfluencerWordsmith4Networker
Railways plays politics they don't have give proper security to the reservation coaches, the toilets are not cleaned properly as well as coaches too, in a/c coaches we can find cockroaches too.. food which was supplied from the pantry quality is not so good.. please take necessary steps and rectify...
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Krishnan (Salem)
2 hrs ago
Double Decker train must be abandoned. It is ugly inside. Travelling in Brindavan is always fun . Railways may target another popular train Kovai Express.
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nataraj_dn ()
32 Followers
2 hrs ago Gold: 9.8KInfluencer5Wordsmith5Networker2
brindhawan exporess is a name to reckon with
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vrsundar308 (Location)
19 Followers
3 hrs ago Silver: 4.7KInfluencer3Wordsmith4Networker
Our Great elected politicians are sucking their thumb with out fighting for our comforts, but enhancing their wealth Shame on our politicians
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santhi_chella ()
3 hrs ago Bronze: 123News KingFrequent FlyerMember
I had a bitter experience of travelling by double decker a month back and could not keep my feet down as thee was a colony of mosquitoes . We were worried whether we will be down with dengue ! The toilets were stinking and there were too many non railways caterers through out the journey selling something or the other. Railway authorities please discontinue this double decker service
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Devatha (Chennai )
3 hrs ago
People must get their choice.
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Devatha (Chennai )
3 hrs ago
Dirty railwaya politics
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anup (Buenos Aires)
12 Followers
3 hrs ago Silver: 2.0KInfluencer3Movie BuffWordsmith4
Make double decker train more convenient and the sentiments towards Brindavan will vade out
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gangatharan69 ()
3 hrs ago Bronze: 144News KingFrequent FlyerMember
All day trains between Bangalore and Chennai gives pathetic experience to the passengers. Brindivan being the worst, there's no guarantee for a seat even one has got a confirmed ticket made by advance reservation.
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chintamani sundaram (Bangalore)
3 hrs ago
It is not emotional attachment, it's simple comfort, the seats are so cramped you will definitely suffer body ache and sprain for a week, leg room is poor, doesn't have under thigh support, it's too narrow, and doesn't recline to levels of basic expectation, the railways are so lousy that after so many years of experience they have designed such poor compartments. They have also reduced the foot rail in all the coaches which are used for climbing into middle and upper berths, this is so poorly designed that many people find it extremely difficult and bump their head and body while climbing. Somebody has to file a suit a make them pay for their mistakes.
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tsgopala gopalakrishnan (chennai)
71 Followers
3 hrs ago Gold: 20.0KInfluencer7Wordsmith6Networker2
Rob peter and pay another peter gopalan chennai 7 th feb
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Sampath B. N (Pune)
4 hrs ago
A typical & classical example how our politicians can kill brand. A classic train for every household is Brindavan express Why should railway patronise double decker train and in first place why introduce a train without ma king proper feasibility study
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NK ()
43 Followers
4 hrs ago Gold: 14.5KInfluencer7Wordsmith5Networker2
It is very difficult to sit straight for six hours. I travelled twice and developed back pain. Those guys who designed the seats should have first sat for six hours in a seat without any sideways movement. I saw many people who are slightly bulkier in weight suffer much more. Seats are too cramped indeed. Wisdom lies in withdrawing the train, remodel the seats, reduce the number of seats and then float it once again.
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Mirror on the Wall (Unknown)
1 Followers
4 hrs ago Silver: 280WordsmithNews KingFrequent Flyer3
This is the sensible thing Railways did. Infact they should run a pair train for the double decker. The other day when i was travelling by lalbagh from chennai, had a horrible experience. The whole train reservation coach is converted to open travel with crowds occupying every inch of space right throught the entire journey. Result: Passengers who paid for reservation has to suffer. Got a doubt whether this is townbus express. The only solution is reconfiguring the number of coaches. Both should exist as the crowd becomes unmanageable. In that sense dd is good and should continue.
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anonymous (India)
1 Followers
4 hrs ago Silver: 280WordsmithNews KingFrequent Flyer3
This is the sensible thing Railways did. Infact they should run a pair train for the double decker. The other day when i was travelling by lalbagh from chennai, had a horrible experience. The whole train reservation coach is converted to open travel with crowds occupying every inch of space right throught the entire journey. Result: Passengers who paid for reservation has to suffer. Got a doubt whether this is townbus express. The only solution is reconfiguring the coaches. In that sense dd is way to go. Those attaching sentiment to old brindavan and other things are living in a fools paradise. Hope Railways sort out the issue earlier sooner.
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Ramesh Mungara (Unknown)
5 hrs ago Silver: 1.3KNews King3Frequent Flyer3Member
Let our people travel abroad ,see the space for travel in the trains,understand the mechanics of a coach. Simply wasting time on uncomfortable designs and it's necessary to allow the big companies to enter railways in order to compete with each other. Hope railways come with aggressive ideas.
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krishnan sankaran (Chennai)
67 Followers
5 hrs ago Platinum: 30.9KInfluencer7Movie Buff4Moderator
It is nothing but Brain drain of Railway Ministry and its Officials with selfish and ulterior motives. Instead of focusing to rectify the flaws for the betterment of passengers, the Railways attitude of withdrawing the AC and First Class coaches of the popular Brindavan Express has to be condemned by one and all. Passenger facilities is more important and if NOT done people will always choose other mode of conveyance as told by the Senior Railway Official that Trains are introduced by Political compulsion but NOT with due care for passenger convenience. If lessons are learnt Railways will rectify the mistakes or if they think that Change of Govt. is the only way for the solution let us throw the UPA Govt. into the dustbin in the coming General Election !!!
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Sajid Firdausi ()
5 hrs ago Silver: 349News King2Frequent Flyer3Member
It is sad that southern railways is degrading a prestigious service like Brindavan express. Its unfair on the part of SR to force Brindavan's 2S passengers to go for A/C on double-decker.. Being a frequent traveler in Brindavan I request the authorities to restore the number of 2S coaches in Brindavan to the earlier level to avoid long waiting list.
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Railways robs Brindavan Express to pay Bangalore double-decker