For a business meeting tomorrow I had to come to Bangalore. It so happened in the last 5 to 6 years that I almost always did morning-evening same day return flights from Chennai to Bangalore due to my schedules and my dislike for Railway stations. Considering the growing hassles of the hour-long queues in Airport securities and the praises I was hearing from my colleagues/media about the improved service in Indian Railways I decided this time to give Train a try.
Just now I reached Bangalore after travelling by Shatabdi Express that reached Bangalore Cantonment at 10.20PM (STA 10.05PM) which started from Chennai at 5:30 PM sharp. The overall experience was very good, I am certainly pleased and I want to do this more often than the flights – I guess this is greener as well. Comparing to Indian Railway’s historic (lack of) standards everything was clean including the coaches, seats, toilets and above all the stations at both ends. I travelled in the Executive coach and the service was certainly good, they kept giving you something to eat throughout the journey – Samosas, Cool Drink, Biscuits, Cashews, Wafers, Coffee/Tea, Soup, Dinner and Ice-Cream. I was surprised to hear that they had PA systems in the coaches in which they kept announcing things like crews names, delays, approaching station, time of arrival, etc.
Above all, I liked the idea you can be connected to a data card throughout the journey and keep working on your laptop catching up on your work. For instance, in the first one hour, I finished most of my pending emails and in the next few hours 3/4th of a book.
Keep up the good work Indian Railways, Thanks, Mr.Lalu & Team for giving us a good experience.
Shatabdi Express Train No.2027 Chennai to Bangalore
Thanks Harjit for pointing out the typos. I will have them corrected right away.
On the other point, there is a difference on expectation on the accuracy between a printed book and a blog. A blog is expected to be casual and you are forgiven for typos; a book is a professional work and is expected to be free of spelling mistakes that too on personalities names.
thanks venkat..I’ll give a try..
In another post you write about someone else mis-spelling Sunil Bharti Mittal’s name, yet in this post you spell ‘wafer’ as ‘waffer’, and are you serious about getting soap to eat ;-) !? Guess the shoe is on the other foot now, eh mate?
Mahesh, I was booked on E1 coach (I suppose it is called Executive class) which costed Rs.1080 (Internet booking through IRCTC website). Definitely cheaper and almost 1/3 of the lowest air fare you can find now from MAA2BLR.
Venkat,Good to know that our Indian Railway is progressing well and having standards to meet our expectation. By the way,it would be nice for anyone or new bies like me to know the exact cost of the ticket.