After years, I had the opportunity to travel on an Indian train, specifically the Vande Bharat, which is often hailed as a source of pride for the Indian Railways. My anticipation was elevated due to the numerous vlogs and blog posts that had raised my expectations.
Here are my initial impressions.
**Advantages:**
– The train departed punctually, a promising start.
– The newly implemented electronic control for coach gates facilitates traveling with luggage.
– The smart uniforms of the catering staff were quite appealing.
– The washrooms have been upgraded to eco-friendly standards, resembling those found on an aircraft.
– Notably, I observed the availability of golf carts on the platforms, offering assistance to elderly passengers to reach their respective coaches.
**What I Disliked:**
– Unfortunately, the charging socket placement under the seat was rather inconvenient.
– The seats, which lacked the ability to recline, made an eight-hour journey uncomfortable. Additionally, the lumbar support was less than ideal.
– While the food quality was superior to that of a flight, the portion of chholey served with kulcha for breakfast left much to be desired. When I requested a switch to an egg breakfast, it was met with immediate refusal, and the attendants displayed an attitude issue. This was also evident when another passenger sought their assistance with luggage. They simply ignored the request, appearing as though the person didn’t exist.
– I attempted to share feedback about the insufficient chholey portion with IRCTC. To my surprise, while they offered a phone number for feedback, there was no option to fill out an online form that would leave a record for the ministry to take notice of.
– The presence of noisy children, people playing music on speakerphones, and watching movies in public spaces was a significant drawback. Most European countries have transitioned to silent cabins, where even keeping a phone on ringer is not permitted, whereas here, passengers had to endure such disturbances.
– Despite the efforts to make the washrooms eco-friendly, they remained dirty and emitted unpleasant odors, which can be attributed to the lack of etiquette among passengers using them.
– Trains kept displaying a speed which wasn’t in line with the actual speed. So while the display showed a speed of 88km/hour, with my experience train was traveling at just 30km/h
– Finally, the footrest was inconvenient and had only one position setting, in stark contrast to my recollection of Shatabdi trains offering at least 2-3 different settings.
In conclusion, my journey on the Vande Bharat had its share of positive aspects. However with a price difference of just Rs2k per head (compared to cattle class travel by Vande Bharat, executive class is similarly priced) by flight, saving 7 hours of travel time and other related perks, flight options must certainly be explored.
