On Indian Railways

It has been more than a year since I traveled by Indian Railways. Most of my travels now-a-days are on road (if I happen to go from Bangalore to my native place in Kerala) or by flight in case I need to travel far.

Couple of weeks back, I had one off work in Chennai. I had taken the same day return ticket for the Shatabdi Express from Bangalore-Chennai-Bangalore.

The train was scheduled to leave at 6.30 AM; and dot on time it left the platform 6 of Bangalore City Station. The Chair car was comfortable – the AC not too cold, soft carnatic music being played through the pipes.

The attendant was well dressed and presentable, something I never related to Indian Railways – where cleanliness is only for slogan purpose. Along with the welcome drink, I had the option to choose from 3 English Dailies. There was a public announcement mentioning the travel distance, the travel time, and the important stations in between; reminded me of the pilot in a plane giving out the temperature and altitude, and flying over which city details.

The best part was that the attendant was ever helpful, and always had something to offer every 30-45 minutes. There were also messages in between the journey, mentioning if the train was running on schedule or late.

Over all it was a great experience. I loved this train travel after a very long time.

Hmm, What I could see in the train in future – Internet access, Television, maybe all the compartments are interconnected and there will be a dining coaches, observation coaches etc…

The idea is not to build faster trains and better railroad tracks to make people travel fast… the idea is to make the people enjoy their travel. As someone said, it is not the destination that matter, but the Journey.

Cheers

Santosh

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