[Utopian]

I also saw one of these running in Mumbai. The lower deck seems running on rails. It gives you this uneasy feeling. Normal trains are fine. Personally speaking, would not fancy a ride in these.

[anjan_c2007]

Very poor execution of a very poor concept. Perhaps someone in the government wanted to impress the higher-ups and so the double-deckers came along.

Earlier in the early 1990's, the Sinhagad Express used to run with such coaches between Mumbai- Nashik - Mumbai (do not know if these still run), that were of course, non-AC. As the windows would be open, the lower deck passengers would complain of dust getting inside and making the travel quite dusty and unbearable with the other sitting problems.

The recent decision to add a berth to add a berth along with the two side berths, in AC Three Tier and Second Class Sleeper was also another such short sighted decision, that was idiotically executed and later withdrawn.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by hellmet

I.R is a drain on our tax money.

Originally Posted by New.Novice

Having said that, yes the railways is the single largest unit to eat into our taxes and on all the wrong heads. Wouldn't mind if the expenses were being done on safety and upgrade. Instead the money is going down the drain with umpteen passes and un-explainable perks and what not for railway employees.

You guys are right about the poor insight and planning of these new unnecessary adventures by the railways. At the same time, Railways generate their own money and it does not come from the taxpayer, they have their own budget based on income and expenses. Tickets and more importantly the goods transfers bring their income.

[AbiDas]

I travelled in the double-decker service from Delhi to Jaipur and back in January this year.
Overall, I had a pleasant experience, barring a few nitty-gritties here and there.
To start with, the paintjob is a little harsh on the eyes. The colours also look somewhat cheap.
The design, however, has been inspired from German double-deckers. Having travelled in both, I can say it's a pretty bad copy. The coaches are of the LHB type, as far as I know, and I read somewhere they have an increased length and breadth to accommodate the increased number of seats. During test runs, these coaches scraped the platforms at many stations and caused large dents on the chassis. So much for design accuracy.

Moving on to the interior, this is where it hits you the most. Quite literally so, because I banged my head on the ceiling as soon as I entered. That wasn't the last time either, because headroom on both the decks is low because of the storage compartments (which can't even store anything larger than a briefcase, mind you) above the seats. You'd rather keep sitting on your seat for the entire journey if you want to save your head and knees.
What's also annoying is that a lot of people travelling with large luggage store their bags in the aisle, which is already cramped due to the three seats on each side.

What impressed me the most, however, is the ride quality. These LHB coaches are pretty comfortable (seats are good too) and the AC was effective on both legs of the trip. And it's a lot of fun looking at the world from the lower deck.
I'd personally not shy away from travelling again and recommend it too!

[jigbarai]

Why do people not realize that you get what you pay for.
No point comparing a double decker / garib rath chair car to a regular AC chair car to a Shatabdi.

Shatabdi rates are almost double the rates for this double decker AC chair car rates.

And a LOT of people would prefer to pay less and travel in AC comfort than the regular second class coaches. Not everyone can afford Shatabdi fares.

I find these quite okay for what they are, actually better. In busy routes, you can almost never get seats in regular AC chair car trains simply because of limited capacity. Then you end up paying for 'tatkal' stuff. This atleast gives the option to be much more certain of getting a confirmed seat even on the last days (with its adequate capacity).

And seat comfort aside, a train journey is much much more comfortable than any volvo / road - again it is a personal opinion. Simply because it is a much more smoother / controlled / no jerking / jumping or bad road issues.

[jkrishnakj]

There is huge demand on the Chn-Blr-Chn sector and its natural for the Railways to make good this demand, with a double decker. Looking at the review, we perhaps should not have set expectations to match a Shatabdi/Rajdhani experience inside the coaches of this double decker.

The train is all A/C, else, you can imagine the kind of dust / dirt and everything else that enters the coach. I still cant forget the innumerable journeys made in the Non A.C coaches of "Sinhagad Express" that used to run between Pune - Bangalore. I don't know if it was the age that time, I used to quite like those journeys, ofcourse, expect at those points where this train used to run pretty fast across the Local stations at Mumbai and the noise used to be deafening, and the dust / dirt and everything else finds easy entry.

Coming back to this, I guess its more to do with some additional comfort of an A/C, which most are ready to pay for and still get a ride that is quite comfortable compared to those bus journeys.

[WindRide]

I guess the OP was unlucky to get that particular seat alloted to him. I can see in another pic a lady sitting with one leg on top of another. That should indicate leg space in normal forward facing seats should be better.

[TKMCE]

I find these quite okay for what they are, actually better. In busy routes, you can almost never get seats in regular AC chair car trains simply because of limited capacity. Then you end up paying for 'tatkal' stuff. This atleast gives the option to be much more certain of getting a confirmed seat even on the last days (with its adequate capacity).

Well said. This is the main issue. Most regular trains (not the fully air conditioned trains) the capacity of ac coaches are on an average 15% or less of the total reserved accommodation capacity. Between Chennai and Bangalore for instance Brindavan has 3 and Lalbagh and Bangalore Express only 2 AC Chair Cars each . Also with 5 stops between Chennai and Krishnarajapuram , the new train is a better option than Lalbagh or Brindavan or the Bangalore Express which has between 8 to 14 stops. In other words there is a strong demand for reasonably priced, reasonably quick, reserved upper class accommodation which this train caters to.

[maddyoni10]

Originally Posted by jigbarai

Why do people not realize that you get what you pay for.
No point comparing a double decker / garib rath chair car to a regular AC chair car to a Shatabdi.

Shatabdi rates are almost double the rates for this double decker AC chair car rates.

And seat comfort aside, a train journey is much much more comfortable than any volvo / road - again it is a personal opinion. Simply because it is a much more smoother / controlled / no jerking / jumping or bad road issues.

Shatabdi fare is Rs. 595/- and includes food while Double Decker fare is Rs. 470/-. So the Double Decker train isnt exactly much cheaper. My point was that a little more importance was given to comfort rather than just cramming in seats in every possible nook and corner.

I do agree that train rides are comfortable compared to buses but when I try and book a ticket, the Double Decker would be my last resort as far as trains are concerned. Again, it is my personal choice/opinion.

Thanks
Madhav

[centaur]

I dont think this is new at all. In the 90s we had a Mumbai - Pune train (Sinhagad Express) which was a double decker sans the air conditioning. The only problem was that the lower deck used to get filled up with dust whenever we passed a station since the cars were not air conditioned. This is the same design which has been slightly bettered (read air conditioning). Back then the train ran without any problems whatsoever.
Also no offence meant but we blindly assume that privatization will improve things but it might not necessarily be true for e.g. we have volvos being run by the state transport and those by private operators. I always prefer the one by state transport because
1. They leave on time no matter what, even if the bus is half empty. Private operators will keep holding till the last vacant seat is full. Have spent almost an hour or two sitting in the bus while this was going on
2. The stops are limited and the time is fixed for state transport run buses. In private ones the moment someone on the road shows a hand they stop. They even let in people to sit on the floor (at a concessional rate ofcourse) and people have lost their belongings many times because of such thugs.
3. There have been cases when people have been sitting with their umbrellas open in the monsoons due to continuous dripping from the roof lines, yet to come across this in the state transport ones.
4. In most cases the fare is much lower than private operators and does not double or triple during seasons

[mtnrajdeep]

Originally Posted by maddyoni10

Shatabdi fare is Rs. 595/- and includes food while Double Decker fare is Rs. 470/-.

Shatabdi costs Rs.670/ and this train is Rs. 470/. For the target population of this train, this is quite a big difference.

[maddyoni10]

Thanks to all for the feedback/replies! I just wanted to share a few links on the same:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...cle4644442.ece

The fare differential between Dbl Decker and Shatabdi is the same as quoted by me. The fare on Brindavan AC Chair Car is also Rs. 470/ as in the Double Decker train.

The AC problem has already made it to the newspapers:

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/13050...e-decker-train

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garib_Rath

And last but not the least, I think the Double Decker might be confused for the Garib Raths that were aimed at a particular section as quoted in Wikipedia. The fares in the Garib Raths are two-thirds of the original fare whereas the Double Decker (Chennai-Bengaluru) fare is about the same in the other trains in similar class (AC Chair Car) and about 20% lower than Shatabdi's.

Thanks again
Madhav

[asdon]

About an year and half ago I did travel by the double decker train running between Howrah & Dhanbad, and on that journey itself I decided not to travel by that train anymore, no comfortable seats, push-backs hardly worked, some of the seat locations are very odd, looks like railways just copy pasted the same coaches here, did not do any change, a volvo is any day better than this.

[mvadg]

As many have pointed out above, this was tried out in the 1980s and due to complaints from the travelling public the double decker was pulled out.

Evidently some railway babu has tried to recycle the old coaches lying in the junkyard.

Perhaps he felt the urban dystopia had acclimatized people to accept these now.

WE ARE NOT THERE YET!! Maybe in another 10 years?

[asdon]

Originally Posted by mvadg

As many have pointed out above, this was tried out in the 1980s and due to complaints from the travelling public the double decker was pulled out.

Evidently some railway babu has tried to recycle the old coaches lying in the junkyard.

Perhaps he felt the urban dystopia had acclimatized people to accept these now.

WE ARE NOT THERE YET!! Maybe in another 10 years?

The issue in 80s was different, I happened to have traveled in Black Diamond express, which had those coaches, but that time those were non ac coaches. Here we are talking about seats, I am sure if Railways wanted they could have put better seats....