[VT-RNS]

An excellent post, Vigsom! Great to see we have some Railfans in the forum too.

Couple of points you mentioned that really resonate well:
1) The stop at Borivali allowed for us western suburb residents to easily take Rajdhani instead of AK Rajdhani (which is good too, but a tad bit slower).
Furthermore, nowadays, AK Rajdhani stops at Andheri and many more places (like Bharuch, Dahod which weren't stops earlier) so it has made Rajdhani the default now.

2) As a regular Mumbai - Delhi traveler when young, the excitement in 2003/04 when Rajdhani was LHB-fied knew no bounds. And it was a true step up. However, going by the various reviews on YT as well as your thoughts, it seems in pure passenger comfort, this (Tejas Rake) isn't as much of a change. Mere evolution.
Where it probably works is sound insulation and better suspensions as technology has improved.

3) While my love for trains remains paramount, I feel the dynamic pricing combined with no amenities (due to Covid they say, but I expect it will stay... the IR will charge for ancillaries like airlines), the VFM is lacking and I know myself have taken road trips to Gujarat instead of trains, for the sheer convenience (esp once you need to move within your destination). And for longer distance like BOM-DEL, with airfare rivaling 2AC, we often now take the air route.

4) The real goldmine is when IR can make the Mumbai - Delhi stretch doable with overnight trains in 10-12 hours (the project is already progressing, from what i understand). That to me, is a game-changer as you don't lose a productive day and sleep through the night and arrive relaxed for the next day's work.
(during my time living in China, it was boon to do this on Shanghai - Beijing stretch. Even after the 5 hour Bullet train, the overnight sleeper was just so much more comfy)

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Did you notice if there was a locomotive pushing your train from behind? To my knowledge, the Mumbai Raj and the secondary Raj are now operating as Push-Pull trains, meaning locomotives at both ends. Acceleration is swift and better balancing speeds on gradients.

IR did try a few experiments in 2017-18 around this.
1) Double Header: I specifically traveled on a special Rajdhani (that ran ahead of Rajdhani but terminus was Bandra) in 2018. The Double WAP-7 pull was spectacular (and this one didnt stop at Mathura, so the thrill of skipping it, as it accelerated from the junction was killer!)
2) Push-Pull: The Double Header didn't provide as much benefit, so after CR started CSMT - Nizzamudin push-pull Rajdhani, WR also experimented, but again the time benefits weren't significant enough.

Thus, for now, the Rajdhani runs on the usual single WAP7 at the front.

To note, the CR Rajdhani benefits from Push Pull due to many areas where there is some amount of gradient, both in MH as well in MP. Relatively, the WR track is flat out.

Cheers!

[ZenMaster]

The interiors does look drab compared to a Rajdhani train I ttravelled to Mumbai on. (I think it was Trivandrum-Delhi train)

The berths cushions were blue with, white/light gray panelling all around. There were curtains too if I remember correctly.
Don't remember the floor.

The food was surprisingly good (better than Airplane lunch- with timely tea, breakfast, snacks, lunch and soup- and service was great(except at the end with the service staff pestering each and every passenger for a minimum Rs100 tip).

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by no_fear

My grandfather was one of the chief mechanical engineers who worked on the first Howrah Delhi Rajdhani, and my father rode the test train as a young adult in the late 1960s. The coaches were filled with sand bags. Every time we ride the Rajdhani, my dad sits and tells this story to every conductor, vendor, coolie, passenger and whoever strikes up a conversation....lol, I hope I did not bore the forum members here.

Well, no, my grandfather (maternal) was a Loco Pilot, started from steam to good old WDMs (first batch of LPs to be trained on those in India) , so I know how it feels.

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by ZenMaster

(except at the end with the service staff pestering each and every passenger for a minimum Rs100 tip).

The Rs 100 was the default setting 15 years ago and still going strong. Like you, I also get irritated when the staff ask every passenger for tips. The service staff walk with a giant stainless steel plate holding the "sauf" (fennel seed) mouth freshner, with a few Rs 100 notes neatly arranged in the middle. It is a nice psychological game of pressuring the passengers to tip generously.

I rode the NDLS-HWH Rajdhani 2 years back. Now they are using Rs 500 notes as the new ploy. I do not mind tipping if they do a good service (some do, some don't). They are mostly contract staff by IRCTC and are not paid a decent wage. They usually sleep in the coach and head back on the same train the next day. Quite a tough job.

I hope the Tejas is a game changer. Pre Covid, I felt that the quality of Rajdhanis had gone downhill a fair bit, especially in terms of food. There have been numerous reports of substandard or stale food being served.

If Del-Mum and Del-Ccu become overnight trains, it will be a game changer., especially for those that have routine work between the 2 metros. I often take the late night flights, just because I want to avoid the rush hour traffic, and accounting for the times to head to and from the airport, flights, plus checking into the hotel, a train ride is a much better alternative.

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Well, no, my grandfather (maternal) was a Loco Pilot, started from steam to good old WDMs (first batch of LPs to be trained on those in India) , so I know how it feels.

My maternal grandfather was a controller / station signaling staff. He retired as a goods carriage conductor. My maternal aunt is an IR school teacher. Its amazing how this institution is deeply intertwined in our lives.

[Stribog]

Your mention of Navsari was very interesting. I have only read about it a lot in history books and never really associated it with our modern era.

The Chalukyas of Vatapi had a cadet branch, a vassal kingdom, the Chalukyas of Navasarika, around 720-730 AD the Umayad Caliphate tried expanding across the Indus, and ran across the then king of this branch of the Chalukyas, Avanijanashraya Pulakesin.

He defeated the Caliphate army so badly that over the next few decades the Caliphate across the Indus would become a temporary vassal to the Pratihara and Chalukyas. As you didn't have social media or 24/7 news channels then, he published his victory in copper plates, which were then found in Navsari by the British.

As a very modest ruler, he simply gave himself the below titles.

Quote /

solid pillar of Dakshinapatha" (Dakshinapathasadhara), "ornament of the Chalukya family" (Challuki-kulalankara), "beloved of the earth" (Prithvi-vallabha), and "the repeller of the unrepellable" (Anivartaka-nivartayitri).

End Quote/

And on the review, 9/10 Vigsom bhai, you missed the panel gaps... lol.

Jokes aside your review was so powerful that I now want to go somewhere in a train, it has been decades now since I stepped foot in a train.

[Swapnil4585]

Great review vigsom!

I had a chance to travel in the CR Rajdhani twice, which still burns the tracks with the help of a WAP 5 and LHB coaches. I had thought of doing its review but held back thinking will it be allowed on the forum or not.

After the Corolla Altis, Rajdhani too, is our common interest

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by no_fear

- Rajdhanis are my go-to train to travel in India, and with elderly parents, this is the best way to travel
- I saw the new AC 3 coach interiors and they looked very classy with the fake wood paneling

Thank You, @no_fear. I still prefer trains over air if the travel time is under the 15 hour mark. In 2008, I took a train from Surat to Hyderabad instead of taking a train to Mumbai, then moving to the airport, then landing in Hyderabad and taking the 40km ride into town.

- My grandfather was one of the chief mechanical engineers who worked on the first Howrah Delhi Rajdhani, and my father rode the test train as a young adult in the late 1960s. The coaches were filled with sand bags.

- Every time we ride the Rajdhani, my dad sits and tells this story to every conductor, vendor, coolie, passenger and whoever strikes up a conversation

Maybe you could create a video of his experiences, upload that on YouTube, and post the link here. Rail fans will be all ears.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

They forgot to conceal the wires for the water level indicator! Looks more like an afterthought. I remember this being fitted as part of the main electrical mcb switch control panel. It was more elegant though you need to look in that direction to notice the red or green light for high/low water level.

Thank You, @sandeepmohan. Yes, there are areas of improvement and such retrofits are a given in IR. So long as it works as intended, the purpose is solved. In any case, the train can get a refill only in Surat, Vadodara. Not sure about Ratlam and Kota.

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

With WR working on an ambitious project to increase the speed of the line to allow trains at 160 kmph, it will a damn fast ride to NDLS.

Thank You, @Dieseltuned. I'd put future journeys by the Rajdhani from Mumbai to Delhi at 12 hours tops.

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Somehow I feel our premium train cabins still dont have the swank. Too much of metal all around

Thanks @fhdowntheline. You're right, but the First AC on this train still looks like a huge step up from before.

Originally Posted by jithin23

2A coaches in the mail/express trains look more premium with curtains and the one in the King looks like a downgrade. Good to see IR has improved by leaps and bounds.

Thank You, @jithin23. The looks of the 2A coach are primarily spoilt by the mosaic pattern, and the two tone seats. Change the combination and the same coach would look kickass.

Originally Posted by ZenMaster

The food was surprisingly good (better than Airplane lunch- with timely tea, breakfast, snacks, lunch and soup- and service was great

Thank You @ZenMaster. I've already mentioned lack of soup in my review. In fact, when the food service was on, they'd stuff passengers with almost double of what is needed. For a short 3 hour run to Surat this is what they'd serve on the August Kranti Rajdhani (and on this train too)

Departure Mumbai - Samosa, sweet, 2 toffees, one veggie sandwich, tea or coffee

7pm - Soup, soupsticks and some butter

7:30-8pm - Dinner (two parathas, one veg, one day, some rice, salad, curd) followed by ice cream

At least with the food service stopped, one is forced to east just what one needs.

Originally Posted by Stribog

Your mention of Navasri was very interesting. I now want to go somewhere in a train, it has been decades now since I stepped foot in a train.

Interesting info on Navsari, @Stribog. Thank You, and hope you're on a train very soon.

[Dieseltuned]

Western railway has been a pioneer in scorching the tracks. Most of the high speed experiments of IR including the TALGO debacle were conducted on WR tracks. If we look historically the sectional MPS have played a big role in reducing the travel time of these trains and this has reflected in the actual run time as well and not just on paper with a slack built in to maintain punctuality. Pre-Covid I was a regular on the 12009/12010 ADI Shatabdi and armed with an Ulyees Speeometer app have seen the train regularly cruising at 130 kmph. I have used the word 'cruising' as it is able to maintain 130 kmph for considerable amount of time and not in bursts. The shatabdi is now allotted only 2 hours 31 minutes to cover Borivali - Surat and most of the days it is very comfortably at Surat in not a minute more than 2 hours 25 minutes. Kudos to WR to maintain their track in such ship shape condition.

The Borivali station back in the 90s had a level crossing to the south end (closed now) of the station and I along with my grandfather (an Ex. Railway man himself , he retired from BAMY) used to go sit by that level crossing and wait for the shiny red train to thunder by, and I literally mean 'thunder'. 2 hot Ratlam WDMs + the humming EOGs and the racket they made as they skipped Borivali was a scene forever ingrained in my soul.

WR maintains 5 rakes to cater to both the Rajdhani and AK Rajdhani. 4 rakes are in service every day and 1 Rake is kept as spare just in case if there are any emergency.

Rajdhani's enjoyed a huge clout in the IR world too such an extent that delays in the train's running were directly reported to the railway board. Heck, the sections were classified as 'suitable for Rajdhani' and halts were identified as 'Rajdhani halts'. Those days are history now and the Rajdhani is overshadowed by too many upstart new kids on the block (read. Duronto, Humsafar).

One more interesting trivia is that IR used to run pilot engines just minutes ahead of the Rajdhani to ensure that the tracks are clear from any miscreant activities. These pilot engines were a regular around the time India was facing a spate of terror attacks.

Rajdhani class of trains brought a class and character to rail travel in India. The next revolutionary step in IR would be the Vande Bharat class of trains which IR plans to run between 40 Indian cities in the next 3-4 years.

Kudos to IR in keeping this huge nation of ours connected weaving through our economic and social divide.

[anand.shankar]

That's one shiny train, shinier than some of our cars. I feel IR has upped their game in the last decade or so, the stations and the trains have improved a lot compared to the stinky mess they were in the 90s and 2000s.. I remember even going to the station to pick up relatives would make you smell like train for a few days

I would prefer train journey over Flight any Day given that most airports are far away from the city, the cumbersome security checks, on off boarding, baggage pickups.. its best for a not so big country like India with a massive rail network to take advantage of it. If only we had more high speed trains...

[Blue Express]

Great post, and good to see the upgraded coaches.
One place that I would like Indian Railways to decide upon, is the colour of the train. Back in the days, the premium train of Rajdhani had the red & cream combo, Shatabdi getting the red-cream-blue colour and rest others getting the blue paintjob, premium trains had a distinction of their own. Nowadays with all trains moving on to LHB, they all look the same.
It would be good to have Rajdhani/Shatabdi/Duronto have a colour combo only for their own.

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

One more interesting trivia is that IR used to run pilot engines just minutes ahead of the Rajdhani to ensure that the tracks are clear from any miscreant activities. These pilot engines were a regular around the time India was facing a spate of terror attacks.

They still do it on the sections in Bihar and Jharkand due to the current Naxal / Maoist attacks. There has been some rail infrastructure damage in the past few years, so a pilot engine does ply along the sections between Chittaranjan, West Bengal and Giridih or further in Jharkand state. They do it for the Bhubaneshwar, Howrah / Sealdah and I think the Dibrugarh rajdhani, but that one takes a different route (not sure)

Rajdhani is still considered a premium and given priority over Humsafar or Duronto. I think the only ones that supersede the Rajdhani are the Shatapdis.

Above info is based on friendly chit chat with TTEs and the IRCTC guys serving food.

[TheVegabond]

Great thread!

A train journey through the countryside is second only to a road trip and if the train happens to be the Rajdhani Express then it is a sheer joy (although the last time I travelled in a Rajdhani Express was way back in 2010).

I still remember the time when Rajdhani Express travel was considered super luxury and the Income Tax babus would scan through your documents for any such journey you might have taken.

Despite its obvious shortcomings, Indian railways have been able to maintain a level of exclusivity when it comes to Rajdhani Express journeys.

I have travelled between Delhi and Trivandrum in the Trivandrum Rajdhani Express multiple times from the beginning of 2008 to the end of 2010. I remember that the attendants would keep you busy the whole day starting with morning tea at 6AM till dinner at 8PM. They would keep bringing something to eat throughout the day - morning tea followed by breakfast, then a lime juice as a refresher in a while, tomato soup prior to lunch, a snack with evening tea, and another cup of soup just before dinner.

I used to specifically wait for the second day when travelling from Delhi to Trivandrum as the train reached Panvel (Mumbai) early morning at 5:30AM. The entire day you would be on Konkan railways running parallel to the West coast on your right with majestic Western Ghats on your left. Not only this, there are numerous tunnels on that section - you would enter a tunnel from a certain landscape and come out to an entirely different one on the other side of the tunnel. There are rivers and bridges along the route with mountain peaks at a distance. And when you thought that it was over for the day, you could literally see the sun setting over the Arabian sea near Mangalore (Karnataka).

Leaving you with some of the pics that I took from the train door in one of such journeys. I do not remember the exact time and place of these pics, these were taken on Konkan railways somewhere between Panvel and Mangalore in 2009. Apologies for the picture quality.

[amitayu]

The thread and images brings back memories of Hostel days and the travels from Kolkata to Delhi!
Rajdhani was obviously the first choice, but it was not always possible to get e ticket. I remember, for a shortwhile we had a chaircar in Sealdah Rajdhani (its a 17 hours joruney officially!) which I would target as usually that was the last choice for most passengers!


However, nostalgia aside, from what little I gather from the posts and images, I see precious little in terms of improvement in features and amenities from the images.

I cannot comment on the ride, suspensions, body roll and overall comfort-on-the-move and surely welcome any development on that front!

However, in-cabin features and looks still seem to be what it was a decade ago, in terms of the basic design, overall material used, ease of access, etc.

The sliding doors will be a bane very soon! the digital display is the going to be the first feature to go caput! I hope the toilets function well, as it is a necessity!

A normal 3 tier with 72 seats layout, did-not have enough leg-space in the side berth for those in the range of 6Ft in height! Accessing the upper berths is a still a challenge, especially for the heavyset and the aged! Setting the middle berth could atleast have a hydraulic assist mechanism. I suspect they are still hung with strong metal chains! The cabins could have much better space utilisation and convenience if some serious efforts were spend on it!


Mere two-tone upholstery or new tiles cannot cover for these lacunae!

P.S. Western Railway is the pioneer of railways in India. After all, the first train ran from Mumbai to Thane, right?

[VT-RNS]

Originally Posted by amitayu

P.S. Western Railway is the pioneer of railways in India. After all, the first train ran from Mumbai to Thane, right?

WR and CR have been in a healthy competition since the railways arrived on the sub-continent, in the mid 19th century.

Their predecessors in pre-independence era were BB&CI (Bombay Baroda & Central India) Railway line for the Western Railway (WR) of today, and GIPR (Great Indian Peninsula Railway) for the Central Railway (CR) of today.

The first passenger train was run on GIPR from Bori Bunder to Thane (Bori Bunder is approx where CST station is today).

PS: Jagannath Shankar Seth (JSS, also know as Nana) and Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (Sir JJ) were part of the GIPR borad. To my knowledge, they were the only Indians on the board and contributed in other areas of public infrastructure. At least for me, this was new knowledge thanks to some heritage walks I went to in Mumbai (Khaki Tours, in case someone is interested)

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by amitayu

The sliding doors will be a bane very soon! the digital display is the going to be the first feature to go caput! I hope the toilets function well, as it is a necessity!

Can you pls elaborate? Your post seems unduly negative.

Originally Posted by amitayu

P.S. Western Railway is the pioneer of railways in India. After all, the first train ran from Mumbai to Thane, right?

Mumbai - Thane is part of Central Rly, not Western Rly.