[sierrabravo98]

While these Tejas rakes are good and obviously an improvement over regular ICF/LHB coaches, I am super excited for what is going to follow in the next 2-3 years. The first 100 or so of the Vande Bharat train-sets ought to be hitting the tracks by then. I cannot wait to see what the private operators, if they get their hands on the Vande Bharat rakes, do with those. I find even the Economy seats of the Vande Bharat very comfortable (as opposed to the regular CC seats in LHB coaches). Hence I am quite hopeful about the Indian Railways in the short term.

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by vigsom

1. Agree on the brown theme - it looks plain ugly against the refreshing theme in the other AC chair cars.
2. The legroom in the EC has been carried forward from the older Shatabdi, where one would have to bend forward to an almost brace position to reach out for one's meal.

Agree with you. The bluish green theme in the Shatabdi looks much better than this.

Legroom is very good and provides a comfortable journey.

Reminds me of a couple of my same day round trips done by Shatabdi in 2 different parts of the country :
1. Borivali - Surat - Borivali
2. Howrah - Asansol - Howrah

In both cases it was a couple of hours journey each way at very good speeds and comfort levels.

So each of these journeys was more like a lengthy restaurant visit - step on the train early in the morning, have a good breakfast and alight at the destination. Post finishing the day's work, board the train for the return journey, have dinner and reach your destination without any fatigue.

The catering is pretty good with a variety of items served, as already highlighted earlier in this thread. Was fortunate to have the non vegetarian option on all of the trips - it included egg omelets for breakfast and chicken curry for dinner.

The sheer convenience, speed and comfort of such trains for shorter journeys is very underrated and has to be experienced to be believed.

The Executive Class on the Madurai - Chennai Tejas Express is in a league of its own, and perhaps the best in the country - leather/leatherette seats and supremely comfortable

Wow. These look very inviting. Brown theme with such seats is much better.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by porsche_guy

End Note

This is the best mode of travel for senior citizens on this route

Excellent and useful thread. When it was first introduced, my father took a trip from Madurai to Chennai. In contrast to a flight, he found the leg room and ease of boarding to be extremely comforting.

[porsche_guy]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

That's not bad - iirc the Mumbai - Ahmedabad Shatabdi also takes about 4H30 mins to reach Vadodara. The Karnavati which leaves about an hour or two earlier takes around 4H40 mins so this one fits among the faster options (Rajdhani & Duronto trains which pass this route in the night take about ~4H).

Instead of Indigo/airlines, I would probably compare this to the Shatabdi/Karnavati/Rajdhani & other fast train options for that trip. Vadodara (unlike the rest of Gujarat cities) benefits from a wide variety of trains to Mumbai at ever hour of the day.

I don't think regular/local folks take the flights between Vadodara and Mumbai, unless of course a company is paying for it But good to have competition, although I wonder how much the average Shatabdi/Rajdhani traveler would be ready to pay the premium for this private train option. Would be interesting to hear a comparison of this train with those options.

You'd be surprised to know that flights to and from Mumbai are usually quite full. I made the comparison to air travel since most of the traffic on this route consists of business travellers rather than leisure or vacationers. In that sense, I found the Tejas to be a better alternative to flying since the timings are convenient and the fatigue is also lesser. Another plus is the train will pick and drop you right at the city centre which also saves a lot of time. You can also get lots of work done en route without disturbances you'd face otherwise (security checks, take off-landing stages etc.)

This train isn't geared towards the local folks which I'm pretty sure about since it's not the most economical option out there. As for the demand, the EC coach was completely full when I travelled but need to check about the Chair Car's occupancy

Originally Posted by Eddy

Thanks for the review.

While all other things are good, I personally would have been a lot more pissed off at the non-functional AV system and the non-availablity of non veg food. Passengers have paid for these facitilities, and they should be available.

Let's hope these things are sorted out soon

Non functional AV system was a bummer for sure. They need to improve upon this and come up with a system to prevent thefts (somewhat like those two pin headphones on long haul flights that won't work anywhere else). On the non vegetarian food, I'm inclined to believe that there must have been a logistical/managerial problem that particular day since this option was given when booking the ticket. Can be excused IMO.

Originally Posted by Rocketscience

Plus travelling by Jet is not even nearly as cheap as it was just 2 years ago (Pre Covid), I would always pick the air travel over something like Rajdhani 3AC because of almost the same price +–500 and ultra fast speed and convenience, the decision was simple.

But today the price of train travel is still pretty much the same but by air is atleast 2x now with no sign of reduction anytime soon thanks to the massive losses they have incurred in covid era plus higher fuel costs.
It makes sense to revert back to the good old trains now.

From my observations these days the major reason for hesitating to choose rail travel over air travel for most people is the cleanliness aspect after COVID. But am happy to report that it's no longer a problem anymore, atleast on this particular train.

Originally Posted by sierrabravo98

While these Tejas rakes are good and obviously an improvement over regular ICF/LHB coaches, I am super excited for what is going to follow in the next 2-3 years. The first 100 or so of the Vande Bharat train-sets ought to be hitting the tracks by then. I cannot wait to see what the private operators, if they get their hands on the Vande Bharat rakes, do with those. I find even the Economy seats of the Vande Bharat very comfortable (as opposed to the regular CC seats in LHB coaches). Hence I am quite hopeful about the Indian Railways in the short term.

I too can't wait to experience the Vande Bharat trains!

Originally Posted by RGK

When it was first introduced, my father took a trip from Madurai to Chennai. In contrast to a flight, he found the leg room and ease of boarding to be extremely comforting.

It is more stress free and moreover much less unnerving for the older folks since they aren't used to air travel.

[narayans80]

Isn't Tejas owned and operated by Indian Railways, not a private train. If not, it will not get a 5 digit train number you mentioned.

The first privately operated train is the Bharat Gaurav train that's now being operated between Coimbatore North (CBF) and Shirdi (SNSI). But these are operated more like a chartered tour type run, than something like NTV that operates Italo in parallel with state owned Trenitalia.

Tejas, Duronto, Gatimaan and Vande Bharat are still in my to-do list.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I hope in due course we have this high quality fast train travel over longer distances of 600 to 1500 kms too.

Trains in India are just slowed down by bureaucracy.

12621/12622 Tamilnadu Express, which is the fastest superfast (not special category) train even today averages a measly 67 kmph over Madras and Delhi. It used to ran much faster in its initial days than it does today. I can't seem to find the IRFCA article on this train's history, read it about a decade ago.

Railway time tables are still a century behind even though the rail infrastructure has progressed over the years. Just to give an example from my home state of TN:

• Good old Vaigai Express which has been running for a good 40 odd years, used to take 7:40 hours back in meter gauge days. I remember 1225 departure and 2005 arrival as a child circa 1985-86.
• The Madras-Villupuram-Trichy Chord Line that was being used was taken up for broad gauge conversion circa 1997-98.
• The line was opened in record time as a single line when some of the major trains on this section were re-introduced in the broad gauge avatar.
• At that time Villupuram-Vriddachalam was a hotspot for crossings and yet trains reached on time. Yes Southern Railways did this way back in 1999-2001 and possibly mid 2000s when doubling was completed.
• Fast forward to 2022, Chord Line is a minimum double line electric all through (quadruple till Villupuram I think)

Why am I saying all this stories. Remember that Vaigai Express example, its doing 7:25 hrs after all these infrastructure progression in 25 years.

For short distances (< 500 km), trains (especially purpose run trains like Shatabdi, Vande Bharat) still make sense. Madras-Bangalore is a prime example, which had patrons willing to pay premium for faster transport on Shatabdi, which prompted the introduction of a second Shatabdi on pairing timings from the other direction. Initially sectors like Madras-Coimbatore didn't see patronage for Shatabdi and was scrapped in favor of Intercity. These changed a decade back. Today we have a regular Coimbatore Shatabdi and Madurai Tejas.

An old classmate of mine, who runs a business in Madras and Madurai is a Tejas regular (2-3 one way trips a week). His logic, he is always on calls and can't take the tension of driving, nor can he afford phone downtime, hence prefers the Tejas over flying.

[edunata]

Thanks, porsche_guy for the write-up. Indian trains are catching up fast.

Due to Covid situations and other causes, I haven't been on a train for 3-4 years, but now, it seems that Indian trains can compete with the flights. I have used many train services in Europe, where in some cases flights are cheaper than trains.
In India, it seems these days are not far from that day.
Indian Railways.

Hope, we can soon find these types of trains in the Eastern Part of India also.

[porsche_guy]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Isn't Tejas owned and operated by Indian Railways, not a private train. If not, it will not get a 5 digit train number you mentioned.

The first privately operated train is the Bharat Gaurav train that's now being operated between Coimbatore North (CBF) and Shirdi (SNSI).

The Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central Tejas Express is operated privately by IRCTC instead of the Indian Railways. This makes it the second privately operated train after the Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express.

[RedTerrano]

Absolutely lovely thread. I read it end to end and scrolled up to admire the pics one more time. I simply cannot believe this is the Indian Railways!

Originally Posted by porsche_guy

What came as a major disappointment here was the fact that the AV Entertainment units which were touted as one of the highlights of this train did not work. Not an "issue" as such but a bummer anyways. I guess they must not be operational anymore after the various reports of thefts of headphones. Sad situation due to few unruly people.

Sigh!
Some things never change. Petty theft has been going on for decades.
Bulbs in Indian railways are of the screw type. Reason? People cannot steal and use them at homes, because our standardised sockets are the push+twist type.

Are there CCTV cameras installed? If not, the authorities should definitely consider installing them. They would definitely prove a deterrent to anti social elements who take some sadistic depraved pleasure in spoiling things of beauty. Or theft.

[porsche_guy]

Had the opportunity to travel on the Tejas again after a good 1.5 years since I started the thread. This time however, I had booked myself on the CC instead.

Honestly, it has now become a very similar experience to the Shatabdi now. Given the covid scare is gone, there is no luggage sanitization (although the floors were cleaned after every stoppage). Another fact that I have observed lately is the poor build quality of these Tejas coaches. Had noticed this previously in the Tejas Rajdhani coach as well and the same seems to be the case with the chair car coaches too. The seat covers and interiors have started to wear off, some creaks were present in certain panels and the livery has started to peel off on the outside.

Excellent legroom and comfort

Comfort-wise, it was great for a 6 and half hour journey with excellent legroom and supportive seats. The food was just okay on the ADI-MMCT stretch, although it was noticeably far better in the other direction. One suggestion I would like to relay is to choose the non-veg option for meals since they're significantly better(if your dietary habits permit ofcourse). Have been told this by multiple people.

The biggest drawback in my opinion is the price. For travelling in chair car, I paid just 300 bucks lesser than what I would for a flight booked a month in advance! On the other hand, the sky high prices also mean you get confirmed availability most days even a day before the journey. On both the legs, timings were adhered to quite punctually with hardly 10 minutes here and there.

A hearty breakfast

Overall, I would not prefer travelling via this train in the future unless it is a last minute change in plans like in this instance where other trains are all booked. That is if they continue with the sky-high prices. Bring it down to a 200-300 rupee difference with the Shatabdi and it'll become my go to option.

As of now, Vande Bharat remains my preferred option.