Vande Bharat Express: A Rail fan's perspective on the Executive Class

For a short 4.5 hour journey, unless one is travelling as a family of four OR a group of 4 corporates who'd like to hold a meeting, the EC is just fancy.

BHPian vigsom recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Introduction

Just about a year after I took my first ride on the Mysuru - Chennai Vande Bharat Express, it was time to repeat the experience. This time, we decided to try the Executive Class. Bhpian @84.monsoon has covered a lot of features of the Executive Class on this train via this post, and I'll try adding some dimensions which might not have been covered before. Here are two pics - one from my first ride and one from now - same shooter, same cam, same platform.

Nov-2022

First impressions of the Executive Class

Sensor actuated doors, wide lobby, cabin upkeep was all fine - in fact it was good to see the train being kept well even after a year. Now comes the new dimension I hinted in the first post. Among most passengers boarding the Executive Class coach, there was this air of sophistication with bombastic English, and along with bombastic English, I could clearly see an attitude to show that they own the train. This isn't an aberration. Here are some:

1. crowding around the entrance not giving way to alighting passengers
2. getting in casually without showing concern for other passengers behind
3. blocking the aisle and taking their own time to settle down unmindful of the inconvenience being caused to others
4. asking for wifi immediately on being seated
5. asking for the seats to be rotated

On the positive side, though, here are some good ones (some might be repeat observations)

Likes

• Supreme cleanliness and upkeep even a year later
• Blinds on the massive windows still work as intended
• Great wide cozy seats with additional with a velcro fastened foam pad which can be placed to one's convenience
• Flexi seats - move them around 360 degrees
• Emergency communication system
• Aircraft biz class style tray table is the best I've seen in an Indian train till date
• filling high tea
• CCTV cameras
• Smoke detectors
• Fire detectors and alarms
• Bio-vacuum toilet
• Jaquar taps on the washbasins

Dislikes

• Seat fabric might wear away with time
• on board wifi could not be used
• one side's electronic door opening switch in coach E1 wasn't working; got rectified later

Experiencing Executive Class

I will let the pictures do the talking

Seatback - can store quite some stuff

Headrest foam pad - adjustable to suit passenger's head and height

Place the foam pad to suit one's head

Spectrawide footrest

Soft touch reading lights

Nice to see a wifi connection on board a train

Overhead rack

The 360 degree rotatable seat - gaze out of the windows or have a meeting, face in direction of the train or against it

Continue reading BHPian vigsom's review for more insights and information.