Passengers of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains to get foods of their choice

Passengers traveling by the Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains will soon be able to get their choice of meals instead of whatever is provided by the Indian Railways. Within another four months, the Indian Railways is set to do away with mandatory catering on these prestigious trains.
Right now there are 22 sets of Rajdhanis, 24 sets of Shatabdis and 27 sets of Duronto Express trains in the country and the food menu in these trains is fixed.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 8 March 2016.

The present system is that meals and snacks in these trains are charged for as an integral part of the total fare and, all that the traveler has to do is to indicate whether they want vegetarian or non-vegetarian food. This concept will undergo a sea change.
As indicated in his Budget, the railway ministry is now working on the modalities of the new policy and exploring possibilities of making mandatory catering services optional in the trains. Instead, local cuisine of choice will be made available to passengers.
The new system will be similar to low-cost airlines where flyers can choose whether they want to pay for the food at the time of booking tickets. Those who decline food from the railways can pay Rs 150-200 less for their tickets and would have the option to buy food from outside through e-catering or carry their own meals or buy from a pantry if they want to.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Commercial stops will be introduced in Duronto Express trains at technical halts

The Duronto Express category of trains was point to point nonstop air-conditioned trains that had been introduced by Mamata Banerjee in 2009 when she was the Railway Minister and was loved by one and all because it made the train journey more comfortable and safe. Even its external color scheme was different and there was no disturbance from passengers boarding from intermediate stations. Moreover, meals would be served in the trains by the catering staff and the train got priority treatment en-route to its destination.
But, all that is going to change from 1 January 2016 because the railways have taken a decision to convert the technical halts into commercial stops.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 3 September 2015.

In order to introduce these changes in the computerized reservation system, for journeys starting from January 1, 2016 (bookings for which open today), reservation has been suspended in Duronto till further orders. Reservation will not, therefore, be available on the Internet or at the reservation counters.
The date of opening of bookings for Duronto Express trains with commercial stops will be notified when ready.
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Good news for train travelers – KFC to supply meals on trains

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation IRCTC system has tied up with KFC, the fast food giants, to supply meals to passengers on board trains. The system will takeoff from July 20 on trains that pass through New Delhi and will subsequently be extended to other trains.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 22 July 2015.

The service would be expanded to Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad (Kacheguda) and Bangalore (Yeshwantpur) stations within the next 10 days as indicated by a statement.
It would be available only on 12 trains passing through New Delhi railway station. These would be trains that do not have any pantry car and would, at a later date, be extended to trains like Rajdhani and Duronto. Price list of KFC items as on 27/7/14.
Under the scheme, a person travelling on the train can order KFC meal at the time of booking ticket through IRCTC from July 20 onwards. Once booked, the passenger would get a password on his mobile phone which he would have to reveal when he takes delivery of his food packet.
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How to beat the pangs of hunger in trains

When anyone undertakes a long distance journey by train, he has to plan for his meals along the way – long ago there used to be separate dining cars in important long distance trains. Having breakfast or lunch or dinner in these cars was a pleasant experience but, gradually, things changed. The railways withdrew from this service and handed it over to a private entity. New trains were introduced like Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, and Duronto Express, where the cost of food was included in the fare and passengers had to accept whatever was served. The result was a whole bunch of unhappy travelers with complaints of unhygienic food.
The catering service offered through the Indian Railways left a lot to be desired. The quality of food served as well as the service has deteriorated over the years and the railway ministry is now trying to hand over the responsibility to food giants like Haldiram’s and ITC. Moreover, there are also proposals to allow travelers to book their meals from outside sources – they would need to indicate their train number and the station when they want the meal and the food would be delivered in the train.
Of course, such facilities would probably not be available to all passengers because the Indian Railways may have set its sights on Bullet Trains but the fact remains that thousands of people travel every day in unreserved coaches where they get packed in like sardines in a can. To them the important thing is to reach the destination in one piece – for quenching their thirst or beating the pangs of hunger they would have to either carry with them their own eatables or would have to depend on food outlets on the railway platforms.
Actually, that used to be the usual system that travelers relied upon earlier – they would bring with them their own home made foods in containers and consume them as and when they wished. But, the ready availability of meals in running trains changed that scenario. Such meals used to initially come in trays and gradually the trays made way for casseroles.
Moreover, local vendors board the trains with their variety of foods on offer and the atmosphere in the reserved compartments resemble that of a market place – the vendors shout to get heard and at times engage in war of words with passengers on some issue or the other. Agreed – such diversions do make for an exciting journey that may not be a comfortable one. But then, time flies by quite fast.