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.


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Indian Railways to introduce Gatiman Express where hostesses will welcome the passengers

Indian Railways is not only going hi-tech but is also on a new trail of offering unheard-of luxuries in its trains to make it compatible to air travel. The latest offering on the cards is the introduction of train hostesses (in line with air hostesses) who will welcome the traveler with a rose and take him to his seat. This facility will soon be available on the soon to be launched Delhi-Agra Gatiman Express - this would be the first train in India to run at a speed of 160 kmph.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 21 February 2016.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will make necessary announcements about the special features of the first semi-high speed train in the country while presenting the Rail Budget on February 25.
In brief - the train will have a high-power emergency braking system, automatic fire alarm, GPS-based passenger information system and sliding doors in the coaches apart from live TV service as part of infotainment. The catering will also match the standard of airliners. The fare will be 25 per cent higher than Shatabdi Express, and both Indian and continental cuisine will be served - the range will be from wholewheat upma, mini dosa, Kanjeevaram idli, fresh cut fruits, aloo kulcha with swiss roll to roasted dry fruit and chicken roll. Chicken sausages with Spanish egg white omelette and date walnut slice cakes will also be served in bone china crockery.
AS to the fare - chair car in fully air-conditioned Gatiman Express has been fixed at Rs 690, while a passenger will be required to spend Rs 1,365 for traveling Executive Class. In comparison, the Delhi-Agra Shatabadi Express chair car fare is Rs 540 and Rs 1,040 for Executive Class.
The Gatiman Express will have 12 coaches and, while Shatabdi takes 120 minutes to cover the 200 km distance, Gatiman will do it in 105 minutes. Such trains will subsequently be introduced in 9 more routes including Kanpur-Delhi, Chandigarh-Delhi, Hyderabad-Chennai, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Goa-Mumbai and Nagpur-Secunderabad.



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Double decker Shatabdi Express train to run between Mumbai and Goa

Railway Minister has announced the plan to stat a double decker Shatabdi Express between Mumbai and Goa. Once operational, it would be India’s first ever double decker Shatabdi Express. The minister made the announcement on the sidelines of a program at the Goa University.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 24 October 2015.

When asked about a special Goa Rajdhani Express train, he remarked that he will "definitely look into it". Those from Goa who want to avail of Rajdhani luxury train services have to rely on the Trivandrum Rajdhani which passes through Goa and has a halt at Margao in South Goa.
The minister also indicated that keeping in mind tourists coming to Goa, the Railways could also consider starting holiday train for tourists. Like an IRCTC holiday train.
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Achhe Din for train travelers – Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express to get vacuum toilets

Those who travel by the Indian Railways have got accustomed to stinking and dirty toilets and, they can now expect to get into the ‘achhe din’ stage because vacuum toilets are being introduced in the Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express with immediate effect. These toilets are used in airlines.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 14 September 2015.

The cost of these vacuum toilets is about Rs 3 lakhs each and will be fitted in the First AC coach – these are equipped with the bio-digester system and are environment-friendly. These use less water than conventional ones because of improved efficiency of the flush – hence, it conserves water. And, such toilets would also help prevent corrosion of rail tracks.
As per plans, the railways will initially install 80 such toilets on a Shatabdi Express train.
At present premier trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi have controlled discharge toilet system which prevent disposal of waste at stations. The waste is automatically discharged once the train attains a minimum speed of 30 km per hour.
It seems till now, the railways have replaced 17,388 conventional toilets with bio-toilets and have plans to replace another 17,000 by the end of this year. Considering an express train with 25 coaches and each coach has four toilets, which would work out to 100 toilets for every train. Therefore, the 17388 plus 17000 toilets proposed by the year end would take care of 340 express trains. One would like to know the time frame for converting the remaining conventional toilets to bio toilets.
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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.