Recently, I had the grand opportunity to travel in a round trip on Vande Bharat between Howrah Station and New Jalpaiguri Junction. This was my maiden travel on this new Indian Railways super fast train, and was an absolutely delightful experience. The total 561 kilometres each way distance was covered only in 7.5 hours in AC chair cars with broad windows, enough leg space, light, ventilation, comfortable leaning chairs and outstanding hospitality of the Indian Railways staff serving on the Vandey Bharat. The toilet arrangements (vacuum sucking model) and the alert cleaning staff has been cautious in making the entire journey a memorable experience.
The cleanliness and proper waste collection as initiated by the Government of India as a national priority; is very demonstrated in Vande Bharat Railway service. The travel has been very smooth with only a few designated stops and the schedule maintained is highly appreciated. Furthermore, the quality of food served in breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner must be appreciated. The food was warm, not over spicy or hot for the children traveling, a healthy balance of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items were included along with desserts like gulabjams, sweet curd and ice creams. Waste products were all nicely collected and the supportive behaviour of the professionally trained railway staff with a smiling face and eagerness to help the passenger was an added bonus to the trip.
However, it was quite unfortunate to note that several of my co-passengers were not cooperating with the Vande Bharat staff to help them in maintaining cleanliness as well as discipline inside the compartment. In spite of repeated announcements, some washroom users were tossing plastic bags, paper towels, tissue papers in the commode causing unnecessary plugging and overflow of sewage water often producing undesirable smell. Although the cleaning staff were highly attentive in taking care of the situation; however the nuisance continued.
Furthermore, some irresponsible guardians traveling with their kids have let them loose in the compartment; causing chaos and disruption of railway catering service at times. The repeated movements in and out of the compartment by playful and belligerent unsupervised kids have been causing disturbance to the AC airflow inside increasing the average temperature due to intermixing of hot and cold air. I sincerely believe that the Indian Railways need to think about how to manage these small but crucial issues by smart designing or strategies to avoid or overcome such passenger mediated nuisance. For better running of these services, passengers need to positively cooperate with the Railway staff and security members. It is quite often that 75 years post independence we have not yet learnt how to behave appropriately and responsibly !
The other suggestion that I would like to humbly add to the railways department in charge of Vande Bharat services, is the use of trollies to deliver food to the passengers down the aisle. The compartment in which I was lodged had 78 seats; hence to transfer food placed on trees by the stewards from one end to the other, has been taking considerable time in spite of their best efforts. Every time they would have to deliver the trees to some seats and then go back to the storage, collect more of these trees and come back again to handover to the other passengers this cumbersome process has been taking way long and needs to be modified by following the trolly model used in aircraft aisle for smooth delivery of food packages to the passengers and in collecting the garbage. It would also reduce the time needed for the railway staff to distribute food to the passengers from seat no 1 to seat number 78.
I sincerely believe that by using trollies getting the food trays would reduce the challenge significantly. Furthermore, I also suggest using two trollies in each compartment, one from the direction of seat number 1 to 78 and the other directed from seat number 78 to seat number one, in opposite directions to cut down the long time spent on food delivery and collection of garbage.
Overall the experience of travelling on the Vandey Bharat has been spectacular and I highly memorable one for me. I sincerely thank all the crew, cabin members and staff of the Vande Bharat Railway services, and all the other associate state workers and staff members for their outstanding professionalism and meticulous hard work in making this a success as citizens. I would also take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to the Honourable Railway minister and his team at the Ministry of Railways, Government of India for doing a commendable job in expanding the railways and introducing outstanding super fast trains such as the Vande Bharat railway services, a truly outstanding and memorable experience for the audience.