[sadhuji]

As the annual budget session nears, the Railways are working overtime to present a whole lot of new ideas to capture the imagination of the weary traveler. The Garib Rath or the Chariot of the Poor is spreading is tentacles with one now being flagged off from Trivandrum to Mumbai. Another one from Jaipur and Mumbai is scheduled shortly.

In addition to air conditioned travel by the railways, more goodies include the induction of the mouth watering range of Mac Donald’s in the railways catering department. Estimates mention that the railways run more than 10,000 trains everyday and carry more than one crore of passengers – hence the market is lucrative enough. If the plans materialize, there would be Mac Donald’s fast foods to start with followed by the giants taking over the supply of breakfast, lunch and the complete range. Gone would be the days of puri-bhaji and aloo-pakoras, there would be burgers and sandwiches and pizzas to meet the demands. It would be a fine picture – villagers huddled up in the unreserved compartments reaching out for burgers and pizzas.

[cyberhippie]

Macdonald's for breakfast on Indian Railways, how depressing!!

Will modern Indians go for this Sadhuji????????

You forgot to mention the 90 day advance reservation "trick" sadhuji!! Which some say fills the coffers of Laloo just before budget days. He did the same thing last year, only revert to the normal 60 day advanc3e reservation period some months afterwards.

Some other plans are for the Tatkal facility to be aligned with the normal 90 day advance reservation period, so you will be able to avail yourself of at least some of the Tatkal Quota 90 days ahead.
Also waiting listed tickets may soon be available on the E ticketing/Print your own service.

Also many trains now have their spare berths, after the preparation of the chart, sold off at the station, scrapping the old system where the TT would allocate any spare berths left on the train after the preparation of the final reservation chart.

Trains like the Golden Chariot go in to service later this year. The Golden Chariot is the Karnataka State Tourism's answer to the Palace on Wheels and Deccan Odyssey, the train is aimed at foreign tourist with money to burn

From Deccan Herald

Quote

To pamper the high end tourists, the train — a joint venture of the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC), the State Government and the Ministry of Railways — boasts of a conference hall, two restaurants, a bar, gym and spa on board.

New lines are being disused in Sikkim, Mizorem and Nagaland and the new branch line from Mahoba to Kujaraho is set to open in February with tentative plans to runs services from here to Lucknow, Delhi and Agra

[jyotirmoy]

The quality of food served in the Rajdhanis and Shatabdis have taken a nose dive after Lalu. I used to enjoy my dinner on board the Shatabdi Exp. while returning ffrom Solan. I have stopped eating that dinner now, prefer to go home and eat.

[cyberhippie]

And they call in progress Jyoti Da, no doubt we'll soon see the introduction of Dominoes and MacDonald outlets in the train stations as well.

I seem to remember there was talk of this for the Delhi Subway stations????

Personally I think IRCTC should build on the modest succes they've had with their retail outlets in Old Delhi and Agra Cantt, Although I'm aware there are a couple more of these restaurants it seems like a good way to go. Open more of these type of in-station restaurants that go beyond the usual Dal Sabji, omelette's and chai.

I can't for the life of me remember the name of the restaurants but they offer a great selection of food like Biryanis, south Indian snacks, packed lunches, faloodas, samosas, wada, fruit juices and some Chinese items. Affordable and very Indian, this would be a better direction to take, than western sanitation of Indian railways.

[jyotirmoy]

There was a Wimpy outlet at New Delhi station it is temporarily closed because of some construction activity.

[Leith]

A bunch of banana's and a bag of freshly roasted ground nuts is my usual train fare.  

A little off topic but does anybody know if A1 compartments have power outlets as I've just bought a cheap laptop for traveling.

Leith

[sadhuji]

Leith, on Feb 8 2008, 02:22 AM, said:

... A little off topic but does anybody know if A1 compartments have power outlets as I've just bought a cheap laptop for traveling. Leith

this facility is available in certain compartmenhts of even the AC3 tier acommodation.

[tstan]

Cyb, I have just returned to Sydney after a great 65 day sojourn in India. I think the railway restaurant you are referring to was Comesum or something similar. I did a lot of my journey by train and was mightily impressed with the efforts of IR to move around so many people. At Vijayawada (in AP) after visiting the cave temple and the magnificent statue of Vishnu, I chatted over a delicious biryani with one of the executives of the franchise from Delhi who was travelling around the country and spending time with the various managers - from memory some of the places that I visited which had these restaurants included Calcutta (both Sealdah and Howrah), Lucknow as well as Pune. There are many more. He said that the management was very happy with the response from both local and foreign travellers who had become rather disenchanted with the institutional flavour and lacklustre presentation of the overcooked food in both the veg and non-veg restaurants even if noboby could really complain about the price. A tasty and nicely presented meal is served in these bright, well-lit and cheerful places for about 70/- or a couple of bucks. This food, not to mention the ambience of the place is infinitely superior to the US fast food places such as KFC and McDonald's.

The traditional retiring rooms at railway stations are a quaint relic of the Licence Raj and there are still quite a lot of them around - large rooms with 4m high walls, about 25 square metres of floor space for the double bedroom invariably with large square tiles and very obtrusive electrical conduit with about 15 sockets, four noisy fans, an adjoining bathroom with a large hot water tank for showers or bucket filling and usually a Western toilet with a defective cistern. These places are rented out for 24hrs with the possibility of an tension for one more day, even though many people only require them for a much shorter period. Like the restaurants, these places are changing and the trend is to convert these spaces into much smaller air-conditioned rooms often rented by the 12 hour period.

After previous visits to India I was struck by how many more people were using the trains and I would strongly recommend people to book their seats in advance by internet - if you cancel your ticket you only forfeit about 50/-.

[cyberhippie]

Consume I think you're right

Cheers for the feedback Tstan, I've been cooling my heels for two years here in Europe so it's good to know that these places are taking hold.
The thought of a Ronald takeover is just too weird to comprehend, of course if marketing suggests that this is what modern Indians want, then who am I to disagree?

Resting rooms are just how you describe, I've not used them a lot over the years but they are a good place to get your head down for few hours, if there's no hotel nearby.
Didn't know you could lodge on a 12 hour arrangement with AC room.

You're spot on with your observations about the railways getting busier and busier.

It's a definite trend that people need to wake up to.
I try to prod people in the very direction you suggest but am often buried under an avalanche of "I've never booked ahead and always traveled on my day of choice by booking the day before........................" So did I once!

Argument is pointless but we do our best eh.

Tstan please follow up on all the latest info you have acquired, 65 days is a long time, you must have a few tales, and the lowdown on the latest prices.
Or just shoot the shit and tell us wht you got up to in you 2 months of traveling India's shores.

Photos are there?

Like I say get your feet on the Aussie turf first, then if you've time....................

[Leith]

cyberhippie, on Feb 8 2008, 07:04 PM, said:

You're spot on with your observations about the railways getting busier and busier.

It's a definite trend that people need to wake up to.
I try to prod people in the very direction you suggest but am often buried under an avalanche of "I've never booked ahead and always traveled on my day of choice by booking the day before........................" So did I once!

Argument is pointless but we do our best eh.

I agree CH

IMHO it is well worth your while logging on to India Rail website to check how far in advance certain routes and classes are booked out.

Last trip Oct 2006 I booked all trips 60 days in advance. A2 and A3 on the Haridwar-Ajmer route (granted this was on the Wednesday before big Pushkar week-end) were sold out within a couple of days of release and sleeper class were booked out within a week.

I had double booked certain routes and had to visit IR website to cancel. Out of interest I checked availability of my already booked tickets and most would have not been available on short notice.

Leith

[tstan]

We are both men of the tartan, Cyb - me by descent on both sides - and costs are well worth thinking about! With Euros or Oz dollars in the sporran there are not going to be too many problems. This time I was travelling solo and wasn't too fussy about where I slept - many places were only 150/- and even less but usually closer to 300/- in the bigger cities. I stayed at The Broadway in Calcutta, booked over the internet for the first three days 515/- for a very nice room and on the return The Howrah Hotel which I liked for 415/- but you have to request the better rooms. The retiring rooms are particularly good for people travelling alone - male as well as female- but there were also many double rooms though they tend to get snapped up quickly.

The dhabba food was more than adequate and probably not much more expensive than when you were last in India. Bookshop prices not much changed and despite the increase in petrol/cng/diesel prices the auto-rickshaws were still extremely good value and convenient. Travelled from Howrah Station to Dum Dum in peak hour traffic for 190/- and was quite happy for the driver to pick up and set down passengers since I was by myself and my backpack was in the boot. Gave him a tip of 100/-!!!

Stories to come later - have a great trip with your Memsahib. Next year off to the Middle east again.

[jyotirmoy]

During my school days restaurants at all important stations were run by a private company called Kelner. Excellent food was served on china and also gleaming cutlery. There used to be a restaurant car attached to all mail & express trains. Tomato soup, roast chicken and caramel pudding was my favourite.

[sadhuji]

jyotirmoy, on Feb 14 2008, 07:35 AM, said:

....... There used to be a restaurant car attached to all mail & express trains. Tomato soup, roast chicken and caramel pudding was my favourite.

when i stayed in kanpur way back un the 60s, i would board the delhi-kalka mail from kanpur at around 4pm - spend the time till next morning upto 8am in the dining car - first evening tea, followed by dinner and then breakfast - no need of reservations... the dining car manager and waiters never bothered -

[jyotirmoy]

Sadhuji I used to do that travelling by Steel Exp. between Kharagpur and Howrah.

[WonderWomanUSA]

Night train
Thirty years ago, Ian Jack fell in love with riding the rails in India. When  he returned this winter to board  the famed Delhi to Kolkata Express,  would he find the same romance?

In pictures: see images of Ian's Indian rail journey
Ian Jack
Saturday March 1 2008
The Guardian

A friend sent me this article from the Guardian, about train journeys, past and present. I have many similar memories, how about you?

http://www.guardian....ndia.railtravel

[dzibead]

jyotirmoy, on Feb 13 2008, 11:35 PM, said:

There used to be a restaurant car attached to all mail & express trains. Tomato soup, roast chicken and caramel pudding was my favourite.

It was like this in the "old days" on trains in the U.S., too. The dining cars were very fancy - white table cloths, the whole bit - and railroads had their own china patterns, which are now highly sought out by collectors:
http://sonic.net/~ja...RCommchina.html
http://www.railroadi...ina/pgChina.php

That's a great article, WWUSA, with great photos, too!

[WonderWomanUSA]

dzibead, on Mar 11 2008, 12:30 AM, said:

It was like this in the "old days" on trains in the U.S., too. The dining cars were very fancy - white table cloths, the whole bit - and railroads had their own china patterns, which are now highly sought out by collectors:

In the early 60s, I took the Santa Fe Super Chief from LA to Chicago; it was wonderful! The food was fantastic (roast Long Island duck, Yankee pot roast) and a meal ticket for one less meal than I'd be on the train for was $10. Comfy seats, a "vista dome" car for looking out over the prairies.. what a trip!

In Chicago, I changed to the New York Central RR -- which was like the difference between First Class and Third Class (in the old days) on India's trains. Linoleum on the NYC's floors, hard benches, and stale cheese sandwiches ... and it was COLD!

[jyotirmoy]

My father, a bridge designer worked worked for South Esatern Railways before taking up teaching. As a kid I had spent weeks in what was called a Saloon in absolutely remote locations. Often a manually driven trolley came every alternate day or so bringing provisions from the nearest station. At some places elephants came around dusk to supervise & inspect the civil work done during the day.

[sadhuji]

jyotirmoy, on Mar 12 2008, 07:20 AM, said:

... At some places elephants came around dusk to supervise & inspect the civil work done during the day.

must have been real fun watching the wild animals in their natural habitat .. today they enter the villages and trample the countryside in search of food ..