Horrible train journey to lucknow

Horrible train journey to Lucknow

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I would like to thank the Indian Railways, had it not been a painful shatabdi train experience, I would not have started this blog.

Rajdhani and Shatabdi are considered as luxury/popular trains by our Indian Railways. They have also launched few special trains of these types to cater to crowd during festive season.

I recently visited Lucknow, I’m going to brief you on the horrible things that happened during journey. It seems a better thought to jot down all of my frustration in this blog. I hope you too would have experienced such odds but this was really new for me.

I had booked a ticket in AC chair car of LKW DLI SHATABDI SPL. Train had to start from New Delhi station at 15:20 Hrs on Sunday, 4th Oct, 09. I left my house (adhchini, New Delhi) after lunch, a little early just to be sure that I don’t miss the train due to traffic. It was drizzling on the day and weather was a pleasant one for an outing. Starting from home and reaching (near) to station was calm and soothing. Just outside of station, there was a huge traffic chaos, thanks to Delhi being a metropolitan city. We are used to these traffic problems so I got down from auto and walked inside.

I reached station at 14:45 hrs and started searching for display screens for the train's scheduled departure. Nothing was mentioned about the train on the display, there had been no announcements in the last couple of hours, and I was surprised and puzzled to witness this. Has the train been cancelled, or has it left early due to some change in schedule....lot many things started to crop up in mind. The train is scheduled to depart at 15:20 hrs and no one knew of the platform from where it was to be boarded. I was waiting for any announcement, nothing came by. I was worried that I might miss the train. In my frustration and wariness, I ran on the over bridge to see if any shatabdi special is moving for lucknow. :(

Later I stopped by to ask the coolie bhaiya..He too was unaware of its departure. One thing he could tell was that the train had not arrived as yet so it would also depart late from Delhi. Let me tell you, there is a single train that ferries between Lucknow and New Delhi. If the arrival is late so would be the departure. I had no clue about this mystery and was not satisfied with this preliminary information. There was, however, no information on arrival timing of this train. I went up to enquiry window, to my surprise it was a single window with more than 50-70 people in line. I got a big time shock and had no courage to enter in line. It would have taken more than 35mins to reach the counter.

In this 21st century, India still relies on coolie bhaiya to provide all necessary and correct details about the train's arrival and departure. I really thank them for their services, for which they are not paid anything. You may also be surprised to see that they are updated with all details that an enquiry counter fellow can provide.

My brother told me to dial customer enquiry no 139 and to get the information about the train's departure. The VRS system informed "no delay" in departure from New Delhi station. Even the established govt agencies where computers and servers are being used have failed to update their server information on time, leading to public inconvenience. I felt so much frustrated, being a software engineer, I could understand the pain and agony of normal public which could just hope for improvement. Nothing seems to change even after the IT revolution and computerized systems are in place. We are creating IT hubs all over India and look at the pathetic services of these agencies. I could relate for the first time the real time benefits of having computers and software’s and how this can make our life comfortable and misuse can lead to loads of trouble.

I had to wait for 15 mins in waiting lounge then suddenly got info'n from coolie bhaiya that train from Lucknow has arrived at platform no-8. I started running towards it, not sure if it would depart early or it would wait for the same amount of time.... I boarded the train an dozed off.. Train started at 19:45hrs...god knows when would it reach lkw... so much of trouble in finding the train, boarding the train..now trouble would be to reach back home in lkw at mid-night when the train reaches lkw stn...

Train reached Bareilly and AC was switched off in our compartment. I reported to the attendant, there was no response. We reached Lucknow at 00:30 hrs and first thing I did was to report about the AC problem to DSS at lkw station...TC didn’t know of any such problem. He said," Why didn’t you inform me?" I simply said," How easy would it be to enquire your attendant rather than asking more than 72 ppl to come up to you complaining about AC ?"

These all are very small issues, but adding a lot of inconvenience to passengers. I was wondering about several situations like this, we say India is a developing country, is it true? If this is the situation at the national capital station, god knows the fate of smaller stations.

Our foreign minister, Mr P.Chidambaram says that there should be a transformation in people’s behavior as they are going to be a part of an international city. Are you sure we are even an inch towards that goal, does the change in behavioral pattern improve the ugly state of poorly managed stations?

If we consider the burden on the working executives at station, can't we do something to help these employees in festive season? If you are starting special trains, why not hire special ppl to take up this kind of job?

I agree I’m complaining but isn’t this my right to get better services if I have paid for it?