Hello friends I travel a lot between Pune and Hyderabad. Have travelled a couple of times by Pune Shatabdi. I am posting photos of toilets from Shatabdi express (with no fan and all horrible and old) and Mumbai Hyderabad express (17031 DN; photo with fan in the toilet and interior very good/posh). The toilet of Mumbai express was waaaay better/posher (it was the new green/bio-friendly toilet) than that of Shatabdi Express. We pay so much more money for Shatabdi. The fares of Shatabdi and Rajdhani will be going up once again and this is the kind of horrible service we get. Mumbai express is not even a superfast train but the coaches, its service etc is superb in comparison to this wretched Shatabdi. The food is also not all that good (I am not saying terribly bad because THANKS TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND MYSELF who complained to railways...
more... and because of that the food is supplied from Solapur station now instead of the horrendous food that used to be served at Gulbarga station...I had fallen ill after taking Gulbarga food). As usual unreserved ticket holders get into the train between Solapur and Wadi (including BEGGARS....who piss in the corridor which connects tow coaches and also spit out there. Its a urinal cum spittoon). The conductors disappear after checking your tickets. They do not bother to ask the unreserved passengers/beggars to leave. I have even seen some of the conductors taking bribes from the unreserved passengers. The coaches are old and seriously this train NEEDS A NEW LHB RAKE AND NOTHING LESS THAN THAT. Railways are proudly saying that this is the longest distance diesel locomotive run Shatabdi and they are proud of it but they are giving it an OLD ICF RAKE. I have complained many times to railways about old/pathetic coaches and broken seats/electric connections not working, poor quality food, beggars/unreserved passengers etc but nothing is happening. IT IS HIGH TIME THEY GIVE THIS SHATABDI AN LHB RAKE. They are testing patience of passengers.
Also I want to take this opportunity to THANK ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND FELLOW PASSENGER COLLEAGUES WHO ARE TRYING VERY HARD (BY COMPLAINING TO RAIL AUTHORITIES) TO GET A LHB RAKE FOR THIS TRAIN AND BETTERMENT OF FOOD, AND RIDDENCE OF BEGGARS, UNRESERVED PASSENGERS ETC.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WE WANT AN LHB RAKE FOR THIS TRAIN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
The only good news about this train is that by and large it is on time (only late by 10-15 mins)and also one gets the ticket easily (for trains like Konark and Mumbai express we have to book ticket 2 months in advance).
Once again thanks my friends who are complaining against the horrible treatment given by railways to the passengers of this train. IF WE DO NOT FIGHT/COMPLAIN THEN RAILWAYS WILL GIVE US WORSE THAN THIS (ALTHOUGH THERE CAN BE NOTTING WORSER THAN THE CURRENT CONDITION OF THIS TRAIN).