Recently I boarded this train during return journey from Jalandhar to Dhanbad on 13th Jan 2014. Certain things I found that deserves mention I would like to share with other members and respected admins and moderator. To my surprise and inspite of lots of criticism she arrived at Jalandhar station bang on time and reached my destination Dhanbad just 1 hour 5 minutes late despite the foggy and chilled weather at North India. I have uploaded one photo of the 3AC coach.. if one sees carefully will find this kind of berths are quite different than the conventional ones(the middle berth is non removable from the hook/hinge/clamp rather it hangs in a inwardly folded position). Also the berths are wider than the standard berths of other 3AC coach and the outer bottom potion of the lower berth is covered with ply/boards for more safety/security of luggage.
The...
more... food still remains a concern with this train. Please take enough food with you while traveling by this train. Catering provides only veg food at Rs. 80 (omlettes served on order) which is not that good. This lunch is taken from Saharanpur. You can also take chapatis/rice and chhole sabzi @Rs. 40 from sharanpur if you don't want to opt for this lunch. Keep enough snacks ready as this train has a continuous run from Moradabad to Lucknow from where you will get dinner. At Lucknow you have comesum. Unfortunately many a times comesum guys don't arrive in time so you may not need to order the lunch over the phone rather you will get their reps carrying veg lunch to your coach. This costs Rs. 160 where you will be given rice(approx 100 gms), two paranthas, dal, pickle, and paneer(2 small pieces) but the quantity is too less to satisfy normal appetite.
There is almost no security in this train. At least I didn't come across, passengers were smoking carelessly near the vestibule area. One thing that really annoyed me is that once the train stopped at a very remote dark place 30 mins before entering lucknow. I just screamed at the attendant to bolt the doors because passengers were freely enjoying a stroll at the deserted station keeping the doors open, without being aware of the possibilities, so disgusting.Anyways the train was on time till Mughal sarai, post which it got delayed probably due to aggressive timing given to it. But at night you won't believe it was just roaring and tearing the tracks that you can feel even in the best cushioned (better suspension)AC coach and at least twice felt as if it is going to leave the track the way it twisted at high speed.
Twice the coach was cleaned and i was aked for feedback. The toilets did have tissue papers and handwash filled all the time.
Another praiseworthy thing is it didn't give any deliberate unscheduled halt at any station as apprehended by many of us(for example it skipped Bareilly at almost 80kmph). Only Parasnath is in the list of inclusion.Ovaerall it was a really remarkable journey if i can ignore the negatives.Hope this helps the travelers.