2009-2011 mein, is train ki average speed abhi ke RKMP Vande Bharat se zyada thi, waise bhi yeh NDLS tak jaati thi instead of NZM.

Yo, let me tell you about the legend of ET-ALD! Back in the day, they didn't have many fast trains 'coz of some stretches being single tracks and no electricity. They upgraded one train, 12165/66 Ratnagiri, to superfast and had 12411/12 JBP-NZM Gondwana running only in JBP-KTE. But this train was on a whole other level!

1. When it started, they always gave it Platform 1 in Jabalpur in both directions (only Mail and Gyan Ganga had that privilege).
2. First train in ET-ALD to skip Katni.
3. Starting 2001-2002, it was the second train after Mail to be pulled by twin ET WDM's between ET-RJPB.
4. It had some stops (including technical ones) in MGS, STA, JBP, ET, BSL, IGP. Nobody had heard of having stops like these back then when there were no Duranto or Sampoorna Kranti trains. In some ways, this train was like what Sampoorna Kranti was to all Sampark Krantis.

Also, just wanna shout out a huge thanks to Mani Vijay Sir. Love his work from the past!

Alright man. So, back in the day, my grandpa used to say that the GK train used to be like lightning fast but then it got a bit slower and turned into an Express train in the 90s. I'm not exactly sure when the Ratnagiri train stopped skipping Katni, but around the mid-2000s, it definitely made a pit stop there. Satna has always been a spot where train crews switch out, like a common thing for pretty much every train. But it's kinda strange how ET ALD has shorter crew distances compared to other routes. ET, JBP, STA are all crew changing spots over there. There was this one time when the LTT-ALD Duronto train was introduced and it just went from ET to STA without stopping at JBP for the crew change. And for the LTT-PNBE Superfast, they needed to switch crews at Mughal Sarai since it's a long haul.

Pehli baar IR mein route indicator dekh raha hu, aur koi junction indicator nahi.