So I want to share my journey experience from Delhi to my hometown, Prayagraj. This is part-1 from Anand Vihar to Kanpur.
Some of you might remember that I had to travel to Dehradun for an important work as I had used the help of this site for planning my journey. So after my work was done in Dehradun I decided to head to Delhi as I thought that since there are much more trains to Prayagraj from Delhi it will be easier for me to find a ticket, and "Damn! I...
more... was so wrong".
So skipping through all my struggles for booking a ticket from Delhi to Prayagraj for four days constantly I'm gonna come down directly to the mystery of finally getting a ticket from Anand Vihar to Kanpur Central in Anand Vihar-Ayodhya Vande Bharat. Actually I had a ticket in Zingbus from Anand Vihar to Prayagraj but considering the situation of huge traffic jams in Prayagraj on Sunday 9th February, I was in no mood of taking that bus and instead cancelled that ticket and booked in Ayodhya Vande Bharat upto Kanpur in Executive Chaircar. Even though there was a 100 waiting in CC class and 20 waiting in EC class, my ticket got confirmed and there were few seats vacant in CC as well, so don't know how exactly ticketing system works in IR.
So now about the journey in Ayodhya Vande Bharat the journey was smooth, the train was clean and punctual and the food was decent as well but unfortunately in the executive class some people can afford the tickets but cannot afford the civic sense, there was a group of six friends traveling together and they were super loud, unhygienic and absolutely crappy with no regards of other's comfort. Even though I ask them to tone down their noises and even asked the TTE to intervene but they would only get silent for 5 minutes and were back to making noise after, therefore I decided instead of spoiling my mood because of them let's focus on the world outside. So about the journey, our Vande Bharat was immediately overtaken by Varanasi Vande Bharat at Sahibabad Jn and after that our train was running pretty smooth at 130 till Etawah Jn, after that it was trolled by AF-LJN Intercity as most of the loop lines were either had empty rakes of a Kumbh Special train or a freight train, so we trailed that Intercity upto Panki Dham station where we finally overtook it (we also overtook Yoga Express at Ghaziabad JN and TDL-GHY Special at Firozabad). Finally we reached on time (or maybe it was 5 mins delayed but it's negligible in IR) and there were many people like me who were doing this journey in parts to Prayagraj. Finally I deboarded at Kanpur Central where there was a decent amount of crowd occupying the platform but I quickly moved to the AC waiting hall at Platform 1 and that waiting room was in terrible condition as like that station. This was my first time stepping foot on Kanpur Central and I realised that both Lucknow Charbagh and Kanpur Central are mesmerizing from outside but terrible from inside and hopefully station redevelopment work happen soon in both these super important stations (although Kanpur Central still has many working facilities, LOL)
So to sum it up the part 1 of my journey, I can say that the ride was smooth, quick and decent if it weren't those six stupid people around me, it would have been great. The fencing work has slowed down a lot but still most of the distance is now completely fenced off, I believe they have changed the sleepers of the rail as well because the ride quality was super smooth it never felt like the train was running at 130 constantly. Also all the loop lines were filled with empty Kumbh Special rakes or a freight train, so NCR is doing tremendous job of running trains back to back.
Now the next part of my journey was in a Special train, so stay tuned for a Special journey in a special train with Special people around me (LOL), it's in a 3rd AC coach so don't keep your hopes high or maybe you can.