It was customary to provide two pantry cars in full length Rajdhani Express i.e. ones having 20/21 coaches (comprising of 16/17 passenger coaches 2 generator cars & 2 pantry cars) inorder to supply meals to large number of passengers travelling on the train. It may be noted that charges of food were inbuilt in ticket fares. Mumbai, AK Raj, HWH Raj, Patna Raj were certainly having 2 PCs. Probably SJ ADI Raj, Dibrugarh Raj etc with 20 coaches were also having 2 PCs. Durontos in general did not 2 PCs as they were having much lesser no. of coaches and passenger loads.
Recently there been a lot of brainstorming in IR regarding PCs and food and it was thought that
(1) ...
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food should not be cooked on pantry, as it is unsafe. It was planned to strengthen the network of base canteens and trains shall be lifting food from stations instead of cooking food in PC.
(2) Also as a measure of redressal of complaints (received in large nos) pertaining to food quality in PCs, it was decided to introduce supply of high quality multicuisine / branded/ normal food directly to passengers by reputed pvt. vendors in a big way, which can be ordered through online/mobile call by travelling public. Food in this case may be a bit costlier but of much better quality and as menu as per choice of passenger rather than standard thali menu.
(3) Above is being implemented and if it becomes very popular, then PCs shall be replaced by an additional passenger coach. Rly shall save haulage cost of PC and earn additional revenue by way of additional passenger coach and mor passengers shall get confirmed berths.
(4) For Rajdhani/ Shatabdi passengers facility of not opting food from pantry car has been adopted to offer them choice (cost of meals deducted from fare for not opting passengers) , which is being availed.
In this scenario load on Rajdhani PCs have presently reduced and the one PC has been replaced by additional passenger coach. Sealdah Duronto which is the first/ fastest/highly patronized/ a full length Duronto (that is great), might have got 2 PCs for a while.
It may be noted that IR is in process of replacing Generator Cars with passenger Coaches in Rajdhani/ Shatabdi and other LHB trains by feeding power to coaches directly from Electric loco. Beginning has been made with Chandigarh Shatabdi and Mumbai Rajdhani on pilot basis.
Prabhuji is not introducing many new trains, but is definitely augmenting the existing trains in a big way!