Hi All,
I travelled on this train on 7th July. Train was delayed at PNBE itself by 45 minutes. It started at 0630 hrs. I was in C2 coach. BTW, there was no indication of "C2" on the coach . It departed frpm platform 3 in PNBE. It was halued by a MGS WAP4(which I saw at HWH). Breakfast was available after 0730 hrs. Options were bread omlette and Bread cutlet. I had bread cutlet. Two loaves of bread and 2 veg cutlets. The taste was good. It was priced at 20/-. And yes, Pantry staff was selling Litti(thruout the journey after 0900 hrs). The coach was an old one. It had a typical smell. The run of the train...
more... was slow. ON rare occasions did it touch MPS of 110kmph. Some WL passengers were standing near the door.
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The seating arrangement was 3x2. In the last seats(both sides of coach) the seating was 2x2. I got the seat at the place where people sit face to face and a table was a separator.
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The reason of the slowness was two trains leading it. It overtook two trains at Asansol. Lunch was avaILable at Asansol from outside vendors. They sell chicken/veg biryani. Generally, i do not trust food from outside vendors and hence did not take it. Our pantry staff had very limited veg biryani(only veg, probably taken from Asansol). I got it at 35/-. Had to be content with it, as there was no other option in the train for lunch. So please remember, if u do not carry lunch, u may purchase it from outside vendors at Asansol. Pantry staff generally do not sell lunch. The pantry staff roams with Kurkure/lays/cold drinks/brittania cake.
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BTW, i do not understand why there is rake sharing between the PNBE-RNC and PNBE - HWH Janshatabdi. The train picked up speeds after Burdwan. It reached HWH at 1510 hrs.(1 hr 45 min late) I missed my train Coromandel due to this train. I took HWH - TPJ express.
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This train is NOT AT ALL recommended for those who have a connecting train from HWH Like Coro or Gitanjali. What i heard from my co-passenger is that, it runs only on time on Monday. Other days are fraught with delays. For HWH - PNBE, it is recommended for those who have no other option left. THe reason is , it would reach PNBE at the dead of the night. You can very well imagine if it left HWH at 1530 hrs that day, when woiuld it reach PNBE.
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One can justify such delay for SC - PUNE Jan to some extent, saying it is a special and is a single line section at many places. But, here a 45 min delay escalted to 1 hr 45 min at HWH.