Is there any older member of IRI who can tell me about the history of this train?
I opened IRI after a long time and just saw that it has been extended to Saharsa and now it's not even a Superfast (I don't care what railway presents it as it clearly doesn't meet the specifications).
I remember it from my early childhood days in 2003-4 when I was 5-6years old. 2553 used to get some of its coaches attached at Gorakhpur. It would always come at PF1 as it was for VIP trains...
more... and it was the best train almost like a Rajdhani for people between GKP and Delhi. GD and BSK did not exist at that time and its only rivals were GKP DLI(later extended to Raxaul Satyagraha),the nightmare Shaheed and a newly introduced non-stop Sapt Kranti SF.
Also I remember Sapt Kranti had only two halts GKP and CNB in UP while LJN was only a technical halt. Even with a non stop and better TT,Vaishali was still far more preferred and had quite higher priority than Sapt. Vaishali too had fewer halts I guess because I remember it did not halt at KLD and 2554 often overtook 1015 at KLD when I travelled in morning from BST to GKP. In return Vaishali was always our choice in evening.
So back to my question, can someone provide me with its history like when was it started and how many extension did it have, and its speed and halt changes if you know.