This Journey Turned Out To Be A Nightmare. The Worst Train Journey In Last 5 Years. It Maintained Its Schedule Till ASN. From There It Started Getting Delayed. Reached PNBE & MGS 1 Hr Behind Schedule. As We Woke Up In The Morning, We Learned That The Train Is Running 4 Hours Late. And Since Then It Never Behaved Like A "Super Fast". Reached NDLS At 12 Noon. Pantry Staffs Are Worst Of All. Through Out The Journey, They Only Offered TEA & No Coffee. Even There Wasnt Biscuits With Tea Even Though They Charged INR 10/- . Even On Board House Keeping Staffs Were Not As Efficient As In Gyaneshwari Or Gitanjali

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: 00/10
Speed : 04/10
Rail Fanning: 05/10
Hygiene : 05/10

We undertook a trip in this train from Thivim to Thane in Dec 2023 and sharing the below tips based on my experience:

1. Cleanliness: Good cleanliness and a well maintained passenger coaches. There is Onboard Housekeeping Service (OBHS) on this train and the staff sweeps the coaches (AC) atleast once during the journey and additionally when asked to clean. The toilets were in satisfactory condition and you may ask the staff to clean if they are unclean.
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2. Punctuality: Book this train only if you have ample time and are not in a hurry to get to the destination. It is usually gets rescheduled by atleast an hour from MAO itself due to the pairing train arriving late. Gets thrashed by Vande Bharat, Janshatabdi and Tejas even before Ratnagiri thereby increasing the delay. The arrival timing at Thane is 10.23 pm but it usually arrives after midnight which makes it difficult to find the last mile connectivity from Thane. It is the same case with 11099 as well which gets a delayed departure from Source. It is looped in most of the cases for crossings and gets low priority in the Konkan Section.

3. Food: This was the train in which rats were found roaming in the Pantry Car and hence we absolutely avoided food onboard. I anyways avoid food on any train on IR (barring Ahuja Caterers) but this train has a bad history. If you are boarding from Madgaon or Thivim, get Parathas or other food items packed via food aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy who deliver at the stations. You get Puranpoli, Ghavane Chutney (Neer Dosa Chutney) and Fried Modak at Kankavali Station which may be packed if you wish to avoid food onboard. For anyone still eager to try food onboard, Cup noodles, Omlette, Cheese sandwich were available in snacks while Veg and Chicken Biryani were available for Lunch and Dinner

4. Ticket Availability: Barring a few instances of Peak Season, tickets are easily available in this train. A lot of seats are reserved for VIP Quota which gets released at chart preparation if they are not allotted.

5. UR Coach: As it isn't a daily train and gets less patronage, you may expect UR to be relatively empty than Konkan Kanya, Mandovi and Tutari Express

6. Railfanning: As it covers South Goa, North Goa, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts in daylight, it is a good train for railfanning. Besides, it gets looped on multiple occasions as it gets less priority in the section which can be a boon for railfans

7. Safety: No safety issues observed during my travel and trains running in the Konkan section are relatively safer.

Have a safe trip.

Vivek

This train is the only train between khajuraho, chhatarpur, tikamgarh to delhi its the lifeline of this region but a real nightmare for many people as it has pathetic time table on top of that it gets delayed very often almost every other day it reaches it destination half an hour or 1 hour late , also it is running with icf coaches the condition of the rake is very poor very bad maintenance by khajuraho even in ac coaches cleanliness is not maintained, its coach composition is also not good as it has more than enough general coaches and very less reserved coaches it leads to the situation of overcrowding in ac and sleeper coaches as many people want to book tickets in reserved coaches but due to unavailability they travel in reserved coaches with wl tickets harassing other people who have confirmed ticket they can be solved very easily...
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if ncr attaches 2 ac coaches and 2 sleeper coaches in it by eliminating 4 gs coaches, also as this train doesn't have pantry many unauthorised vendor come and sell food items even in ac coaches when ask them about their id as they claim to be of side panty they run away, however ac coaches condition is still better bedroll is neat and clean, blankets are also provided for towel you have to ask to the attendant
In conclusion this train is not good it needs many improvement including lhbfication and speed up of time table in my opinion if you have choice, luxury of traveling in other train please go with them don't book in this train even as a resident of Khajuraho I don't prefer it instead going by chain is much better and less time consuming and comfortable hope ncr takes note of it and improve this train as everyday complaints about this train as raised to drmjhansi but till now no real action has been taken.