I paid Rs 2800 on flexi pricing in a premium train to Kolkata; the biggest mistake I made

(Image: Indianrailinfo)

With train fares sky rocketing (read surge pricing) and the minister ambitious enough to introduce world class facility in Indian trains, I believed Indian Railways must be heading to a grand renovation and might match the travel-quality in other developed South Asian counterparts of it.

To travel to Kolkata from New Delhi, I wanted to experience how Indian Railways must have changed in the days of Talgo trial runs and Google enabled wi-fi in stations. I ditched the allure of flash sales of airlines offering me a Delhi-Kolkata flight ticket for Rs 2500, inclusive of all taxes. A day before my journey last month, I bought a ticket on the newly introduced surge pricing for New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express, one of the premium trains in the country. The ticket, although priced at Rs. 2105 costed me something around Rs 2850, thanks to flexi pricing. But I was hopeful that the service must have bettered and it’s worth it.

I reached the New Delhi station in late afternoon. With limited seating options, people squatted on the dusty floors of the platform waiting for different trains. As the Sealdah Rajdhani arrived, I was readying myself for premium hospitality from the Indian Railways.

Two minutes into my designated berth, as I was checking out the place, a co passenger entered the coach with 16 sets of bags including a LED TV and packed the coup.

Evening of ‘super gold dhamaka chai’
Twenty minutes into the journey, I was served bottled water along with the evening snacks, which consists of a namkeen (with oil dripping), a stale sandwich, a sweet, and a tea-kit. Now if you are conscious about health diet, you should have got your own snacks. The tea bag was a Super Gold Dhamaka tea, a brand you might never hear of, but it exists.

Stinky toilet with flooded floor
Moving on to the next episode – the toliet. The Wester Styled toilet was stinking and the hand shower lying on the flooded floor. I discovered that the drain outlet is clogged with dirt and it won’t be possible for the cleaner to do the needful. The washbasin tap has a missile like projectile that lands directly on your foot. Tired of it, I decided to check out the other toilet, which was slightly better. But the stink is omnipresent. The tap in this toilet needs to be patted to get the water flowing in the moving train. There are just so many lifehacks, I learnt in a few hours in the train.

WTF is food-hygiene!

(Representational image to show how doors are kept blocked. Source: Mouthshut)

Coming out of the toilet, I found the attendants of ‘Meals on Wheels’, the contractor of food service in this particular train, squatting in the floor and readying dinner. The trays have been laid down on the ground and being arranged. Yes, in front of the doorways, dustbins and washrooms. Those will soon be served to the passengers. Also one side of exits are made inaccessible by these attendants because they need a place to arrange their food. So in case of an emergency, you have to depend on just two doors and emergency windows for exit.

Dessert-less dinner

The dinner arrived at 8:30. It was a decent one with two tiny pieces of chicken, rice, roti, dal and yogurt. The passengers, who had ordered Continental Meal, received cold fried chicken, pasta, bread and some inedible noodles. One of them had requested for the breads to be toasted, which the attendants denied to oblige. Well, the dinner was over by 9pm and the only dessert ice cream started getting distributed at 10:15. Yes, when most of the passengers were ready to sleep, this strategy worked better for ‘Meal on Wheels’ because 70% of passengers refused to have. We were seated in the end of the coach and somehow the ice creams got over by the middle of the coach. The server informed us that ice cream is over and they can serve Frooti, ‘if we want’. Definitely nobody wanted a fruit juice after dinner.

Blankets are washed every 2 months
As we prepared for sleep, my pillow was found to be a used-one with stains. The blanket was smelly and the attendant informed was indifferent about it. He said, blankets are washed every 2 months. The sleep wasn’t much comfortable because the AC was too cold and there was no attendant in the coach at midnight. Moreover, there were mosquitoes. The coach attendant in the morning informed us that pest control is done after 2-3 months and he can’t help with it. On asking for the complain book, he said his job would be at stake if we complain.

Delay of premium train
The breakfast doesn’t need to explained, as it was of the same quality as evening snacks with un-toasted breads. You need to choose between jam or butter, as both would exceed their budget. There was no fruit juice with it, which it used to be earlier. The train was delayed by 2 hours and reached Sealdah at around 12:30pm and there was no free water bottle or food served in extra to make up for the delay.

Thou shalt tip
Towards the end of the journey, the coach was stinking like never before. The cleaner just mopped the floor, which isn’t enough to clean the floor walked down by 72 passengers. There was no deodorizer used. And then as the train was nearing destination, the servers of 'Meals on Wheels' started asking for tips. While there is no such official order on it, the minimum tip is Rs 20 per passenger, otherwise they would just not leave and keep coaxing you. The same people who are rude enough and serve food as if doing you a favour suddenly wear ear-to-ear smile.

As I completed 1454 kms on India’s premium train for 19 hours, I realized I could have simply taken the flight and reached home last night itself by paying a few hundreds more on spot-ticket.