The much-talked about innovation on Indian Railways – probably the best thing to happen since April 16, 1853 – came to our part of the world. Yes, Chennai got its own Vande Bharat (VB) Express to Mysuru.

Given that each and every social media handle was going ballistic in praise for VB – right from the Minister of Railways – we wanted to check out the product and whether the hype was really worth it.

Along with a lot of rail fans, I did a trip from Chennai to Mysuru on this train very recently. Here goes a review of the trip as we saw it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Parameter-wise rating

Ride Quality-4.5/5

Acceleration – 4.5/5

Seating – 3/5

Catering – 2/5

Scheduling – 1/5

The Train

This is indeed a wonderful piece of engineering and innovation. The acceleration is superb, living up to the hype. The ride comfort is excellent, absolutely no jerks or oscillations inside the coach at all.

The seats recline reasonably well, providing comfort to the rider who has to sit for more than six hours end to end. The ride is almost silent; only the seats in the coaches that have the traction motors betraying a whirr of the same.

Braking and acceleration is really smooth without any jerks – this was our biggest surprise, given that the LHB platform on which this was designed is known for its jerky rides when braking and accelerating. Looks like a lot of homework has gone in to the design of a jerk-free ride.

Also absent were the rhythmic, but irritating clickety-clack of flat wheels – these are probably early days for any of the wheel sets to have developed flat wheels. This is something that needs to be watched over a few weeks or months.

The general cleanliness is top notch; the on-board housekeeping staff ensure that this is maintained through the journey.

Seating

The seating was quite comfortable in the AC Chair Car; the seats reclined reasonably for comfort. It was also a great idea to provide individual charging sockets for laptops and mobiles.

However, the placement of the bottle holder and the charging socket could have been better. Both these are right near the floor, making it a little difficult to access, particularly for well-built persons.

The design of the bottle holder is really good and not a flimsy wire basket – the placement reduces a bit of leg space. Designers of future editions of this train set should try out something different to push the comfort a couple of notches higher.

The Executive Class passengers felt the seats were really hard – I have not had a look at those, though. The complaints on social media and shared on a couple of Whats-app groups say so.

Suggestions

Integral Coach Factory engineers may well look into the complaints and address these in the subsequent batches. Executive Class seat cushions, placement of charging sockets, and bottle holders need urgent attention.

Catering

The catering was not top notch. It took a good forty minutes or so to get the first trays comprising a sample of pack of cookies and a premix tea packet. We had to wait a bit more for the hot water for the premix.

Also surprising was the fact that our coach did not have any coffee – the packets had to be procured from adjacent coaches. The quality of the premix tea and coffee were both good, though.

The breakfast tray contained three idlis, a vada, and a bit of rava kesari (shira or sooji halwa, as it is also known). The ice-cold coconut chutney was already stale, clearly indicating it was sent into the cold storage after it was on its way to become stale.

The sambhar was very good and piping hot. It was a good accompaniment for the not-too-soft and just-turned-cold idlis and vada. The shira was quite good.

Those who opted for non-vegetarian food got a slightly more liberal serving of an omelette, bread slices with butter, a couple of cutlets and tomato sauce. Those who had the non-vegetarian food were of the opinion that the omelette was okay; the cutlets not so good.

The caterers later gave us a tetrapak of apple juice – but the straws were in short supply. They were complaining that the pack contains lesser number of straws than the juice packs. Small comfort for someone who is left to punch a hole and drink from the pack.

There ended the catering for the passengers who boarded at Chennai – those boarding at Bengaluru would be given the tea kit plus cookies, while the Chennai pax twiddled their thumbs.

I am not sure about the quality of lunch served to the Mysuru Chennai passengers, so no comments there.

Suggestions

Catering does not match up to both the premium nature of this train and the catering charges as part of the fare. On the outgoing journey, there is no lunch; on the return, there is no dinner.

Passengers would be expecting lunch when going from Chennai to Mysuru, but get nothing after around 0830 when the tetrapak is given.  Similarly, given the departure of 1305 from Mysuru, many passengers would board after lunch or would carry lunch. They would be least expecting a standard lunch to be served.

Indian Railways (IR) could well make it explicit to passengers what to expect and what not to. For the onward journey from Chennai to Mysuru, another serving of tea/coffee would not hurt at all, given that quite a few passengers may choose not to have it.

I do not know if I am being too radical here, but what about giving a credit of food coupons and allowing the passengers choose from a menu? Passengers can choose up to the previous evening for the onward journey and up to probably 8 am for the return journey.

Scheduling

This is, with due apologies for being very harsh, the worst thing that could be done by IR to the premium segment on this sector.

Two premium trains departing within 10 minutes of each other and closely following all the way to Mysuru raises a lot of eyebrows. Both do not halt at Krishnarajapuram – the station where most IT company executives would like to get off.

In addition, both premium trains do not run on Wednesday. All it takes is a bit of tweaking the maintenance schedules to give different days off for these trains.

In addition, the premium charged for the VB is nowhere justified given that it is just about 20 minutes faster than the Shatabdi in one direction between the sector that matters – Chennai to Bengaluru.

Of course, some works are in progress that should make the trains faster – but those benefits will be available to the Shatabdi also (unless the authorities decide to give these benefits only to the VB).

Suggestions

First would be to speed up VB to arrive Bengaluru in 3 hours 45minutes at least to justify the premium pricing. This should be doable in the next few months, if not weeks. Second, provide a halt at Krishnarajapuram for this train by tweaking the schedule.

Making a drastic change in the Shatabdi timings or destination can also have an impact on both trains. Here is a sample schedule – these are based on current allocated running times; can be speeded up later.

DOWN	Vande Bharat / Stations	UP
05.50	Chennai Central	21.45
07.21/25	Katpadi	19.55/57
09.55/57	Krishnarajapuram	17.50/52
10.15/20	Bengaluru	17.25/30
12.20	Mysuru	15.30

DOWN	Shatabdi / Stations	UP
05.30	Chengalpattu	21.15
05.55/57	Tambaram	20.35/37
06.30/35	Chennai Egmore	20.00/05
08.20/22	Katpadi	18.00/02
11.05/07	Krishnarajapuram	15.15/17
11.30	Bengaluru (Terminate)	15.00

Of course, there may be difficulties finding a slot in the peak hours on the Chengalpattu / Tambaram / Chennai Egmore sector, but this must be worked out. This will help the passengers in the southern suburbs board a premium train closer to their homes.

If IR still decides to continue with the existing scheduling for both VB and Shatabdi, and run both to Mysuru, they can consider shifting the Double Decker to Chengalpattu  or Tambaram. It is not certainly beyond feasible, but some things have to be tweaked – mainly the primary maintenance schedule and location.