This Sunday afternoon I travelled from Mysore to Bangalore on 2008, Mysore-Chennai Shatabdi with new generation LHB coaches. It was a very nice experience. I recently travlled between two cities a lot, mostly on road and it was very boring nowadays with too much traffic on Bangalore-Mysore road. Volvo and car travel as well take minimum of 2 hr 15 minutes from Nayandahalli (Bangalore city tip towards Mysore road) to Mysore.
Amazingly train took just 1 hr 50 minutes from Mysore station to Bangalore station, leaving Mysore at 2:15 and reaching Bangalore(Binny Mill) at 4:05. I had travelled last year in the same train but with older coaches, and it took 2 hr 15 minutes. The new coaches have made a lot of difference. We reached Nayandahalli within 1hr 40 minutes. Unfortunately we were not allowed inside the station, were halted with red signal near Binny mill and left inside only after 10 minutes making the journey 2 hours. Hope railways solves this problem.
10 more minutes could have been saved and entire journey could have been made in 1 hr 40 minutes. Due to track doubling work near Ramanagaram and station expansion in Bidadi station, we lost around 10 minutes.
Cost is Rs. 275 as opposed to 240 in KSRTC Volvo and we were served 1 litre mineral water, chocolates,biscuit and a Frooti as opposed to just mineral water bottle in Volvos. Senior citizens, especially ladies are charged only 150 and gents are charged 200. They use the service most.
Well, if railways introduces more such non-stop high speed trains (Garib rath / Duronto / Janshatabdi), especially morning from Bangalore-Mysore side and evening in the reverse direction and give sufficient publicity, lots of car traffic could be reduced between two cities.It is ever increasing especially during weekends resulting in many accidents too ultimately ending in loss of life. One can see the crowd of cars in the intermediate hotels.
Only problem that I faced was in Bangalore station where I had to nearly wait for 30 minutes to get an Auto in pre-paid counter. I thought I should have walked down to Majestic Bus Stand and taken BMTC, due to family thought of taking an Auto - Typical last mile problem.
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How about Mysore-Devanhalli Intercity / Shatabdi
Its nice to know that Shatabdi Ooaches were changed, earlier coaches were of 15 years old.
When the Chennai Shatabdi can take 2 Hrs from Mysore, similar services can be run between Mysore to Devanhalli / Chikballapur via Bangalore city / Yesvanthpur / Yelahanka can start with Shatabdi or Intercity Trains taking total Journey time of 3 Hrs with 5 - 6 stops at Manday, Bidadi, Kengeri, Bangalore city, Yesvanthpur, Yelahanaka and Devanahalli.
This will solve huge problem for Mysore Citizens / Business People / IT people taking flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Hyderbad.
Hope MoS Shri K H Muniyappa does something on this.
Experience
I was one of the luckiest person to travel by these new coaches in the first week of its introduction i.e July 2009 from Chennai to Bangalore. Had got a window seat and the train looked white in the morning sun at Chennai Central(Which later was the look of the LHB rake).The winows were quite big enough and the luggage racks looked good. Half the seats faced a direction whereas the remaining half the other way.There was a WC display near the door indicating the whether the Rest rooms(Water closets)were occupied
The train started with a jerk(thanks to the LHB coupling which jerked every time the train picked up speed or slowed down) at 6:02AM and following was the schedule it followed that day:
Arakkonam: 6:55AM-70 kms in 52 minutes
Katpadi: 7:30AM- 60kms in 35 minutes(Fastest strech)
Jolarpettai: 8:30AM-84 kms in 60 minutes
Bangarpet: 9:25AM- 86 kms in 55 minites
Bangalore: 10:15AM-60 kms in 50 minutes(Ahead if schedule by 35 minutes)
Total 360kms in 4 hrs 13 minutes averaging almost 90. Now if the same speed can be followed the distance between Bangalore and Mysore can be covered in 1 hr 15-20 minuites flat. If we can have double track as early as possible and speed capacity increased then we can have 2007 covering in 1 hr 20 minutes,Tippu in just about 2 hrs with one stop and other trains can cover it in about 2 1/2 hrs. And some more services can be run between the 2 cities like between Pune and Mumbai where 193 kms is covered in about 3 1/2 hrs flat.
Bangalore Mysore route is full of curves
Problem with Bangalore-Mysore track is that it is full of curves and within Bangalore, track goes very close to houses where 50 kph is the speed limit. Trains take almost 20 mins from Kengeri-Bangalore.
Mysore - Mandya 30 minutes (45 kms)
Mysore - Ramnagar - 1 hr 5 minutes( 100 kms)
Ramnagar - Nayandahalli - 35 minutes (31 kms)
Nayandahalli - SBC - 10 minutes (9 kms)
Couldn't understand :-)
What are these new LHB coaches? How do they help in speeding up the train? Are they lighter?
Ashok
Here is a link for the details
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Rlys-all-set-to-introduce-LHB-coaches/articleshow/4827099.cms
http://203.176.113.182/IRIMEE/rst/know/semiwork/lhb_sem_rcf_syn_pap.pdf
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/11/12/stories/0212000k.htm
Coaches were initially imported from Germany, now after technology transfer, same is built in India. Also, WDP4 engines are used in non-electrified route and WAP-7 is used in electrified route both of them have got high horse power and excellent pickup. For Bangalore-Chennai route WAP-4 is still used and not WAP-7.
New coaches for Shatabdi Bangalore Chennai
The Bangalore division of South Western Railways has introduced brand new coaches for the Bangalore-Chennai Shatabdi Express.
The coaches have been introduced on the Bangalore-Chennai route from Wednesday. Bangalore Divisional Railway Manager Sudhanshu Mani said that there was a long-standing demand to replace the rake and there were several complaints with the old rake.
The train will have a composition of one high capacity Executive AC Chair Car, seven AC Chair car coaches and two self generating power cars. The executive chair car will have a seating capacity of 56 passengers and AC Chair Cars will have a seating capacity of 78 passengers. These coaches have fire-retardant qualities, are anti-telescopic and cannot turn turtle in the event of any derailment or collision.
The LHB coaches are also fitted with microprocessor controlled high capacity air conditioning system, which gives passengers better comforts during summer and winter season. Other amenities of the coaches include modular light fitting, halogen reading lights for individual seats, moveable/sliding coat hooks, integrated modular pantry unit, water boiler, refrigerating unit and hot case. Each of the LHB coach costs about Rs 2.5 crore, while the cost of a conventional coach is Rs 1.5 crore.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/179631/coaches-shatabdi.html
Finally LHB coach has been introduced for the Shatabdi. Similarly SWR should run the services between Mysore Devanhalli with LHB coach.