On board Tejas: Limited WiFi, bland food, no coffee machines
MUMBAI: Want to use the WiFi on-board Tejas Express, India’s first ultra-luxury highspeed train? Tough luck, it is only accessible to passengers travelling in the executive chair car, and they too complained of a weak signal.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off the 13-coach train last Monday. Since then, it has made three trips to Goa from CST and has been packed each time. Passengers’ biggest complaint has been lack of working WiFi.
“The WiFi gets connected but we do not get good signal,” said Mahesh Pawaskar, an executive car passenger.
Passengers travelling in other coaches of the train said the service disappointed them. “We tried to connect to the WiFi repeatedly, but could not. A railway official later told us that only executive car passengers can access WiFi,” Rinki Narang, a tutor going to Goa.
The breakfast served to them on the luxury train, which boasts of a catering service, was also not up to the mark, some said.
People who opted for nonvegetarian meal were served omlette with rusk, juice, butter and jam. “We know of omlette bread or pav combination, but have never heard of omlette toast. How can senior citizens have rusk with omlette,” asked Ramesh Nevalkar, 68.
Vegetarians were served upma with rusk, a cup cake, tea mix, juice, butter and jam. “The food was disappointing. Upma was tasteless, so we returned it,” said a woman.
“The quantity is not much. Also, the breakfast was served at 8.30am, which is too late considering some had to leave home at 3am to board the train,” said Bhakti Masurkar, a Goregaon resident.
Corn flakes was an addition on the menu in the executive class. The tea and coffee vending machines, too, were nowhere to be seen . “Despite the fares being higher than Rajdhani and Shatabdi, we were just provided breakfast, not lunch,” sajd Mahesh Pavaskar, a journalist.
The train’s infotainment system was also a disappointment. “The system has just one movie which released in 2006...”said a passenger.
Sources said the train has two types of infotainment screens, fitted by two contractors. The first type, displays a Hindi movie. The second offers two English and a Hindi one.