RAILWAYS’ GOLDEN GIRL
When the Rajdhani Express had its first run in March 1969, its speed and amenities made it a wonder on wheels. Fifty years on, the journey may not be as luxurious, but it’s still a favourite for many
When the Rajdhani Express had its first run in March 1969, its speed and amenities made it a wonder on wheels. Fifty years on, the journey may not be as luxurious, but it’s still a favourite for many
It was sometime in November last year that 38-year-old Souroshankha Maji checked the availability of tickets in the first class of the Rajdhani Express travelling from Howrah to Delhi on March 3, and hit the panic button. “A bunch of us have been planning to take this trip for the past two-and-a-half years and one day I found there were only 16 tickets left,” recalls Maji, a rail enthusiast and member of several Indian railways fan clubs, including the Rail Enthusiasts’ Society and the Indian Railways Fans Club.
Maji immediately texted his fellow travellers, and the next morning, even as they started making online reservations, Maji made his way to the station. “I hadn’t been to a reservation counter in years. But I wanted a printed ticket for this,” he explains; a memento of a special journey – the golden run or 50th anniversary journey of the Rajdhani Express.
LOOKING BACK
In 1960, the Railway Board in India decided to undertake a study to achieve increased speed for its trains, says an Eastern Railway spokesperson. Work started from 1962 and then, as a Hindustan Times report in 1969 states, “tests began in 1967”. Finally, on March 1, 1969, the Rajdhani Express, the country’s fastest train at the time with a speed of 120km/hr, was flagged off from New Delhi to reach Howrah the next morning. The first journey from Howrah was on March 3. “It was called the Rajdhani because it would connect the country to the capital, Delhi,” recalls senior Supreme Court lawyer Anoop Bose, whose late brother, Adhip, was among the passengers on the first train. Bose had gone to see off his brother, and remembers seeing then railways minister Ram Subhag Singh garlanding the train, before flagging it off.
“After Independence, if Indian railways got a brand internationally, it was through the Rajdhani,” says Sanjoy Mookerjee, former financial commissioner of Indian Railways and a rail enthusiast. “This was the second all air conditioned train – the first was the Airconditioned Express; it was fast and for the first time, food was included in the ticket.” Mookerjee’s own memories of the Rajdhani dates back to soon after the train was launched. “In those days. flying was not so common. In the Rajdhani we got that feel of travelling by air,” he says.
The ticket was like a folio, like air tickets back then. There was an image of the Qutub Minar on one side and the Howrah Bridge on the other. “Porters were not allowed inside the train,” recalls Debashis Chandra of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC, eastern zone), whose father Ratan Chandra Chandra was the first catering manager of the Howrah Rajdhani. “Coach attendants escorted passengers to their seats, and carried the luggage either to the seats or to the luggage room attached to the vans.” Initially, there were just chair cars and sleeper vans and in the sleeper vans, each compartment had a pedal-operated wash basin and a small cupboard. “Music was played, and recordings of the news broadcast on AIR,” remembers Bose. “There was also a lounge.”
The food is what most old-timers remember fondly – starting with tea and snacks to dinner – continental was their speciality – to breakfast the morning after. “My favourite was the breakfast. They always had grilled liver and such things which you wouldn’t get anywhere else,” says Mookerjee. And you would be asked if you needed anything more, adds Bose.
Not only was the train a class apart from others running at the time, so were its passengers. “Women would dress in their best to travel in the Rajdhani. The men would often wear a tie for the journey,” recalls Chandra. He remembers hearing from his father that senior politicians and celebrities from the fields of art and culture would travel on the Rajdhani. The train was a great hit also with business travellers. “They preferred the overnight journey, rather than reaching the evening before and paying for a hotel,” recalls retired chief public relations officer, Eastern Railways, Samir Goswami.
THE TRIP TODAY
Age has not managed to slow down the Rajdhani; indeed the speed of the Howrah Rajdhani (or Kolkata Rajdhani as it is known) now is 130km/hr.
But it has nevertheless a newer entrants in the race to speed ahead. (The recently launched Vande Bharat Express is billed as India’s fastest train at present.) And the ease of flying and competition from economical flights has taken some of the sheen off this once luxury train. While the two and three-tier sleeper coaches that have replaced the chair-cars over the years, mean more people are able to avail of the facility, it seems to have also made the service more mass; like the packaged ice creams and curd that have replaced the made-in-pantry deserts.
There is a still an old-world charm about the first class coaches – black and white sketches of old cityscapes line the aisles. The wash basins and cupboards in each coupe have disappeared, but advancement has come in the form of disposable toilet seat covers. There are mosquito repellents in each coupe. The staff – uniformed railways staff has mostly given way to outsourced workers – wear gloves while they serve guests of all three classes. The water cooler has given way to packaged drinking water; there are sachets of tea, coffee, salt, pepper, butter and ketchup on meal trays. But the famed Rajdhani comfort seems to be sighing in defeat as a passenger on the middle berth of a three-tier coach sits uncomfortably hunched over his dinner tray.
PALATE PEEVE
Food especially is a disappointment for most. “Earlier they would serve soup and fish fry. Look at the food now (points at a greasy samosa and tiny sweet).,” says 62-year-old artist A Bhattacharjee. Others grumble about the taste, or the lack of it. The IRCTC manages the catering on the train, but the on-board service is outsourced to a private vendor. Food for two and three-tier passengers is picked up from base kitchens and only for the first class travellers meals are prepared on board.
“The clientele is reducing because of air competition. The pressure on pricing has reduced quality. The only place where they can cut corners is in the food,” says a railways employee on condition of anonymity. Most passengers, however, find the Rajdhani is cleaner, safer and offers a more comfortable journey than other trains in the country. It mostly also maintains the tim , is why it still continues to be ite. “The last time I boarded a Rajdhani was from Ahmedabad. I knew what I was expecting – clean coaches, good food and comfortable journey – and I got all that,” says senior journalist and author Mark Tully. The train is popular with senior citizens who get a discount on the fare and have the liberty of leisurely travel. It allows 60-year-old housewhife Rina Singh to carry more stuff for her children when she visits them in Delhi than a flight would have; gives Madan Sharma more comfort than cramped economy-class flights.
Mookerjee feels it is, in good measure, the emotions of the railway staff that help meet passenger expectations and perceptions about the train. Certainly it enjoys a special bond with railways enthusiasts. At least 25 fans, including those living in Pune, Bengaluru and even Singapore will board the train from Howrah today to celebrate the 50th anniversary run of the Rajdhani. More are expected to join along the way. “We haven’t done this kind of thing for any other train,” admits fan Samit Roychoudhury who had also travelled on the train on its 40th anniversary run. For its part, the railways will greet all passengers with a card and a pamphlet with a history of the train. The coaches will have carry stickers or banners with the anniversary year mentioned and the IRCTC will ensure that for that day at least passengers feast again on the famed Rajdhani fish fry and caramel custard or rosogolla.