On Day 1, Mumbai to Ahmedabad Tejas Exp sees record run
City’s first private train sees 1,046 bookings for onward journey, 1,055 on return from Guj; some complain of bad food
The response for the first commercial trip was good. The train was overbooked with many passengers travelling between Ahmedabad and Surat or Mumbai to Surat on Tatkal or waiting list. IRCTC OFFICIAL
MUMBAI: The Tejas Express between Ahmedabad and Mumbai – the city’s first and country’s second privately operated longdistance train – had its first commercial run on Sunday, with the train fully booked on its onward and return journey.
The premium train has a capacity of 736. There were 1,046 bookings for the run from Ahmedabad to Mumbai and 1,055 passengers for the return journey. “The response for the first commercial trip was good. The train was overbooked with many passengers travelling between Ahmedabad and Surat or Mumbai to Surat on Tatkal or waiting list. It was scheduled keeping the travel needs of daily business commuters in mind,” said a senior Indian Rail Catering Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) official.
The train commences its journey from Ahmedabad at 6.40am and reaches Mumbai Central at 1pm. The return journey from Mumbai Central begins at 3.40pm and ends at Ahmedabad at 9.55pm. The train will operate six days a week, barring Thursday. Till Saturday evening, the train had received 978 bookings for travel between Ahmedabad and Mumbai on Monday, and 478 for the return journey.
Some passengers, who travelled on the first day, raised questions over the quality of food served on-board the premium outstation train.
“@Piyushgoyal I travelled today from Amdavad to Mumbai by Tejas express. Not happy with food. In fact Shatabdi is much better in everything. Hope you will improve in future,” tweeted @drashvinpatel.
The IRCTC said they are making changes based on passengers’ feedback. “We will make changes to food as well as on-board amenities based on the feedback,” said the IRCTC official.
The outstation train had its inaugural run on January 17, where an acrylic panel used to support the lights on the roof of the outstation train fell between passenger seats in one of the two executive coaches of the train. The IRCTC has also written to the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala in Punjab to inspect and fix the utilities.