All down

I happened to travel up and down via a long distance train bounded to a city, which is also represented by the central railway minister. And if you ask me to give a rating to the journey it was all down and no up. Up train was below expectation and so was the down. The journey was a real hell, journey being long; with hell number of stoppage; now imagine the condition of washroom and wash basins. Utilities were getting cleaned frequently but I didn’t find them sufficient to take the load of the passengers as there were double the occupants as compared to the number of seats.

The trip was not planned as a result I couldn’t get accommodation of AC sleepers and I was forced to compromise on the non air conditioned sleepers. The coach was a real torture room; one out of the three fans was missing and whatever was left was not moving, they were simply rotating at snail speed; humid climate adding more to woe. There were no arrangement wherein a passenger can help himself in taking the meal neither I could see water bottle and magazine holders. Berths were hard enough to ensure that nobody could take a sound sleep and hence no threat of theft occurring while passengers are asleep. Cockroaches roaming in the compartment were sufficient to justify it as a torture room.

Washrooms were in a pathetic stage, stinking like anything and were adamant enough to get closed during the use. I tried with one of them and found that the door ditched the latches and was keen to free him from the compartment, the entry door were all rusted and at a first sight appeared very lethal and dangerous.

My woe doesn’t end here; entry and exit to the compartment was free, everybody and anybody could enter the compartment and leave at his wish, there were hell lot of ferry walas from the pantry staffs and other local vendors as well, lot of noise for tea, coffee, snacks and what not. Tobacco based products are not sold on railway station and neither in the train, but vendors were making a mockery of this rule.

Long distance train have very few stop but this train… my god… it is too old to run a long distance! Wanted to take rest at each and every station as a result it was running late by 6 hours, after some chit chat with the fellow passenger I discovered that the train has a normal habit of running late, and I realized that this might be the reason of pathetic condition of the coaches.

Whatever might be the reasons but the journey was a real nightmare.