We traveled by the Rajdhani Express recently from New Delhi to Bangalore (and came back by the Karnataka Express Train, both AC III coaches. So the journey must be comparable, Right? Well, hear me out and then decide for yourself.
There is a big advantage of traveling by the Rajdhani Express to Bangalore, it is a faster train than Karnataka Express. It takes 36 hours to reach Bangalore by Rajdhani and 42 by Karnataka Express.
The tickets of the Rajdhani Express are a bit more expensive but assume that the difference really does not matter to you.
Now listen to the sound track in the video above (after two minutes you can listen to a small sample of the tunes they keep playing on the public address system of the train).
- How do you find the welcome after boarding the Rajdhani Express train? That cacophony continues for a good ten minutes when you board the train and it can send small children into a crying frenzy!
- They wake you up between 6.00 and 7.00 am in the morning to drink tea! Don’t get me wrong, I live on tea but at 6.00 am I like only one thing and that is sleep!
- The sample song that you listened to (what you did not listen to the soundtrack of the video? Do that first before you read any further). They play it at all the hours of day and night. One of the things I am looking forward on a 36 hour journey is to catch up on sleep! It is impossible with the music blaring at all hours at a volume over which I have no control.
- It might have made sense to play music (for a limited period) in an era when music players were not in every device you could think of! Now if I wish to listen to a song I can with my mobile phone and so can almost everyone that is the target market of the Rajdhani Express!
- They have been playing the same songs since last 20 years or so it feels.
- We realized this time that there is a person in the pantry whose job is to play the songs. You can request him to play it down but whether he will comply and for how long is any body’s guess.
- The sound system is pathetic. It just drives you nuts with the repetitive music in screeching tones at all hours. I wonder if there is someone who likes to listen to it, but then I am sure the Indian Railway is not going to conduct a customer satisfaction survey anytime soon.
Now would you blame me if I wish to avoid the Rajdhani Express train the next time around even though if it means sitting for longer in the Karnataka Express but mercifully without a public address system?
There is usually a knob to the side of the speaker that lets you control the volume.On one of our journeys in this train, they kept playing a severely damaged cassette tape of cover versions of the usual Kishore Kumar hits. That was torture.By the way, the price of the ticket includes meals, snacks, tea/coffee, water bottles and the morning newspaper.
Oh that was some experience! I have travelled only once in this train – when I came to Bangalore for the first time. I would agree to the cacophony/obsolescence/poor-quality of the public address system. However, it does help boarding a Rajdhani than any other long distance train – for security, quicker travel and in case of emergency situations the passengers of Rajdhani would be treated better than any other train. Whats your take on that?
Ha Ha Ha – sorry for laughing – but I could HEAR your desperation (from the writing:D)!
Thanks for that information Mathew!Kalyan, thanks for sharing your thoughts, I really had not thought along those lines, but then the cacophony is too fresh in my mind to comment on it!Fida, Sesha was even more desperate! I think I should have asked him to write this post.
Sampark Kranti would be a better choice to go between blr/delhi than karnataka exp.
Thanks Arun, there were no tickets available in Sampark Kratni but we would surely try for it the next time.
Ohh God….I had booked my ticket for going to Delhi around Diwali by this train and was looking forward to the journey….But ur revelation, makes me have second thoughts…Thanks all the same, for sharing ur exp….
Snuffles, t won't be too bad, if you can just take some tuneless music in your stride 😀
Thank you so much for posting this. I had been considering a train journey when I go to India next month. I will definitely not do this. Noise is the bane of modern existence.
Anonymous this is only one train, there are many other trains that will have air conditioned coaches and no music.
pls be happy that u hav a train which which will cover banglore and delhi in 33hrs
but for this train u would have to take the karnatak express which is by far the slowest in india
Aditya my return journey was by Karnataka Express. And it was quite OK.