You missed a lot of fun, Tapan. From outright vilifying VBs a few days ago, people have started wars over whose route is more deserving for a VB. How fast the night changes.

In the blind race of PR, the government has forgotten that we're not yet a 'developed' country. And being a country with diverse demographics, the need for trains is diverse, too. But as the saying goes, "As the king so the subjects," even people have forgotten their route's actual needs and started to fight over who needs more VBs.

While the Kanpur Shatabdi was the top earner of NCR, it wasn't setting occupancy charts on fire in off seasons even back then. With a parade of VBs between Kanpur and Delhi, its occupancy has dwindled further. But it has a different role to play. This Shatabdi, along with the Lucknow Swarn Shatabdi, caters to the intermediate stations, mainly Etawah and Ghaziabad.

You have to see the crowds during the arrival of this Shatabdi at these stations; it's almost similar to that of the Gomati's. So yeah, while I think that the original post may not have been ill-intended, suggesting a train should be permanently canceled based just on vacant seats from the source station is not a brilliant idea per se. Let the passengers have the choice; everything has a different purpose.

I've been traveling in VBs since its inception half a decade ago, and even I'm intrigued by the VB 2.0 rake, saffron rake, 20C rake, 8C rake. So it's not a far-fetched idea that new travelers will be excited just to experience this new tech. And just because we can manufacture trainsets now, it's not at all necessary that we phase out everything that's not a trainset.