When the Minister says, there is a scarcity of train tickets, I hope, we get a train that caters to the MMR and Goa, that's it. Till date, there is no such train. Railways will be able to ease the situation, when all seats available in the train are reserved for the Goan travellor. Therefore, the best option would be a Duronto. However, Durontos do not have intermediate stops and not all Goan travellors travel to Madgaon. There will be sizeable no. of travellors, who prefer to align/get in at Thivim and Karmali. We need a train that runs non-stop between Thivim and Panvel. When I say, non-stop means no halts at all. Such a thing has never happened before and I wonder whether we can expect to see a train run non-stop between a Goan railway station and Panvel. The actual distance between Thivim and Panvel is around 480 kms...
more... and the distance can be covered under 6 hours. Why can't a train run non-stop between these 2 places? I am sure there will be trains that run non-stop for more than 500 kms at any given time in the country. A fully reserved train for the Goan travellor will definately help commuters. Yet, it may still not be enough.
Till date, the railways has only used Goa to earn revenue. The railways earn handsome revenue when it comes to Tatkal sales for the Konkan Kanya, Mandovi and Jan Shatabdi as almost all AC Tatkal ticket holders align/get in at Goan stations. Even though, most of the revenue on these trains comes from Goa, these trains have more halts out of Goa and the Goa general reservation quota for Sleeper class, specially for the Konkan Kanya is decreasing year after year.
On the other hand, all other trains only use Madgaon for the change of Loco pilots and TTEs'. While all these trains halt at Madgaon, the reservation quota in South bound trains is as good as laughing stock.
It is indeed a shame, Goa does not have a luxury train till date.