On 10th October 2018 this fantastic train started it's journey from Habibganj toward Santragachi. I had planned to travel on the inaugural run from TATA on 11th and had booked ticket of Ispat for traveling to TATA and take the HS ticket for SRC from Current booking. Sadly I couldn't do that as many of you know I was hospitalised on 8th October 2018 due to dengue which I had onboard Jnaneswari while returning from Raipur. I became senseless and it was the ever friendly SER staff of KGP Division at HWH who rang up my home and my uncle came to take me home. I therefore couldn't travel by the inaugural special and after becoming fit my first trip was LHBfication of Viswabharati Pass. It is a long story so let us move to the main part.
As...
more... HBJ SRC HS was long due I had planned to travel by it from KGP today after doing some RailFanning. So today after doing some RailFanning in SER with two of my friends. I went to KGP. HBJ SRC Shatabdi arrived at KGP PF 2 with WAP 7 37053 of ET. Thanks to Arpan Pal and Harsh Pathak for giving me the information yesterday. So it arrived at KGP at 16:45 hours which was 2:20 minutes behind schedule. Lot of people deboarding here and surprisingly I saw 14 people from KGP boarded it. As I entered the coach I felt a pleasant environment. Neat and clean even on the last leg of the journey. I was given a fresh Bedroll by the staff. AC was bit chilled but was ok. It is very good to see WCR maintain their HS nicely. The rake was of WR now changed to WCR and is from MCF made in 2018.
So the summary of my experience.
1) Maintenance - Top Class.
2) Rail Fanning - Excellent.
3) Bedrolls - Excellent.
4) Punctuality and Priority - Below Average.
5) Food and E Catering - Good.
6) Staff - Friendly.
7) Humsafar Features - Available and working. Except Coffee Vending Machines and Side Curtains which are absent in most HS.
Overall it is a good train between Bhopal and Kolkata except the Delay.
Some pictures of my short HS trip including today's link. I really like WCR ET P7s just as I like SER TATA P7s. ЁЯЩП