So a new day starts with another derailment. Another day of lost lives for no apparent reason. Seems like the government doesn't care a bit about people's lives. Incompetence at its peak. A new accident every second day, it is crucial to mention that most of the zones are delaying trains in the name of maintenance. Gods know what maintenance they're doing.

Be it a train moving at 130kmph or 70kmph or even a stationary train, nothing is safe nowadays. People booking a train are not even sure if they'll safely reach...
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their destination. Where is the RM? He forgot to do his usual on-camera drama after the Gonda accident. I doubt he'll bother even saying anything about the incident, let alone take any responsibility.

Mission Raftar on papers with massive slowdowns and undue extensions. ZBTT, with a plethora of political halts, even Rajdhanis, aren't spared. Shabbily maintained coaches and unpalatable food on premium trains. Long hours of delays and a string of accidents. The 'Amrit Kaal' of Indian Railways.

Our government doesn't care about human lives, that's evident. But they care about the capital gains, evident by their love of freight trains and the recent tax terrorism. These accidents damage multiple rakes, what about all the money going down the drain. No one seems to answer. RM won't take responsibility, the government as a whole will deny it's responsibility to it's citizens.

This will keep happening because we, as the citizens, have no conscience left. On a forum related to railways, people keep defending their masters with whatever means they find. Instead of asking the right questions, they keep calling it as conspiracy. Some great people even start asking what happened in the last 67 years. Until people will speak the language of politicians and be their puppets, this will continue.

And everyone will be happy with the third worldly services and no security of life, because 'Bharat me sab chalta hai'. The golden period of Indian Railways.

Image taken from X/ANI.

Part - 4 : The Sequel.
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For those, who have not read
Part - 1: /blog/post/5903996
Part - 2: /blog/post/5913406
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- 3 : /blog/post/5961290
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At 10:02 hrs, the chuggers with the diamond logo loudly sang it's customary song to give some way for them, duly indicating departure from maltekdi. Realised there was only a very thin chance for me to catch the Tapovan express. Chug - Chug - Chug, the ALCo twins puffed out the smoke, and slowly strolled towards Nanded, though we arrived at 10:05 hrs on the platform 2 i.e, mainline platform with a delay of 2h 35m, to find that the other platforms were empty, clearly indicated that I had missed the tapovan express.
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Took a stroll to entrance on the platform - 1 side, and noticed the display board to find that both departure of tapovan and arrival of our train was supposed to be at platform 2. Can't know the reason behind receiving it after tapovan, but it could have been much useful if our train was received at platform - 3 without trolling much since we entered Nanded division, so that a cross - platform transfer could have been ensured for people bound to parbhani / Jalna / Sambhaji Nagar / nagarsol(shirdi). Or if it has got a better priority in Hyderabad division, the magnitude of delay could not have grown to this extent. Anyways, things had happened, and my stomach was growling in its own language, sternly advised me to break the fast for the day.
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Since the level of tiredness has evolved a lot in these hours, started to think that when, at the earliest would I be able to reach my destination since I have an exam the very next day. So, continued marching towards the bus stand, that's mere less than a kilometres distance, which was situated in a dusty environment. Immediately after reaching, had some break fast and enquired about the bus service towards Sambhaji Nagar, and the people in the counter were, it would take an hour or so for the next bus. Checked the road distance between Nanded to Aurangabad to find that the train is 40 kms shorter, and would take comparatively lesser time. Was able to see MSRTC buses to various destinations like bidar, latur, adilabad, kinwat, akola, and some TSRTC buses towards bhainsa.
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Headed back to the railway station to find that the next train bound for Aurangabad was at 12:30 hrs, probably at platform - 1. Though 60 minutes was remaining for that train to arrive at platform - 1, and checked the running status of our train to find that our train has already entered the Maharastra and traveled few kilometres, but did not reach mudkhed by then. But for my surprise, the platform is already crowded with no place to sit on the bench. Now, a classical DLW liveried WDM 3A twins of Moula ali, previously belonged to gooty, made entry with the electrification tools van at the platform - 1 from Purna side. Slowly strolled to platform 2, since there was place to sit, and was less crowded comparatively.
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Time went on and it was 40 past 12. Since that was the onset of summer, the temperature was very high and in the scorching heat, it was difficult to sit, sweating out more. Now that at platform - 1, the crowd increased to a greater extent that there was no place to stand. Checked out the live station status at the WIMT to find the next train towards Sambhaji Nagar, erstwhile manmad passenger from Kacheguda, at the time of my journey it was Rotegaon express, now that it is extended to nagarsol, was detained for more than 20 minutes at Mugat that is few stations ahead of mudkhed, and Narkher bound intercity express from kacheguda was closely following it. The Kacheguda bound express from Narkher was undergoing reversal at Purna.
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Now that another 40 minutes has gone, no announcement was made for any train, and no signs for any of the train to arrive. Checked the WIMT status to realise that our train has been detained further at Mugat, and Narkher bound intercity from Kacheguda has been detained at the next station, magnitude of delay significantly increased for both. Realising the priority it gets in the delay, checked the next train towards Sambhaji Nagar other than the Rotegaon passenger, it was Pune bound daily overnight train from Nanded, that is supposed to depart at half past 3. Checked the current availability in the same to find there was only 6 seats vacant between pune and sambhaji nagar, booked it off without any hesitation, and got upper berth. After a long time, heard a quadrilingual announcement made for Narkher bound express from kacheguda to arrive at platform - 2, indicating that it had overtook the Rotegaon express at Mugat.
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Time was now ticking to 14 hrs, and a loud honk, suggestive of EMD was heard, finally sign of a train arriving. and Gooty based single cab EMD, with usual livery and short hood front, slowly pulled the Kacheguda bound express from Rotegaon into platform - 1, with was bustling with the crowds, with a delay of 1 hour. And another gooty based single cab EMD, with Narkher bound express from kacheguda, made its entry at mainline platform simultaneously, with a significantly huge delay. Finally a train arrived from mudkhed side I sighed. It was very much surprising to see a passenger, disguised as express with 19 general coaches. But, it would be very useful to accomodate the people as this passenger and it's RSA are unique passenger trains in their entire stretch and they are crowd pullers as well.
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And given the overcrowding of sleeper class by unreserved passengers in Marathwada region, this is better though it deserves some extra pairs of passenger train in this region with good priority run (mentioning this since most passenger trains here get less priority run wise and tends to get delayed). And, train is being a better option compared to buses here, which are comparatively much slower. Quadrilingual announcements were made simultaneously for the delayed sachkhand express, that is supposed to arrive at platform - 4 around this time, and for both the trains to depart, and they simultaneously March out with the sounds, thadak - thadak. Now that one more hour was remaining for my train to depart from Nanded and my train taking a deep sleep at the sick line along with the locomotive it is supposed to haul it.
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Now that from a distant could hear a faint honk, suggestive of EMD locomotive, was coming closer from Purna side, and now, this EMD was appearing as if it was drenched in the blue paint with stripes in the center, freshly painted. Yes, it was a krishnarajapuram based single canned EMD with bleed blue livery, that was steadily decelerating at the mainline platform with Kacheguda bound intercity express from Narkher. There was good boarding crowd in my platform as deboarding. And now, that the announcement was made for Rotegaon bound passenger, disguised as express to arrive at the main line platform, and within few moments, EMD with a similar description mentioned above, but the three difference being the serial number, the shed it belonged to and the orientation of the locomotive. Yes, the latter one belonged to gooty that towed the heavily delayed Rotegaon express at platform 2. Now deboarding was greater than boarding, given the delay of the train and within an hour that Pune bound express also departs in the same direction, is much faster than this one to reach Jalna, sambhaji nagar regions. The Kacheguda bound express departed from the mainline platform, that is platform 3, after a brief halt.
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Quadrilingual announcements were made for the triweekly from one of the major port city in the south east part of our country, to arrive at platform - 1 shortly, as Rotegaon bound gaadi took a short nap at Nanded. A gooty based double cabbed dull white EMD pulled a brownish red empty LHB coaches into platform 1 shortly and it was 10 minutes to 15 hrs now, yes, the train from vizag arrived it's destination with a delay of more than 75 minutes. One need to note the line-up getting affected due to the detention of Rotegaon bound express, few stations ahead of mudkhed, for reasons unknown. After a while, when it was minutes past 3, the EMD that is bleeding blue, steadily accelerated with the 19 coacher from the mainline platform.
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Twas only 15 minutes remaining for our train to depart Nanded and no signs of our locomotive and rake to wake up from the deep sleep, Now a gooty based single cabbed hummingbird, made a silent and steady deceleration into mainline platform. It was a tiny load Nanded bound passenger from manmad, arriving before the stipulated time. Twas only 10 minutes more for our train to make its departure in the scheduled time and quadrilingual announcements started for our train to depart at its scheduled time from the mainline platform. Meanwhile, heard a loud honk blazed out from the puneri EMD that was coupled with the rake of our train, indicating that it woke up from a deep sleep, now slowly took a stroll towards the Purna side and eventually, reversed back into platform - 2.
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One noteworthy thing was, when the puneri EMD with two cabs, blazed out the honk at the sick line only, that the unreserved class passengers they managed to open a door of general compartment and started boarding while the rake was shunted to the platform, and within the rake reached the platform that sitting became full in that train and now crowd started squeeze into the single unreserved coach that was present next to generator car. Not sure of the coach that is present in the rear end, went towards my coach and boarded the train, settled in my seat. 5 minutes after the chaos of the crowd to board this daily train bound to pune, We started accelerating our from the mainline at Nanded at the scheduled departure time, attained MPS after a short while and maintained it till Purna outers.
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One noteworthy thing is that, this was introduced with 15 LHB coaches, with 4 3A, 5 SL, 1 2A, 1 1A, 2 UR, 1 EOG and 1 SLRD, and it's RSA, the Panvel bound train from Nanded via pune, had good number of UR and 13 sleeper classes. Both should have given RSA at LHB version with a CC of the latter i strongly believe, given the overcrowding on my train. TTE came to my coach once train made a slow arrival into Purna, and made all the people without the reservation ticket to go towards unreserved coach. Once TTE had disappeared, again that unreserved passengers slowly started to appear. This situation was not controllable as the no of coaches were very less. As our train arrived Purna, could see the pair of locomotive that hauled our akola bound special from Tirupati, all the way from Tirupati to Purna, taking a deep sleep.
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We depart Purna after halting briefly , as gooty based dual cab EMD with a tiny rake of akola bound passenger train from parli departing simultaneously. The scenes of our hummingbird thats hauling our train, making a rapid acceleration after departing Purna through the Purna river bridge in the evening light and the calm weather, That dhak - dhak, dhadak - dhadak sounds, was an audio visual treat as it negotiated a big curve ahead. Also, could also witness the hummingbird emitting out the smoke as it accelerates, from my coach.
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The co passengers in my bay initiated conversation with me, and yes, chatted with them for quite some time and they were courteous. Since that I had travelled for more than one and a half day, which was quite tiring, started to sleep in bouts while sitting. Woke up in the middle to find our train at parbhani with a delay of 10 minutes at the mainline platform. Yes, it was making its customary jerk indicating the arrival, that woke me up. Meanwhile, the Rotegaon bound express, which departed much ahead of us was sleeping at parbhani after getting looped and people bound to partur, selu, Jalna, sambhaji nagar and manmad changed to our train and now that the Rotegaon bound express becoming quite empty.
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And, we got starter after a brief halt, and we started to move out of parbhani steadily, overtaking the Rotegaon bound express. I also, resumed my sleep. Woke up for a moment, where our train was looped for more than 30 minutes, with identical looking WDG 3A twins based at moula ali with Nagarsol bound superfast from narasapur and sachkhand express back to back, with a delay of more than 4 hours crossed us at selu. Again resumed my sleep, once our train departed selu to woke up at Jalna at platform - 2, the mainline platform, and hyderabad bound express from Aurangabad (erstwhile passenger) that was rescheduled by 2 hours on that day, arrived at platform - 1, with moula ali based WDG - 3A twins. Now that we were delayed by 30 minutes, expected janshatabdi from CSMT to arrive any time at Jalna, thought that we could be halted for some more time for halt.
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When I checked the WIMT, it showed that the janshatabdi has departed badnapur. A sudden jerk, indicating departure of our train, steadily accelerated and maintained MPS. Was quite shocking since for my knowledge, there was no looping station between badnapur and Jalna, and that WIMT showed that Jalna bound janshatabdi is 5 kms away from Jalna. To my surprise, after few moments that our train attained maximum speed, could see two trains looped at my left side. But, there was no platforms on the either side. When I saw a small building (supposing it to be a cabin), the station building read dinegaon. I was never aware of such a station till date. The Marathwada express bound to Dharmabad, the state border from manmad with moulali ALCo twins and Jalna bound janshatabdi from CSMT was looped at the adjacent loop lines as we cruise through the station at maximum speed. Meanwhile the people in our bay was chatting for some time, and to my right side, was able to see an airport after crossing chikalthana station. Indicating that we have reached the city limits of Aurangabad, people in my bay started getting ready to deboard the train. We arrived at platform - 1 of Aurangabad after few minutes, exactly on time. It took more than 5 minutes for us to deboard the train since many unreserved passengers and reserved passengers from my coach deboarded and my seat was in center of the coach.
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Sighed with a great relief after arriving at the destination. As per plan i was supposed to reach here by afternoon. But was content that atleast that I could reach by night. Thank God, I was able to reach my exam center atleast the night before exam. Went towards hotel, for a good night's sleep after a trip of nearly 48 hrs, and to face the exam the next day.
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It has been a very long write - up till now. For people who read it till this point, please give a comment. It would really encourage me. Thumbs up for you.
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Thank you for reading everything patiently.

It's time to say good bye to this train 16570/69, only SCR can do anything regarding new train literally SWR is the worst zone ever, the train is cancelled completely till the end of Jan 2024 and from February the train is literally out of list in IRCTC booking, what for the Railway associations and GM's and DRM's, how can two train handle the crowd completely out of those 2 one is running till MYS and other is short terminated till YNK, coming to the VB and look at the timings another useless thing, Bangalore Rajdhani if u look for a ticket in peek season the fare will be almost equal to the Flights, Garib rath the night mare of every zone people are even scared to book a ticket just because of its side-middle barth, the KSPK it was one of fastest in the route when it was via-DMM now...
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we can't even dare to book in it the travel time got doubled Via-BAY, why is SCR and SWR giving chance for passengers to choose either KSRTC or TSRTC, the most effected is alway a middle class person just because of some foolish decision please do something useful but not something useless

Which pair of towns/cities would you like to see getting connected with a Vande Bharat Express and Why ?

I will like to jot down my wishlist:(Updated)

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Mumbai - Kolhapur
No fastest connection till date. Only two daily trains which are filled with pax beyond capacity. This stretch has potential to fill up a 8 Car VB

2. Mumbai - Amravati
No morning connection available for Khandesh and beyond. People travel by Gitanjali and ither east moving trains. This stretch has potential to fill up a 8 Car VB and even 16 car VB.

3. KSR Bengaluru Ernakulam
Connected by Intercity which takes 10-11 hours. Night riders are in high demand. Bus lobby infested corridor. This stretch has potential to fill up a 8 Car VB

4. Chennai Secunderabad
No morning connect. Despite demand no proper train connection. This stretch has potential to fill up a 16 Car VB

5. Pune Ahmedabad
Pune Ahmedabad day time fast connect has since been sought for long. A 7.5 hr TT should work wonders in this stretch.


6. Kacheguda KSR Bengaluru
One of the most important sectors of South India. Though many trains are running between SC/HYB/KCG to YPR/SBC, there is still a lot of demand for a new train. A 8 hour TT should work wonders here. At present YPR DEE Duru is the fastest covering YPR to SC in abt 9 hrs 5 mins. This stretch too has potential to fill up a 8 Car VB

Hello, Can someone please guide me quickest path to reach and comeback between Pune and Mallikarjuna or Srisailam Temple.

I could find limited train connectivity that too from #GTL and #GNT.
Either ways Wadi to Temple via #GTL or #GNT - too much time and dependency.
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am not sure how is the path between #Hyderabad and Temple via road, but found it quicker. Can someone please guide me from Pune and end at Sirsailam.