The Garib Rath Express is one of the landmark innovations introduced by the Harvard visiting professor, who also held the railways portfolio in the Indian Government, none other than the legendary Lalu Prasad Yadav. Mr.Lalu after all is the man who earned crores of rupees profits for the railways, which is why he was the preferred visiting faculty for International institutions.
Having earned so much of money, Lalu decided that he would do something great for the poor of this country - the ’garib’. He introduced the Garib Rath Express, an air-conditioned train for the poor. The poor of this country travel in the notorious general compartment, where more than 10 people occupy the space meant for one in hot and unhygienic conditions. So allowing them to enjoy a comfortable cool journey was a good intention.
But like most of Lalu’s intentions, this one also went awry. The Garib Rath train has become one where no Garib can enter. The train is a 3 tier AC with charges around 50% lesser than regular 3A AC fares. A general compartment fare is hardly Rs.50-100, yet the poor cannot afford this, how can they afford 300-400 to enter the Garib Rath? So the very concept of Garib Rath has gone for a six.
Garib Rath has therefore become a train for the middle class - the aam admi, whom the UPA love so much. The garib cannot afford this train, but the middle class can surely do, for them it is a great value for money trip.
Here are a few points about the Garib Rath express, based on my experience in the Yeshwantpur-Puducherry Garib Rath Express:
Some good aspects about the Garib Rath:
a) The ambience in the train is very good. The seats are very comfortable.
b) Amenities like charger for mobile phones, table stand, bottle holder, etc are available and most importantly in good condition
c) Most importantly, the toilets are clean and well-maintained, unlike some other trains
d) In general, train journey is comfortable preferred to road journey, especially for those who travel with children.
e) This particular train to Pondicherry runs usually at very low occupancy rates and hence the train is mostly empty and thus more comfortable
f) Bedding is not provided for free - but the quality of the linen is good and most important clean.
Now, the negative aspects of this Garib Rath train:
a) Our brilliant former railway minister came up with a path-breaking idea of introducing a side-middle berth, whereby he could make more profits and thus get more visiting faculty calls. The side berth concept is not just stupid, but it is ridiculous. The side middle berth ensures that none of the passengers in the side berth are comfortable and definitely three people cannot sit in the side berth. The side middle berth has been removed in most trains, but unfortunately not in the Garib Rath
b) The worst part is that the side middle berth introduction changed ALL THE SEAT NUMBERS. And the reservation software is not changed, so if you get a ticket for lower berth, when you enter the train, you will find that it has become a middle berth - leading to arguments between passengers. It is unfortunate that this software glitch has not been corrected.
c) Considering the low tariff, bedding is not provided for free. The attendant charges 25/- per set (though I suspect the official rate is 20/-).
d) This particular train is poorly planned, it leaves Bangalore on Friday night and reaches on Saturday morning. But the return journey is on SATURDAY NIGHT. So you can hardly stay for 12 hours.
The train seems to have been fitted into an existing gap in the schedule, instead of making it suit passenger convenience. The train should return on Sunday night, so that travellers can stay for 2 days. As a result of this poor schedule, the train runs almost empty in the return journey - this is a total waste of public money!!
e) The journey time of the train is unnecessarily long. Road journey from Bangalore takes around 6-7 hours, bur the train journey takes 10.5 hours. The railways needs to do something on this
Overall experience
My overall experience in this train is fairly good. If you want to travel to Pondicherry with family, then this is the only convenient way, inspite of all its shortcomings. However for the return journey, if you want only the train, you can travel to Chennai and from there to Bangalore.
My rating for this Garib Rath Express is 6/10. Hope the railways corrects all the drawbacks, so that this train can become more popular and can serve more people.