2859/2860 gitanjali express is a superfast train connecting mumbai to Howrah. it was introduced by madhu dandavate in 1978 and at that time it used to take 29 hours and had just 8 stops. Now the number of stops have increased enormously , spped has decreased considerably and now the train takes 31 hours to cover a distance of 1960 ms . It has lost it’s purpose as originally it used to start from Mumbai at 6-00 a.m and reach howrah next day at 11-00 a.m and now it does not reach before 1-00 p.m .So 2 days are wasted. Now a better choice is the other superfast train mumbai-howrah mail which though a bit slower wastes only one workingday as it travels during 2 nights.
Recently there are 24 coaches to Gitanjali express. since it travels mostly in day it suffers more from the unreserved intercity day travelers. As compared to Howrah mail.Moreover the trin starts too early at 60-00 a.m from Mumbai CST making it very difficult for people staying in western suburbs to catch the train. alas the train does not halt at Thane either!
The unreserved general class is just too crowded even in off season so intensity local passengers can not help it and have to enter in sleeper class. Even though it has 24 coaches it is always full and many wait listed passengers also travel in the train. the train is not very clean. one should prefer horah mail to travel to Calcutta. Gitanjali is good choice if one has to travel to Tatanagar .
Tip: the train is good choice if u intend to visit the holy place Shegaon( Shri Gajanan MAharaj) . You can visit Shegaon from Mumbai by horah mail/ in the morning and return the same day by catching gitanjali at 12-00 noon at Shegaon.
The train does not have AC I class but has all other classes of accommodation. The sleeper class is full by rural Bihari people or bihari laborers! **The elite and babus better avoid Gitanjali and board horah mail a transport heritage train ( first started by British amil train in true British tradition) which has stood the taste of time!