I am writing this post from India where I am on my annual holiday to see friends and family but this time around instead of staying put in my home city of Mumbai, I have had the chance to travel a fair bit to destinations like Delhi, Rishikesh and the sunny state of Goa. For my travels I have used the most common modes of transport available in modern India today , the Indian Railways which is a the legacy of the British Raj and the homegrown low cost airlines whose rapid proliferation have totally transformed the Indian aviation sector as we know it.
The Indian Railways is a government owned organization which is amongst the biggest and busiest railway networks in the world. It transports up to eighteen million passenger as well as two million tons of freight every day. While I was in school in India, we always availed of its long distance trains for our school trips. For those trips we used to be bundled into the second class compartments of these trains which used to be invariably crowded and lacking in toilet facilities. Hence my memories of long distance journeys aboard the Indian Railways were not very pleasant, so when my husband's uncle mentioned that we would be traveling by train from New Delhi to Hardwar on our way to the town of Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas I was a bit apprehensive but decided to keep my opinions to myself as I didn't want to offend him as he had purchased our tickets in advance.
We had reservations for our journey on one of India's fastest trains called the Shatabdi Express which is nothing like the express trains in France or Germany but is still reasonably fast for the Indian Railways. The trains which constitute the Shatabdi Express are fully air-conditioned unlike other trains that operate on the Indian Railways network which are usually partly so.
Our group which consisted of six people boarded the train early one morning in November at the New Delhi's main railway station which was over run by sea of humanity even that early in the morning. Boarding on the Shatabdi was quite easy once we had located our air-conditioned chair car compartment as we had confirmed reservations. Our seats were quite comfortable and each three seater row even had its own individual power outlet where passenger could recharge their cell phones or plug in their laptops etc. The train set off right on time for its four hour journey to the holy town of Hardwar located on the banks of the River Ganges. As soon as the train departed from the station, each of us was handed a big bottle of mineral water called(Rail Neer) for our journey and soon after we were served tea/ coffee in small individual trays.
The tea/coffee tray contained a small plastic mug, a small packet of creamer, a packet of two biscuits, and a small bag labeled tea kit which contained a tea bag and a stirrer and a thermos of hot water for us to make our own tea. I was quite surprised by all these amenities as I couldn't remember any of my previous train journeys being as pleasant or perhaps I had forgotten for with the advent of the low cost carriers on the Indian aviation scene I had never experienced the need to take a train. 
An hour after the tea service, we were served a substantial breakfast wherein we had a choice of vegetarian or non-vegetarian dishes. Once again the breakfast was served in a tray and consisted of omelets served with bread, jam and butter for the non-vegetarians and vegetarian cutlets, bread and jam for the non vegetarians. Breakfast included another round of tea and coffee as well. I couldn't help but be impressed at the quantity of food and the efficiency of service for all this was included in the princely sum of Rs 450($9) which is the price of a one way ticket to Hardwar from Delhi.
Our return a few days later was equally pleasing as during that journey we had the chance to experience the train's dinner service which was equally impressive and even had ice cream as a component. I couldn't help but think of all those airlines which in recent times have begun cutting costs and services like food and other amenities for their passengers, compared to those airlines travel on the Shatabdi seemed like pure luxury at a very nominal price.
Though there was one area in which this train came up short and that was 
in the condition of its toilet facilities which were abysmal. It was quite okay for us to avoid using the rest room on our relatively short journey but I couldn't help but think of the other passengers who were traveling on ahead from Hardwar how in the world would they cope with the foul smelling and dirty toilets? Getting down from the train to use the rest room at the few stations that train halts at is not an option as the Shatabdi being an express train, its halts at the stations are extremely brief. If it were not for this, our journey aboard one of the premier trains of the Indian Railways was almost perfect.
