How the mighty have fallen!
I used to travel on this train to visit my uncle in the holidays over 50 years ago. It was THE Mail. It used to be the best train of its day, but now, like some septuagenarian actor, it has a small bit part while other trains steal the limelight. It one of the few trains with a dining car attached all the way. You watch the spectacle at Nagpur of the sectional coaches and CR dining car being taken off and the SER coaches added. The SER bearers were probably the smartest turned out anywhere in India.
Like...
more... a septuagenarian it can hardly keep time looking at the performance figures on the site. So, why I ask does it have 1stAC accommodation. Why would anyone who could afford to travel by 1stAC or take one a plane, travel by this sad old train? Is Indian Railways not aware that the new airlines like Jet are earning a growing reputation for quality. Why is it still called the Mail: surely we would like our post to arrive some time this millennium?
Now you have quicker trains departing from LTT. Why rather than from CSTM? The last time I used that plague-infested joke of a run-down good yard, it was not a nice experience and does leave a bad impression of Mumbai in both the mouth and nose.
Wake up CR! You had a great brand which you have slowly destroyed through neglect.
Owen Berkeley-Hill