Last month, it was a great pleasure in travelling to Tirunelveli from Panvel vide Dadar Tirunelveli Express (22629) which plies through the Konkan route and reaches Tirunelveli within 30 hours. The train runs every Friday and is very well maintained. The only hitch was there was no Pantry Car in the train and this train is weekly. For a journey over 15 hours, Pantry car is a must in all Long distance trains. This is even more necessary as the halts at Major stations is from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
Hence it is a request to the Raliways to have Pantry cars in all Long distance trains having a journey time of more than 15 hours to help the commuters...
more... to travel comfortably and to increase this train frequency to twice a week via Konkan route.
Secondly, this Train reaches Tirunelveli at 4.00 a.m. In case the railways can schedule the train at 9.40 p.m. from Dadar instead of 8.40 p.m., the train can reach Tirunelveli at 5.00 a.m. which would be convenient for the commuters to proceed to their further destinations.
In the Trivandrum Rajdhani Express (12431), it was shocking to note that the tea cups were being washed by the pantry staff in the wash basin where people had brushed their teeth and had rinsed their mouths.
Secondly, the Cost of Meals/Breakfast/Dinner etc is already included in the Ticket fare along with Service tax. Despite this, the Pantry staff and the person manning the bed sheets/blankets etc were shamelessly asking for Tips from the commuters. These employees need to be trained on these aspects as to not ask for any such amounts from the passengers as the service tax is already paid for their services rendered.
There should be ample Tourism buses at Kanyakumari Station to take commuters for one day package tour services for Sight seeing at affordable rates.