Trip by 02198 JBP CBE Inaugural Special.
Loco was KTE WDM3D #11516. There was a banner put by the East Indian/Goan/Mangalorean association on the loco.
Train had departed 1:30 hours late from JBP and was expected to be 2:10 hours late at MMR from where I was to board, but surprisngly, after a cracking run from Bhusawal, it arrived just 50 minutes behind schedule. A lot of people alighted at MMR and the occupancy of the train was around 30% thereon.
CC:...
more... Loco-SLR-GS-GS-B1-AB1-S10-S9-S8-S6-S5-S4-S3-S2-S1- GS-GS-GS-SLR
My coach was S7 and was a refurbished SR coach with charging points near seats.There were about 20 people in my coach. Announcements were made that this train would skip Nasik. Train left shortly and stopped at Nasik, and then at Igatpuri. Don't know if ot skipped Kalyan or stopped there as well. Quite a few unreserved passengers boarded from Panvel and were headed to Khed, Chiplun and Ratnagiri. Entered KR just 20 minutes late and was looped at Karanjadi for almost an hour for an overtake by Madgaon Rajdhani. Reached Khed late by 1:30 hours, Chiplun by 2 and Ratnagiri by 2 hours as well. At Zarap, we were overtaken by Jan Shatabdi and eventually reached Madgaon at 15:20. Train almost emptied out here. Run up to Karwar was good but after that, we stopped at almost every station for crossing since were trailing the late running 16524 and on time running 56641. Reached Mangalore Junction at 21:30, 2 hours late. A sizeable crowd was waiting to board here, at least 200 people. This was quite surpiring!!! Also at Byndoor and Udupi, a few people boarded.