The Humsafar mania . . .
Well it was the summer of 2018 , one of those May days when the sun shines hot and wind blew warm . I was in Bhopal for my end sem exams . I was planning to visit Bokaro Steel City . As there were no direct trains between these two places , So after a brief discussion from the IRI members I had made up my mind to travel in a break journey in Jabalpur , Bhopal to Jabalpur in Amarkantak Exp and Shaktipunj Exp to Barkakana Jn and a 80 Kms bus journey till Bokaro Steel City .
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The Indore Puri Humsafar Exp
Suddenly while browsing through IRI , I came across the Introduction of the Humsafar train . I knew it would surely go via Odhisa or Jharkhand so I didn’t booked the Shaktipunj ticket . Soon after the route of Humsafar was decided that it would go via Bhopal – Nagpur – Bilaspur – Jharsuguda – Bhubhaneswar – Puri . The train was finally inaugurated on 12th May . On 14th May its booking for the regular journeys started . Within minutes I had booked my ticket from Bhopal Jn to Jharsuguda Jn for DOJ 29th May 2018 on the lowest possible fare of Rs 1460 . The further Journey was not planned then .
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Observations for the First Regular Run and Planning for further journey
The train was ready for its first regular run on 22nd May , but two things strange happened that day . The train didn’t touch Jharsuguda Jn rather it bypassed via Jharsuguda Road . The IRCTC was booking tickets for Jharsuguda Jn . I had tweet this issue to @Railminindia on twitter and they apologised me for their mistake and they made the correction on their website too . And despite having a good slack time it was delayed by 2hrs 40 mins at Jharsuguda Road station . It was a very big challenge for me to plan the further journey . So after a various list of choices , I booked my ticket in 07007 Secunderabad – Darbhanga Spl from Jharsuguda Jn to Bokaro Steel City . This included 6hrs buffer timings and a change of station too .
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29th May 2018 , The Journey Day
I was very excited for my ride in this new Humsafar Exp . It was my 3rd Humsafar Exp ride . The train was at 17:45 at Bhopal Jn . I was there at station at 16:30 . The train arrived right time all thanks to the slack timings . BRC WAP 5 #30092 was doing the honours for the journey till Bilaspur Jn . Brand new coaches with extremely clean coaches with all Humsafar amenities were present there . Pls see the pics of the shining coaches . I had a got Side Lower berth , the seat of my choice B5 23 . Luckily nobody requested me for the exchange of seats . The WAP 5 was in insane mood throughout the journey . By the time it reached Bilaspur it was delayed by 2 hrs . The WAP 5 changed to WDP 4D at Bilaspur Jn . The journey after Bilaspur was a pretty slower than before , an overtake happen too at Champa by Mumbai Howrah Duronto Exp The train finally reached Jharsuguda Road at 14:20 a delay of nearly 3 hrs . . .
This was a very pleasant and comfortable Journey till here . To know what happened next , the problems at Jharsuguda Jn , pls stay tuned in this blog post . . . .
Next Part /blog/post/3529678
Thank You
#NiketKaran