Travelled on 21st december in this train from Kolkata to Malda in the AB1 coach. A major attraction of this train is Bandel skip. I am summarising my experience -
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1. MAINTENANCE - Train was quite clean although maintenance was average.
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SPEED - Speed was decent. Most importantly this train has a travel time of 8hr 15mins between Kolkata and Malda, so one can get sufficient time to get a good sleep at night
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3. RUSH - Rush was quite low. Almost whole train filled up at Kolkata and rest of the vacant seat filled up from Barddhaman. Most of the reservations were done upto Malda and Katihar.
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4. TICKET AVAILABILITY - One can easily manage to get a Rac ticket in the sleeper class. 8-10 days before the DOJ which later gets confirmed. For the 2nd and 3rd ac passenger, prefer Tatkal if you have made the plan 1-2weeks before DOJ, you will easily get a confirm seat
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5. PUNCTUALITY - It is very punctual. We reached all stations almost on time. We arrived Malda at 5.05am instead of 5.10am
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6. PRIORITY - Priority is average. We were halted at Noadar Dhal for 30mins to allow Darjeeling Mail to overtake us. That's the only overtake we faced. We also didnot allow Padatik exp to overtake us, which was running 20mins before time
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7. FOOD - This is the only disadvantage of this train. You will not get enough option for food. You will not find too many food stalls at Naihati. Then it skips Bandel where Ecatering is usually available. At Barddhaman, you can find some options like Puri sabji. But personally, i would suggest to carry your own food
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8. SAFETY - 3-4 armed RFP patrolled the whole train from Kolkata itself. They didn't allowed anyone to open the doors other than the stations. Even they were asking peoples standing near the vestibule that whether they had valid ticket to travel in the reserve coach or not