I was to go back from Meerut, my home town to Chennai, where I am/was doing my MBA. I was excited to travel by this train - The Garib Rath - from Hazrat Nizamuddin to Chennai which ran only on Monday. I had my batch-mate Amit traveling with me.
I found the concept of Garib Rath something similar to the Low Cost Airlines. I would rather call these trains "no-frills" Rajdhanis. All coaches are AC - with just two categories - 3rd AC and Chair Car. Although there was no pantry car in the train, food facility was available. We also paid a nominanl INR 25 per berth for the bedding - a blanket, a pillow and a sheet - I found it similar to the low cost airlines where you need to pay even for water. The ticket for 3rd AC was around INR 900 as compared to around INR 1500 in case of a of a superfast train.
One thing which a lot of people would agree to is that the name of these trains is a misnomer - As said by Amit during the journey - "Jinke naam pe ye trains chali hain, wo to zindagi me kabhi ksafar nahi karenge is se."
The number of berths in the train was also more. In 3rd AC there were 75 berths in Garib rath as compared to 64 in a normal train.
All in all it was a comfortable journey at a nominal price. The train is not yet popular and seats were vacant. As time would pass, people would become aware and the train would have higher occupancy rate.
The areas of concerns are the odd timings - departure from Nizamuddin at 4 PM in the evening. And also the frequency of the train - it needs to ply more number of days in a week and that too on "sensible" days like Saturdays than on Mondays.
I agreed with Amit when he said that the concept was good but the name needs some change.
