[RGK]

Originally Posted by MyLife_MyCar

A better approach would be to lay down a new network of this high-speed tracks, with proper safety barriers, that will only be used by the high-speed trains.

Understand your point, but acquiring land in our country is a significant challenge, especially with environmentalists opposing new land acquistions. Implementing what you suggest will be quite tough, but China has mastered this.

Regarding the new VB Sleeper trains, this is undoubtedly a significant advancement, and commendations are due to the Government of India, the Ministry, and all railway officials involved.

[Bhuvan]

Originally Posted by Bhodrolok

So no opaque barrier between berths but a netted pattern design? Good luck to any females who would try to sleep on the upper berths. You will soon hear of them being harassed by fellow passengers from day 1.

How can they mess up such a basic, straight forward requirement for any sleeper coach?

Of course, with the current situation in India railways the absolute basic of safety itself is a question mark,

At present all the high priority trains and almost all stations that I have travelled to in recent past have very good CCTV with night vision placed strategically in coaches. The sad part is irrespective of the security measures in place, opposite gender faces such incidents on regular basis. It's not the security measure but the fear of prosecution that acts as deterrent.

[Beemer1077]

Originally Posted by ads11

Does anyone know what the First Class set up looks like?

From what I can tell in the videos we got to see 3AC and 2AC right (going by the three and two berths respectively)?

I think a sleeper version would be lovely. I'd be up for trying it on a cross country journey for a change from flying.

Good to see that they're iterating on the base VB design fairly rapidly.

Sharing the video walkthrough I found:
https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=r9yoZYFbbks

I cannot wait for the moment when I fly down to BOM and have a journey on the Vande Bharat Sleeper. Like the LHB coaches, I am ultra sure these will be comforting as well. However, I do expect some bare minimum facilities, one of them being wifi.

The Vande Sleeper should be as comfortable as Air India economy class(be it on 747, 777 or 787). I do not expect it to be luxurious(except the 1AC which will be like Air India First or Business Class), but surely it sets a benchmark. The Vande Sleeper should also be for export markets, since they are cheaper than the competitors.

[satyamkolhe]

The interiors on these coaches look great and feels like better materials are being used to give it a more upmarket feel. Hope the ride will also be better like that of chair car Vande Bharat trains.
But then again it looks like that is all there is. The CC Vande Bharat trains felt like a massive upgrade over the current trains in the country. To me this just feels like a visual upgrade and doesn't have the wow factor.
Also, I am not sure how long the coaches will remain in this condition.
I use Vande Bharat for my Mumbai-Pune travel whenever I decide to travel by train even if they are 6-7 times costlier than normal trains, just because of how much better they are( and faster as compared to any other mode of transport).
But if the premium on these trains is anywhere like that of CC trains, I don't think it will be worth it.

PS: These are my thoughts based on whatever information I have right now and I might be wrong here.

[Chetan_Rao]

Whoever chose the color scheme deserves a pat on the back. What a pleasant departure from our usually drearily upholstered train coaches.

[ABHI_1512]

Ever since the Railway Budget has been abolished and merged with the General Budget, these announcements have lost their sheen somewhat. Nevertheless, pretty neat work on the sleeper coaches of Vande Bharat coaches.

However, the way the number of general sleeper seats have been reduced and air conditioned seats increased over the years, I doubt how these improved coaches will work for the people intended. Instead of developing these coaches, if the authorities focused on improving the existing services for the people using the sleeper class, it would be really wonderful and more importantly, useful.

Railways have, from some years, found very innovative and backdoor ways to earn money and these Vande Bharat sleeper coaches are another way to that very aim.

[mmxylorider]

Love the interiors and the fresh colors used. With these premium trainsets, IR should explore leasing these out to private players to run the operations - Booking/pricing/inside services/their own staff, and pay IR for using their infrastructure/LPs/RPF. These can still run on timeslot tabled by IR but can charge premium for no looping to allow other trains to pass or even premium departure and arrival times. Maybe try this out with the VB seater version?

[ads11]

Originally Posted by Beemer1077

The Vande Sleeper should be as comfortable as Air India economy class(be it on 747, 777 or 787). I do not expect it to be luxurious(except the 1AC which will be like Air India First or Business Class), but surely it sets a benchmark.

I mean if it's likely to be more comfortable than an economy seat surely by virtue of being able to lie down? If 1AC is even remotely comparable to Business Class I think that's all I'd ask for frankly. Guess we'll see soon enough what it's like - I reckon it's primary differentiator would be having your own mini cabin, ie, a door to each berth or pair of berths.

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

Love the interiors and the fresh colors used. With these premium trainsets, IR should explore leasing these out to private players to run the operations - Booking/pricing/inside services/their own staff, and pay IR for using their infrastructure/LPs/RPF. These can still run on timeslot tabled by IR but can charge premium for no looping to allow other trains to pass or even premium departure and arrival times. Maybe try this out with the VB seater version?

Oh god, this might be the first hand experience of the hellscape that is privatised rail in Britain but I'd strongly recommend against anything of the sort. I'm yet to see examples of networks with a strong time held reputation of being leaders in rail being those with private players on the tracks as the primary option.

What I don't mind is if the costs of tickets on slightly premium services such as these serving to subsidise the rest of the network. That's acceptable to me.

[Beemer1077]

Originally Posted by ads11

I mean if it's likely to be more comfortable than an economy seat surely by virtue of being able to lie down? If 1AC is even remotely comparable to Business Class I think that's all I'd ask for frankly. Guess we'll see soon enough what it's like - I reckon it's primary differentiator would be having your own mini cabin, ie, a door to each berth or pair of berths.

By Comfort, I meant in the sense of amenities provided. Of course, Mumbai to Delhi on an Air India economy is ₹4-5,000, business is ₹26,000, which is on A320, Boeing 787, or Airbus A350. First class would have been an option if they were using the Boeing 747-400 or 777.

But yes, if we can substitute a 2 hour direct flight for a 14-16 hour train journey by Vande Bharat Sleeper, then that level of comfort by lying down will be there. Other than that, as a premium train, we will not have to deal with uncivilized crowd.

If we do not get wifi on the Vande Sleeper for AVOD, then we can download movies on our phones or iPads, but depending on which plane and airline, we might get personal screens on our seats.

[Thyag]

Food for thought :-

When General seats have reduced from 50% to 43% and the number of AC coaches has increased from 14% to 24% in the last decade - so large section of people travel in General Coaches or AC Coaches ??

A country's developement shall consider all sects of its people, but the statistics above tells other way !

Inaugurating new VB's, Not giving importance for safety & implementation of the same, Making Reels, Shedding Crocodile Tears when accidents (too many in recent past) happen is not going to help any of us

[Vikash Kumawat]

Indian railways should appoint a RPF officer with a "Latth" ( Thick Stick ) to keep control on uneducated clowns who harass people and damage the railways property, that officer should be trained enough to give a good treatment in running train, no need to wait for complaint and long hectic justice process.
Afterall we have to take some strict action to maintain such a beautiful trains.
We have been using Indian Railways since 2020 from Jaipur to Mumbai 3rd AC, would love to try out a VB on this route.

[FiatDiesel]

I do 1100 km round trip twice a month in Shatabdi between Pune and Hyderabad and I can say Railways are much improved and predictable then before. Cleanliness including of washrooms is much better, consistent with availability of proper soap dispensers and water. The support staff is courteous, decent food options both in train and through eCatering of IRCTC. Infact eCatering is so good as private restaurants also participate in it which has enabled availability of cities famous culinary/ dishes to passengers of train, delivered to their seat. All you have to do is enter your ticket PNR number on eCatering site of IRCTC and available restaurants on the stations train stops in due course are visible to order food. One has to place the order before cut off time which is usually 2 hours before arrival at that station. Online payment is available and you get food on your seat as soon as train stops. Ratings of these restaurants from fellow travellers is also available to help pick and choose.
For instance, me and friends look forward to our dinner at Solapur station when we are returning from Hyderabad, infact some recipes are so good that most of us order additional quantities to share it with our families at home.

None of this was available couple of years back and now has set the benchmark to get more better with time.

[Dibyendu Bose]

What has improved over the past few years is the availability of luxury, ie VB trains. IR has its own caste system…..and if one wants to understand the performance of IR as a whole and not only the Rajdhani and Vande Bharats, go to any website and find out the punctuality figures of the ‘lower rung’ trains. They are not good.

What has certainly improved is the toilet cleanliness and thanks to IR for that.

But in terms of punctuality and safety the data is not very encouraging.

[splendor blende]

Really liked the color scheme of the coach, one thought however is that the orange would get dirty quite easily and show it as well.
Other than the perk of the reduced travel time, I don't see the point of choosing the VB over the new 3E coaches which for someone of a relatively small frame is a lot better than most of the old rattly 3A coaches.
The pricing is another factor, while I understand that keeping the rates on the higher side stops the infamous miscreants from taking the train apart, I would much rather travel in a normal 2A or 1A coach whose rates will be probably be quite close to the VB 3A cost. Only time where it makes sense is when reaching the destination is of utmost urgency, a situation in which I believe getting last minute air tickets would be easier and possibly cheaper than the 1A VB.

Cheers, SB

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

IR should explore leasing these out to private players to run the operations

In 2019 when visiting France, we had a similar thought and were faced with a choice of either a government train or a private train, and we obviously chose the private train which was at a premium of about 8 euros. HUGE mistake, train was delayed by over 4 hours, TT was extremely arrogant when approached for assistance and gave us instructions to deboard at the wrong stop, not to mention that the train did not have any electricity in the day because "the batteries needed to be charged". While this could have just been our amazing luck, it left a sour taste in my mouth with regard to privatisation, especially of the railways. I realize I may have veered just slightly off topic

If the privatisation does take place for our railways, serious restraints need to be kept in place to prevent it becoming a money looting scheme.

Cheers, SB

[nimbus1]

We should not look at Vande Bharat or Shatabdi or Rajdhani as yardstick of Railway's improvement. What needs to be checked is how the lesser and cheaper run trains are performing. To give you an example there are trains that never runs on time, no water in toilets, no facilities provided at the stations. Vande Bharat is a golden dream that masks the reality and what is happening on the ground. KAWACH facility is non existent in majority, no. of accidents increasing etc. Hope you get the wind.