Travelled in Chennai - Nagercoil Spl Vande Bharat's executive chair car

The ride quality and the smooth acceleration on the Vande Bharat train is far superior to the standard LHB coaches on the Kochuveli-Tambaram special.

BHPian Sridhar K recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Took a trip to Nagercoil in the Chennai - Nagercoil special VB and returned via Trivandrum by the Kochuveli - Tambaram special AC train with all new 3rd Economic AC coaches that takes the scenic Kollam-Pulanur-Sengottai-Madurai-Trichy route.

The ride quality and the smooth acceleration on the VB is far superior to the standard LHB coaches on the Kochuveli-Tambaram special. Unfortunately, the track from Chennai to Nagercoil is only rated for 110 kmph and the train was continuously doing 108-110 kmph for most parts.

The seats on the executive chair car were wide, hard, and tall but bad ergonomically. I had travelled earlier on the slightly older Chennai-Bengaluru VB which had a similar problem but was marginally better. The seat frame on the older one was all metal with sharp edges but the frame is much better finished and sleek on the newer ones. The color was the same white and blue though.

The 3 Tier AC Economy coaches on the Kochuveli-Tbm special have 80 berths unlike the 72 berths of the traditional 3 Tier AC but have some thoughtful features like a place holder for mobiles to get charged, power sockets for all births, AC vents for each birth, a good bottle holder for each birth, aircraft like reflective lights along the gangway etc. The train was spanking clean and kudos to the staff.

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