36 hours on board an Amrit Bharat train: ‘There is water in the toilet… How can this be a general coach?'

Indian Express

25-05-2025

Sanjay Kumar, 38, puts train travel in perspective — no romance of the rails, just pure strategy. 'Agar aap dabdaba nahi dikhaiyega toh baithane ko bhi nahi milega (If you don't show your might, you won't even get a place to sit). This is the reality of the general class compartment.'
Sitting by an open window, legs folded, he says, 'This time, I am lucky. I usually don't get the window seat… I don't even get to sit.'
Sanjay, a mechanic from Gopalganj in Bihar, is on board the Saharsa-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Amrit Bharat, one of a series of 50 affordable express trains for general- and sleeper-class passengers that the government plans to run on routes that see high movement of migrant workers.
While the Saharsa-Mumbai train is the third Amrit Bharat express (after Darbhanga-Delhi and Malda-Bengaluru), it is the first in the Amrit Bharat 2.0 series – non-AC trains with upgraded facilities, which, the government says, will 'provide affordable service and high-quality travelling experience for people in the lower-income and lower-middle-income category'.
The trains are part of the Railways' larger Amrit Bharat project to modernise trains and railway stations. On May 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 103 Amrit Bharat railway stations through video conference.
With 11 general coaches, eight reserved sleeper coaches, two second-class luggage-cum-guard coaches, and one pantry car, the Amrit Bharat trains promise to revolutionise the way much of India travels.
Kumar, who is on his way to Mumbai for an interview that he hopes will land him a job in the Middle East, says, 'For AC class passengers, travelling can be a leisure activity. You can sit by the window and watch the passing landscape, but for us, most of the time, we barely get to move or look outside — the whole coach is so jam-packed. People often ask how we manage to travel in such conditions. The answer is simple. There is so much else to worry about that a difficult train journey of 24-48 hours seems normal.'
A sudden shower brings a cool draft into the coach and Sanjay, his left arm now wet from the rain that has splattered the open window, looks outside, smiling.
Around eight hours ago, as the train, new and gleaming, stood on Platform No. 2 of Saharsa station, many had peeped in through the window bars of a general coach, incredulous. 'Yeh toh AC-type train lag raha hai (This looks like an AC coach),' says Mithun Kumar Chaudhary, a mason from Samhar Khurd village in Bihar.
Instead of the usual worn-out blue seats and broken fittings were saffron and grey seats with air-spring suspension for passenger comfort, charging sockets with multiple ports, external emergency lights, radium-illuminated flooring strips, gleaming fans and an LED display with real-time information on the speed of the train and the next station. The train also has an emergency talk-back system in each of its coaches that allows passengers to communicate with the loco pilot.
The train had finally set off from Saharsa at 4.20 am for a 1,956-km journey that it would cover in almost 36 hours, stopping at 25 stations across four states.
Around 3.10 pm, minutes after the train crosses the Karamnasa, a tributary of the Ganga that marks the border between Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it pulls into Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction (earlier Mughalsarai). Boarding the general coach, Mukesh Singh whips off his scarf, wipes the shiny seat and looks around: 'Yeh general coach hi hai naa, itani khali kaise hai, ye toh sleeper coach jaisa lag raha ha (This is a general coach, isn't it? Why is it so empty? It looks like a sleeper coach),' Singh says.
Most long-distance trains have not more than four general coaches, as a result of which a 100-seat coach is often packed with an average of 300 passengers. But with 11 general coaches on this train, almost all passengers have a seat to themselves.
Singh is on his way to Goregaon in Mumbai, where he works as a tailor. 'Mumbai has a lot of big buildings. Whenever I pass them, I wonder what must be going on inside those glass buildings. It's the same with the AC class. Everyone looks so happy. Musafir woh bhi hain, musafir hum bhi hain, ek hi train mein hain, lekin hum dono mein zameen-aasman ka farq hai (People in AC coaches and us… We are both travellers on the same train, but there is a big difference between us). But at least on this train everyone looks equal,' he says.
With a sleeper class ticket between Saharsa and Mumbai for Rs 870 and a general class ticket for Rs 450, the fares on Amrit Bharat are competitive, say Railway officials. The sleeper class fare on the route is Rs 45 less than Humsafar Express and Rs 70 cheaper than the Saharsa-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus special.
Manufactured at the Integral Coach factory (ICF) in Chennai, Amrit Bharat 2.0 trains feature semi-automatic couplers instead of semi-permanent ones for easy attachment and detachment of coaches, and electro-pneumatic-assisted brake system for quick brake application. There are also external emergency lights to provide basic lighting during emergency situations such as derailments and accidents. Besides, the toilets have a vacuum evacuation system similar to that on Vande Bharat trains, toilet indicator lights and automatic hygiene odour control systems.
At 5.20 pm, the train reaches Prayagraj Cheoki station. A group of people huddle around Coach GS5, peeping in through the windows. They are headed to Mumbai, but many among them insist it's not a general coach and are scared they'll be fined if they board it. One of them, Mohammad Dilshad, finally walks up to a Railway Protection Force member to confirm, before the group finally boards the train.
'It's hard to believe this is a general compartment. The seats are new, the coach is clean and there is running water in the toilet… there's handwash too. How can this be a general coach? In the other trains, the upper berth would be so high that people would have to sit for 25-30 hours with their heads bent. Those seats are hard… Most of the time the fans don't work. Luckily, not many people know about this train yet. Once they do, this may end up like all those trains,' says Dilshad, who works at a jeans workshop in Nallasopara, Mumbai.
Five years since the Covid-19 pandemic, while AC 3-tier has displaced the sleeper class to become the top passenger revenue generating class of the Indian Railways, the general compartments of long-route trains continue to retain their position as the second highest earning class of the national carrier.
According to the data available with the Ministry of Railways, in 2024-25, 236 crore or 32% of the total 737 crore passengers who travelled in trains did so in general class compartments.
As evening sets in and the train passes through Satna Railway Station in Madhya Pradesh, IPL cricket commentary blares out of several phones. Sumitra Devi walks out of one of the washrooms and can't stop smiling, 'I have never seen such a clean toilet. Toilet main log bhi nahi baithe hain… Yeh to pura AC coach lagta hain (There are no squatters inside the toilet. It looks like an AC coach),' says Devi, who is travelling with 11 of her family members.
It's 6.20 am on Day 2 and the train now races past open tracts on the outskirts of Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh. Anzar Alam, a vendor from Darbhanga, makes the rounds of the coaches, his bucket filled with jal jeera, soft drinks and other beverages.
'In any train, the maximum earnings are from the general compartments. Since this train has 11 general coaches, it's good for people like me,' says Alam.
Some 25 hours into the journey, Milan Patil, a 'mechanical staff', who does maintenance work on the train, steps out of one of the washrooms. 'Some of the passengers are not using the push tap installed in the toilet and the wash basin. We have already got a complaint of a missing tap in one of the coaches,' he says, annoyed.
On the outskirts of Mumbai, the train slows down as it passes tall buildings and bustling markets.
At 4 pm on Day 2, the Amrit Bharat finally pulls into Platform No. 7 of Lokmanya Tilak Terminus. Nand Kishore Mukhiya and his family members – seven of them, all residents of Baijnathpur in Saharsa who work in a steel factory in Panvel – scramble to assemble their luggage.
'Yeh safar poora hua… Hum pravasi log sadak ki tarah hain. Isse guzarne waale log kahan se kahan pahuch jaate hain. Lekin sadak usi jagah bana rehta hai (This journey comes to an end… We migrants are like the road. People who take it reach places, but the road remains the same),' Mukhiya says, heaving a bag onto his shoulder and stepping off the train.
Dheeraj Mishra is a Principal correspondent with The Indian Express, Business Bureau. He covers India's two key ministries- Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. He frequently uses the Right to Information (RTI) Act for his stories, which have resulted in many impactful reports. ... Read More