Garib Rath
The Garib Rath (Devanāgarī: ग़रीब रथ) express train is one of the premier trains introduced by the Indian Railways in 2005 by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to provide fully air-conditioned travel to passengers who could not afford the expensive tickets of Rajdhani and Shatabdi express trains. The Garib Rath, whose name means "Poor Man's Chariot", was introduced with features of full air-conditioning and speed faster than most other super-fast express trains. The maximum speed of Garib Rath trains is 130 kmph which is the same as Rajdhani's top speed. However, in Garib Rath trains, passengers are not normally provided with blankets and pillows; and they have to pay extra to get them.
The maiden journey of the train started from Saharsa, Bihar to Amritsar, Punjab. Critics and observers alike noted that the maiden journey was chosen between two commercially unimportant routes as many local Bihari people had migrated to Punjab and Yadav's origination from Bihar led him to choose this route for political purposes. Despite the criticism, the Garib Rath has received positive reviews, with the train capacity reaching near 100% in off-season timings.
Garib Rath trains are also slated to have many amenities such as fridge, microwave oven, TV, cooler, fan, toaster. They have continuous running electronic display which will show distance remaining, next station name and expected time to reach there. The coaches also decorated with beautiful paintings of Indian heritage artwork.
The emergence of the Garib Rath has led to more connections between commercially important routes, where these trains run faster and make fewer stops, such as the Chennai - Hazrat Nizamuddin Garibrath compared to the Bhopal Shatabdi, Bandra-Hazrat Nizammudin Express compared to the August Kranti Rajdhani Express.
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[edit] Current services
Currently services are offered from these stations:
- Jabalpur - Mumbai Garibrath Express (Bi Weekly)
- Nagpur - Pune Garib Rath (Thrice weekly)
- Ranchi - New Delhi Railway Station via Barkakana (Bi Weekly)
- Saharsa - Amritsar via New Delhi & Lucknow. (Tri Weekly)
- Jammu Tawi - Kathogodam near Nainital.
- Kanpur Central - Kathogodam near Nainital.
- Anand Vihar, Delhi - Patna, Jamalpur, Bhagalpur (Tri Weekly)
- Anand Vihar, Delhi - Jayanagar, Bihar (Bi Weekly)
- Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi - Chennai (Weekly via. Bhopal Junction )
- Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi - Bandra, Mumbai (Tri Weekly)
- Anand Vihar Terminus - Varanasi via Lucknow (TriWeekly)
- Kochuveli Vikram Sarabhai Terminal - Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Bi weekly and only Garib Rath Via Konkan)
- Kochuveli Vikram Sarabhai Terminal - Yeswanthpur Triweekly express via Coimbatore Junction
- Kolkata - Patna
- Kolkata - Guwahati Garib Rath Express
- Puri-Howrah
- Guwahati - Patna
- Lucknow - Raipur
- Secunderabad - Yesvantpur, Bangalore
- Secundrabad - Vishakhapatnam (Daily)- First Garib Rath to run daily
- Hatia, Ranchi - Bhubaneswar (Tri Weekly)
- Delhi Sarai Rohilla - Bandra, Mumbai via Jaipur
- Yeswanthpur(Bangalore) -Secunderabad (Tri-Weekly)
- Yeswanthpur(Bangalore) -Pondicherry (Weekly)
- Yeswanthpur - Sainagar Shirdi
- Jaipur - Chandigarh (Tri-Weekly)
- Anand Vihar - Bapudham Motihari
- Pune - Nagpur (Tri-Weekly)
[edit] Future Services
Services likely to start shortly
- Bhopal - Lucknow Garib Rath Express (Weekly)
- Bhopal -Mumbai CST Garib Rath Express (Bi-Weekly)
- Kochuveli- Secunderabad
- Ajmer-Bhagalpur via Delhi Garib Rath Express (Bi-Weekly)
- Jammu Tawi-Darbhanga Garib Rath Express (Weekly)
- Sitamarhi-Delhi Garib Rath Express via Patna (Weekly)
- Kochuveli- Allepy-Yeshwanthpur
[edit] See also
- Fastest trains in India
- Bhopal Shatabdi
- Shatabdi Express
- Jan Shatabdi Express
- Indian Railways
- Rajdhani Express
- Rajya Rani Express
- Superfast Mail/Express, a category of fast Indian trains
[edit] Related links
- Official Site of Indian Railways
- Online Train running information
- Garib Rath Express trains in Hindi
- http://specials.rediff.com/money/2009/feb/13sld2-interim-rail-budget-2009-10.htm
