MUMBAI: India’s passenger trains are notorious for being rickety and spartan, but the government is hoping to change all that with a new “luxury” service.

With its reclining seats and “in-rail” entertainment featuring Bollywood movies, the Tejas Express may be getting the country on a different track. The new service, which also boasts wifi, a selection of games and audio channels and allows passengers to press a button to call attendants, is a hit.

Gone are the ubiquitous tea sellers and samosa vendors who sell snacks to hungry travellers through the open windows of regular trains during platform stops. In their place are vending machines offering coffee and a catering trolley that passes through the aisles of the cool, air-conditioned carriages, whose windows are sealed tightly shut.

The doors are automatic and centrally controlled rather than manually operated and each coach is equipped with CCTV cameras.

Railway officials are billing the service, which runs between Mumbai and the tourist state of Goa, as India’s first luxury, yet affordable train. Tickets in second class cost around 1,190 rupees ($18) while in first class the price is in the range of 2,590 rupees.

The train is scheduled to run five times a week, apart from during India’s four-month summer monsoon when it will go down to just three services.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2017