BDTS-DRD & a BL WCAM @ VR

I happened to go to DRD the other day for some work. I took the Vapi passenger from BDTS in the morning. It wasnt too crowded but as we went along beyond BVI it did get jam packed. Surprsingly it was bang on time - it was at the DRD south cabin by 1158 (the scheduled arrival time at DRD is 1159) . Only that at the DRD cabin it waited for about 12 mins for the signal and hence got late. Anyway its not that the WCAM was doing a good job - its just that the IR has incorporated so much of slack time into their time-tables that almost every train is always bang on time - or even before time. A good justification to upgrade the slow-coach trains to a 'superfast' status and thereby extort more from the public. Very smart. The WCAM remains the same though. I guess tomorrow theyd get an old WDS to pull the rake and still charge superfast fares for passenger trains.

Anyway the DRD trip was good. I went to see the Dahanu beach in the evening. It was supposed to be great - but I got a feeling it wasnt that great. Just a medium sized expanse - with its quota of filth. Anyway the moment you are going to have more than a hundered persons visiting a place - filth is bound to accumulate. People in this region have little civic sense. Spitting is the norm here. Ptooooooooooo ........

I returned the next day by the Bhuj-Bandra Sayaji Nagari Exp. This stops at DRD and then a straight non-stop run till BVI and BDTS. It was running about 15 mins late (surprise) and so was able to catch this at DRD. But it was packed to capacity and I had to come standing in the general compartment the full way. But I was most impressed - we did DRD-BDTS in 2 hours flat. While going it had taken almost 3 hours.

The BL WCAM 21838 picture was taken at VR while on the way to DRD.