Kalka-Shimla train to get see-through vistadome coach: See pics
The vistadome coach, which will run on the 95.5 km route, has been built locally in 100 days at a cost of around ₹10 lakh
New Delhi: Indian Railways will run a glass-enclosed vistadome coach on the Kalka-Shimla route in the next ten days. Tickets for this see-through coach — catering to mostly foreign tourists — are likely to cost more than ₹ 500 per seat.
“This coach is an old second-class coach which has been refurbished. Seats have been upgraded and we have installed glass all around so that the tourists can sit in the train and enjoy the beauty of the area without even stepping out,” PTI quoted Divisional Railway Manager, Ambala, DC Sharma as saying.
Five things to know about the vistadome coach:
1. For the first time, tourists in Shimla will be able to experience snow and rainfall in this glass-enclosed coach.
2. The only such coach in a narrow gauge network exists in the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR).
3. The vistadome coach, which will run on the 95.5 km route, has been built locally in 100 days at a cost of around ₹ 10 lakh.
4. The coach has a capacity of 36 seats with no toilets or catering for the time being.
5. Coaches with transparent roofs are run in broad gauge networks between Mumbai and Goa and between Visakhapatnam and Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh.
The Indian Railways’ research and development wing will begin efforts to increase the speed of trains on the Kalka-Shimla narrow gauge line from 25kmph to 35kmph. Also, in a first for the railways, the section will see a hop-on hop-off (HOHO) service during the tourist season. The HOHO service, which is common in Eurorail, allows tourists to travel without booking months in advance.
With inputs from PTI
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First Published:4 Dec 2018, 08:23 AM IST
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