Touted as the first air-conditioned Double Decker in south India, the train scheduled to operate between Bangalore and Chennai, arrived here on Sunday afternoon as part of the trial run.

“The test run was smooth and we did not encounter any hurdle except for a small one while entering the Jolarpettai station,” said an official of the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow, which is conducting the trial run.

He said the thermocol pasted outside one of coaches brushed against the edge of the platform at the entry from the Chennai-side. “This is a minor one which can be addressed by smooth finishing the platform corner by an inch or so,” he added.

The train left Chennai after the departure of Brindavan Express, around 8 a.m. and reached Bangalore city station at 3.15 p.m.

South Western Railway Senior Divisional Commercial Manager N. Ramesh told The Hindu that after the RDSO inspection, officials from the operations department of Southern and South Western Railways would conduct another inspection, before finalising the dates of the formal launch of the service.

A regular electrical locomotive will haul the coaches, and the specially designed and manufactured LHB coaches arrived in Chennai just a few days ago from the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurtala.

High demand

Despite seven exclusive trains between Bangalore and Chennai, there has been a huge demand for more services between the two cities.

The double decker train could offer at least 40 per cent more accommodation than conventional trains with a capacity of 120 seats per chair car as against 78 seats in Shatabdi and 72 in Brindavan Express. With its 11 air-conditioned chair car coaches, the double decker train could accommodate 1,320 passengers at a time.

The fares are likely to be on a par or slightly higher than the Brindavan Express chair car fares (Rs. 440 for adult and Rs. 250 for child).

The Indian Railways has already announced the timings of the Chennai–Bangalore–Chennai AC double decker train in the new timetable with the train (no. 22625) leaving Chennai at 7.25 a.m. and reaching Bangalore city at 1.20 p.m. and in the return direction the train (22626) leaving Bangalore at 2.40 p.m. and reaching Chennai at 8.40 p.m. The train has commercial halts at Perambur, Arakkonam, Katpadi, Ambur, Jolarpettai, Bangarpet, Krishnarajapuram and Bangalore Cantonment.

Interiors

Though called Double Decker, the coaches, in fact, have three levels of floors — one at the platform entry level, lower deck and upper deck with seating capacities of 22, 48 and 50 respectively. The coaches are fitted with semi-reclining cushion seats and have power outlets for laptops/cellphone charging.

Some other features include GPS-based passenger information system providing real-time running position, train speed and distance to the next station.