When a band of well-trained musicians starts playing classical music in the middle of the busy Yesvantpur railway station as you walk on a red carpet laid out especially for you well up to the train, replete with a sprinkling of flower petals, you know it’s not going to be a regular train ride.
- Deepak Kumar Chaubey, The Golden Chariot’s corporate chef for South, calls himself the train’s first employee. He came on board with 30 years’ experience in the biggest hotels. With him are eight chefs and five kitchen stewards who dish up and deliver at least two meals a day. Equipped with one microwave oven, one combination oven, two hotplates, a deep freezer and two “deep fat fryers” in the two kitchens, a fresh menu is cooked up for every meal on the week-long trips.
- “For around 50 persons, we buy 25kg of meat, 50kg of tomatoes, 40kg of onions, 30kg of potatoes, 4kg each of broccoli and zucchini, and 2kg each of ginger and garlic,” said Chaubey. With passengers pretty much living on the train for a week, special requests are inevitable, ranging from a comforting khichdi to an indulgent mutton biriyani.
- “We once had a Japanese group of 96 people who had chartered the whole train. They had brought along miso paste, which we used to make soup and Japanese porridge,” said Chaubey. Interestingly, the expensive crockery on the moving train only rarely gets damaged.
- Swamy, who supervises housekeeping, said it was a 24-hour job and his 13-member team divides itself into one person per coach. “We usually do the cleaning when the passengers de-board for sightseeing.”
A short while before the theatrical entrance, there is feverish activity. Other passengers “loitering around” are hurriedly cleared as The Golden Chariot—south India’s only luxury train—makes a majestic entry on the tracks, drawing eyeballs and turning heads as it does so.
Around 8.20 p.m., the music starts to play and passengers of the “regular” trains stop dead in their tracks, some wondering what the jamboree is, others because the policeman is “regulating” human traffic on the red carpet. Welcomed with a shawl, a garland and kumkum, passengers wend their way into the train.
You enter directly into the bar, where liveried waiters immediately offer wine and short eats (masala vada on toothpicks being one). You are then escorted to your cabin through a maze of small passageways that can pass off as hotel corridors, only narrower. The cabins, named Kadambam, Satavahana and so on after the dynasties that ruled Karnataka, are small and cozy and remind one of three- or four-star hotel rooms, only shrunk down to fit a train.
You get your own television set (although it only plays movies picked by the staff), a restroom with supplies from a luxury Ayurveda brand, and coffee table books on the marvels of Karnataka. In about half an hour, a three-course dinner is served in the two restaurant cars.
Offering an experience such as this, you would imagine the Golden Chariot would be a runaway success. Only, it is not. A year short of a decade, the service has barely managed to break even. And the recent trip I took on the ‘Southern Splendour’ leg was its last—KSTDC has discontinued this route as of this month. Kumar Pushkar, Managing Director, Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC), said that in the eight years of its run, the train had netted ₹52.4 crore as gross revenue from ticket sales. At the same time, ₹52.5 crore had been paid as haulage charges to the Indian Railways. This has been a bitter bone of contention. The KSTDC says the Railways backed out of an MoU signed between the two parties for a revenue sharing model at the very last minute, demanding haulage charges instead. “It is eating into 70% of our profits. We have been trying to negotiate with them,” said Tourism and IT&BT Minister Priyank Kharge. Pushkar added, “The Railways asks us to improve occupancy to 68%. Our eight-year average has been 33%. So the task is almost impossible.”
Chugging steadily downhill
It is not the purple-hued Golden Chariot alone that is chugging on a rocky track. The story seems to be the same with other luxury trains as well. New Delhi-based Rajiv Verma, Director, Royal Indian Trains, who has been handling bookings for all five luxury trains over the past two decades, said the overall dip in foreign tourist arrivals last year was between 30% and 40%, which had impacted the luxury train market as well, given that foreign tourists are the majority of its consumers. “Until around 2009, there was only one luxury train, the Palace on Wheels. Then, four more were added. The supply outdid the demand,” he said.
Bangalore:02/02/2008. The Golden Chariot Train which was flagged off by President, Prathiba Devisingh Patil at Yeshwanthpur Railway station in Bangalore on 2nd Saturday, 2008. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
Rajasthan has two such trains. Palace on Wheels for the first time in its history had to cancel a trip in March last year. Yet, general manager of central reservation Sanjeev Sharma said India’s first luxury train was doing “okay”. “We have had 45 to 50% occupancy in the last three years due to global recession. Royal Rajasthan on Wheels too has similar occupancy rates. Palace on Wheels has seen 95 to 98% occupancy rates from 2005 to 2007.”
Sandip Dutta, PRO of IRCTC, which runs the Maharaja Express, added that the luxury train market was a niche one due to which the process of making profits was a slow one. “There is a lot of competition now. Ours is the newest train; we launched in 2010. We started with 40% occupancy and have seen this improve slowly,” he said. Priced at a minimum of around ₹20,000 a night, these trains are clearly not for all pockets. NRIs and foreigners make up most of the clientele—as Dutta said, there have probably been only two domestic travellers on board Maharaja Express in its five years.
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On the Golden Chariot with me were over 50 passengers, particularly crowded for the train. But many were bloggers travelling on invitation like me and KSTDC board members with their families. I also learnt later that there was a 40% discount offer on the fare (over ₹2 lakh on twin-sharing basis) for this trip, which began and concluded in Bengaluru, traversing popular destinations in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Rama Setty and her husband from Bengaluru were among those who had taken advantage of the offer. “We have seen most places they are taking us to. We are here for the experience,” said Rama.
An Indian couple take breakfast in the dining carriage of The Golden Chariot near Hassan Station, some 220 kms north of Bangalore on April 10, 2008. The Golden Chariot, which is promoted by The Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) and the Ministry of Railways, is closely modelled on Rajasthan's 'Palace on Wheels' and is equipped with conference halls, wireless internet connectivity in a bid to attract business travellers. The eight day journey starts in Bangalore each Monday evening and takes passengers on a journey through Mysore, Hassan, Hospet, Gadag and Goa before returning to Bangalore the following Monday morning. AFP PHOTO/Dibyangshu SARKAR
Santosh Kumar and his wife had come down from New Delhi to experience the train. “We wanted to travel south India and all the other luxury trains take you through the north, which we have already seen. The other luxury trains also cost more, while this one was on discount,” he said. Did he think it was money’s worth? “We really liked the food and the room is also good. But how many Indians can afford this? I could have travelled to another country with this money,” he said.
But Jessica and Nirbhay Maharaj from Auckland, New Zealand, were clearly impressed. The Golden Chariot was their third luxury train trip in India.
“We have already travelled in Palace on Wheels and Deccan Odyssey. We believe this is the best way to see India,” they said.
Old train, new wine
This might be why the luxury train market is not giving up yet. Many of the trains are trying to reinvent themselves to attract more passengers. The Golden Chariot, for example, will soon start shorter hauls instead of week-long tours. They might add corporate and event-based packages plus wedding specials. Maharaja Express is toying with the idea of foraying down south, while the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation roped in Cox & Kings a few years ago to operate Deccan Odyssey. Promotional or discounted tariffs are another idea. The companion, for instance, that lets you bring along a partner. Arup Sen, director, special projects at Cox & Kings, said that the Diwali and Dussehra offers were a hit. “It’s a great opportunity to experience India differently at an affordable price.”
