Punjab Mail set for an upgrade

Central Railway (CR) has decided to include Mumbai-Firozpur Punjab Mail, which completed 100 years on June 1, in the group of outstation trains it plans to upgrade.

The other outstation trains on the upgrade list are Mumbai-Gondia Vidarbha Express, Mumbai-Nagpur Sevagram Express, Mumbai-Pune Intercity Express and Pune-Lucknow Express. CR has already upgraded seven rakes of these trains.

"We have included Punjab Mail in this category. Of the four rakes of 24 coaches each, three have been upgraded. Upgrade of the fourth will be completed on September 15," a senior CR official said.

The upgrading includes improving passenger services such as indicators and boards reflecting coach numbers, train numbers and destinations on the exterior of AC and non-AC coaches. The AC compartments now have night-glow berth indicators, duro-turf mattresses and disposable commode covers. In non-AC coaches, CR has provided mugs with chains in every toilet.

Punjab Mail made its debut on June 1, 1912. Like Frontier Mail, which was introduced a few years later, it would connect with steamships on fixed days and steam off from Mole station. On other days, it departed from Victoria Terminus.

For a brief period, an extended service called The Punjab Limited operated between Bombay VT and Peshwar. Punjab Mail was among the fastest trains in pre-independence India. It had air-cooled cars in 1945.

From a service meant primarily for the white sahibs, Punjab Mail soon started catering to the lower classes. By the mid 1930s, it started having third-class cars. The train is today hauled by a DC locomotive until Igatpuri and an AC locomotive thereafter to Delhi and Firozpur.

Despite its historical value, the train has been notorious for its lack of punctuality. Scheduled to arrive in Mumbai in the morning peak hours, it is often late by two to four hours.

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