Garib Rath

The Garib Rath express train is one of the premier trains introduced by the Indian Railways in 2005 by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to provide fully air-conditioned travel to those passengers who could not afford the expensive tickets of the fully air-conditioned Rajdhani Express and Shatabdi Express. Therefore, the Garib Rath, whose name means "Poor Man's Chariot", was introduced with the facilities of being fully air-conditioned and running faster than most other super-fast express trains running presently.

The maiden journey of the train started from Saharsa, Bihar to Amritsar, Punjab. Critics and observers alike noted that the maiden journey was chosen between two commercially unimportant routes as many local Bihari people had migrated to Punjab and Yadav's origination from Bihar led him to chose this route for political purpose. Despite the criticism, the Garib Rath has received positive reviews, with the train capacity reaching near 100% in off-season timings.

The emergence of the Garib Rath has led to more connections between commercially important routes, where these trains run faster and make fewer stops, such as the Bandra-Hazrat Nizammudin Express compared to the August Kranti Rajdhani Express.

Current services

Currently services are offered from these stations:
# Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai - Kochuveli in Thiruvananthapuram.
# Saharsa - Amritsar via New Delhi.
# Hazrat Nizamuddin in New Delhi - Dehradun.
# Jammu Tawi - Kathogodam in Nainital.
# Hazrat Nizamuddin in New Delhi - Rajendra Nagar in Bihar
# Kolkata - Patna
# Kolkata - Guwahati
# Lucknow - Raipur
# Hazrat Nizamuddin in New Delhi - Chennai
# Secunderabad - Yesvantpur in Banglore
# Ranchi - Bhubaneswar
# Hazrat Nizamuddin in New Delhi - Bandra in Mumbai
# Jaipur - Bandra in Mumbai

Related Links

* [http://www.indianrail.gov.in INDIAN RAILWAYS PASSENGER RESERVATION ENQUIRY]
* [http://www.trainenquiry.com/indexNS.aspx Online Train running information]
* [http://hindi.indiarailinfo.com/trains/garibrath Garib Rath Express trains] in Hindi