u/GlitchAFK_

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This will be a long review so yeah, bear with me :)

First thing first, the Design profile of this trainset. And I swear to god, this train looks sooo good (both from the outside and inside) We booked the 3AC and the interior aesthetics felt so premium! The seats were cozy with better leg space and were way better than the typical LHB coaches.

Second thing would be the acceleration. And yes, this train kinda glides on the wheels. Since it was pitch dark, so I couldn't get a decent video of the acceleration from a standstill. You can literally feel the motorised bogies taking off the entire train so effortlessly.

Third would be the stability and here I've mixed reviews (and this section would be kinda long). And yeah, I might sound blatant but VB Sleeper has tad-bad average stability. Like NOO WAYYY THIS TRAINSET CAN PASS THAT "WATER GLASS" STABILITY TEST. Yesterday night, when the train was moving at 80km/h+, it was shaking so badly that the coach attendant was having a difficult time in pouring the tea. (Maybe poor railway lines in the WB region) In the midnight near the Malda Town, our coach shook so violently, that almost every passenger kind of got scared and woke up, fearing that the train might topple. The coaches were shaking so much that everyone was saying that same thing that "this jerking shouldn't be happening in the first place". In slow speeds, the train feels smooth and stable, but above 60-80km/h, its just an overglorified LHB Rajdhani.

Fourth would be the food, and yes it was veryy good! Like they've improved the dinner quality. Snacks are present and you need to buy it. Morning tea was also served and was included with the ticket.

Fifth would be the bathroom and yes, these are quite high-end bathrooms. The electro pneumatic flush systems were effective and the bathrooms stayed clean throughout the entire ride.

Overall it was a 8.5/10 ride. Worth the money as VB 3AC feels much more premium than the 2AC of a Rajdhani. Would try the 1AC in future. Thanks for reading my rant :)

u/GlitchAFK_ — 14 days ago

I have been to multiple train rides (uncountable literally) but almost all of them were in ICF coaches. I used to go to Silchar fir my higher studies but most of the trains running in that route are using old ICF coaches and the last time I tool a long distance train journey was back in 2016.

This ride was on Kolkata Garib Rath, pulled by the badboy WAP7. Luckily we got a relatively new coach (manufactured in 2025). And yes now I understand why WAP7 is called as "acceleration king"!

First thing that I liked is the built quality and uniform finishing. ICF coaches are comfortable but looks way rugged and rusty from inside.

Second is the noise isolation (our coach didn't had that flatwheel so the train felt relatively quiet while cruising in higher speeds)

Third will be the stability. And my god the difference felt so real. LHB coaches are wayyyy more stable in high speeds whereas ICF coaches dance crazily. (But nevermind I kinda like the wheel sound of ICF, LHB wheel sound are kinda weird)

Fourth will be the air conditioning and I was sleeping in the Upper berth. On next morning, I woke up as a frozen dessert lol.

The only thing that I totally hated is the bathroom design, like everything looks good from a distance but the dimensions of toilet basin and hand-wash basin are so weird that it is quite difficult or inconvenient to use. Electric flush had to be the most useless thing that I've seen in IR till date.

Overall I liked the LHB train ride, felt premium for a train like GaribRath. And our train arrived before time at Kolkata at 2pm (there was 0m delay throughout the ride and the expected arrival was at 2.30pm)

Also excited to experience the Vande Bharat Sleeper on my return journey and I will post that review too. Attaching some snaps that I took during my Kolkata journey.

u/GlitchAFK_ — 18 days ago