First Class on India’s SHOCKING high-speed train!

Today we're going to be checking out India's FASTEST TRAIN, as we speed through this beautiful and vast nation at up to 160km/h aboard the Gatimaan Express! 😍

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Journey Details:
Origin: Hazrat Nizamuddin (Delhi)
Destination: Agra Cantt
Company: Indian Railways
Train: IR WAP-5 + LHB Rake
Accommodation: Executive Chair (EC)
Distance: 187km / 116 miles
Price: ₹1520 ( £16.10 / €18.50 / $18.40)
Time: 1h40m + 12 minutes late

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Find me elsewhere:

[CityWhisperer]

One year old locomotive?? That thing looks like it has decades, jeez.

[muething]

I rode Indian trains in the 80s. Making a first class reservation meant going to the station and telling the agent where you want to go. He goes to get the ledger for the correct train and writes your name in the seat number location. He hands you a small chit of paper with train, car, and seat number. On the day of travel I wasn’t expecting to actually get the correct seat on the correct train. I went to the correct platform, found the correct carriage which had a piece of paper under glass at the door with the names of the passengers assigned to that carriage. Lo and behold, my name was on the list. I was amazed that such labor intensive system actually worked efficiently. The family sitting around me was so nice they invited me to visit them in Calcutta.

[kanishktherd]

6:45 was the smoothest transition I've seen

[indradeeproy]

The locomotive pulling the freighter at 0:52 is a Wag-12B, India's most powerful locomotives in current operation packing 12k horsepower per unit.

[savvi]

As an avid watcher of your channel, and also as an Indian, I was pleasantly surprised to see you are in India and experienced this. Of course we are far far away to reach the spanish or italian high speed railways. The priority has always been to serve all sections of society than technical implementation. Love your videos.

[olafzijnbuis]

In August 1978 I got myself an Indian Rail pass for 3 weeks.
Great train system.
When I traveled again in India 1979, I took mostly second-class sleeper trains.
When tired you could just jump off. The station masters were very helpful to find a hotel.
I had a 60 W light bulb in my luggage. Most hotels had a single 25 W bulb in the 2 Dollar rooms I stayed in. I always filled the bucket when there is water in a hotel. There could be no water for many, many hours...
In the south of India, you could get a great, unlimited vegetarian meal at the railway station. Served on a banana leaf...

[orsonbear]

I rode this line back in March 1970. We travelled in first class in an old-style six (6) seater compartment on corridor stock. Breakfast was brought onboard at an intermediate stop.
The train was steam-hauled and took three (3) hours.
As a nineteen (19) year-old, I really enjoyed the experience but of course it was not in the same league as the Taj Mahal.

[uncipaws]

I have travelled there back in 2012 on an early morning train (Bhopal Shatabdi) that was also the country's fastest train at the time. Also from Hazrat Nizamuddin which required a very early start from our hotel, but we got some good breakfast on board.
I see the trains haven't changed much since then, and the WAP5 are still built in the same shape.

[gogoboi]

I know Indian Trains are not like fancy European or any western countries trains but its main motto is to serve India's huge population and I think they are doing pretty well....India is still a developing country and working so hard in every sector and also focusing on made in India personally think its an experience and its a journey that makes you you can also try new vande bharat express which runs about 180 Also India is constructing RRTS train, bullet train and many more such semi and high speed i can say is India is fastest growing Economy and came a long way but still learning and growing and its a very long journey ahead.

[EricLehner]

Hello from Canada. Respect to the people of India for having less graffiti than in Western countries. Now THAT is civilized!

[daigriffiths]

I rode the Delhi to Kalka shatabdi some six years ago which was a four and a half hour journey. I was also in AC (first class - AC stood for - wait for it! - Air Conditioned) but here our experiences differ. At the time the return fare was also around £18 and both the service and general overall condition of the carriage was far better than your Gatimaan Express journey. Breakfast was on the table before we had cleared Delhi and there was more of it. I can understand your wish to go south to Agra to see the Taj Mahal (went there too but we travelled by car from Delhi along the Noida Expressway) but you missed a real treat. The shatabdi terminates at Kalka but you could have continued on to Shimla via the narrow gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway which is one of India's four 'toy trains'. Admittedly it would have taken two days (you would have needed to stay overnight in Shimla but that in itself would have been worth it). We came down from Shimla in the toy train and as there was no air conditioning except that provided by the windows, I spent almost all of the trip sitting in the open doorway with my feet on the external step trying not t o get my toes skinned in the very many tunnels on the line. Probably the best railway journey I have ever done.

[richard-riku]

I really love train travel in India. The noise, the chaos. It's a real adventure which you remember years afterwards. I have been on the Shinkansen dozens of times but hardly remember any of those train rides, unlike the train trips in India.

[digvijayrana]

Nice report ! All these rakes are atleast 10 years old ! They all are set to be replaced by Vande Bharat Rakes by next year. VB rakes are multiple units equipped with modern furbishment the only reservation being cramped Chair car seating arrangements as compared to existing chair car coaches. Washrooms are also more Morden in those sets. ❤

[minatimurmu]

The WAP5 locomotive which was hauling the train has a potential speed of 225kmph but it operates at 160kmph 👍

[brucefsanders]

I did this journey 30 years ago on overnight sleeper train.... It took 8 hours from Delhi to Agra... It was a milk run service which probably stopped at every station.... It was a three up verticals rooms with 6 bed per booth. When not in use it was very social congregating with people of many caste discovering the Indian people in a way different to my other experiences. The Taj was mesmerising but Agra was a flea bitten slum of a city juxtaposed against the magnificence of The Taj.
I was back packing bum saving money where I could and travelling by the base level local transport...
A hard country to travel like this but a life changing experience of memories for a life time.... Sometimes the journey is the adventure...

[Sacchit_]

Great coverage! The P5s are our fastest locomotives and are limited to 160kph!
Hoping to see more videos of Indian trains from your side!

[enderhook]

I wouldn't call it "high-speed" but it looks like a good experience, and it has a good price too.

[vinaymaheshwari]

You need to cover Vande Bharat to showcase to the world India's next generation train sets. 10 of them have already been launched with 75 by mid August and 500 over the next few years. Indian infrastructure is on the take off stage and one can now see acceleration all around. Even the terminal building are seeing major modification. In a few years railways will have primarily electric locomotives only

[IneshSundaravaradhanIyengar]

As a good follower of yours, your liking towards the Indian Railways, is always pleasing me. But always keep in mind when you speak of Indian Railways (5 things) : 1] The Legendary Rajdhani Express, 2] The Fantastic Shatabdi Express, 3] The G.O.A.T Vande Bharat Express, 4] In busy passenger trains, people hanging outside of the railings will its moving 🤣 and 5] Always remember, random vendors that enter your train screaming for random food like Samosa or Vada, you can easily trust it. They're taste is further more traditional than most complimentary meal services 😂

[anandtyagi]

To all those people saying vande Bharat is fastest, currently the fastest operational on track fastest is still gatimaan express as it runs on the best railway line of Agra Delhi.
And also if proper tracks are there gatimaan can reach as fast as 230kmph, still 10kmph faster than possible speed for vande Bharat.