Man Claims Booked Vande Bharat Ticket, But Travelled In Another Train With "Worst" Services

A man has claimed that his dream of travelling in the luxurious Vande Bharat train was shattered when a different train, with substandard services, arrived. The man named Siddharth Pandey shared his experience on Twitter, tagging Indian Railways and minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Mr Pandey also shared photos and videos from inside the train, showing clogged toilet and a different ambience than Vande Bharat. As the tweet, posted earlier this month, started gaining traction, Mr Pandey received a reply from Railway Seva.

In his tweet, the user wrote, "Was excited to board 1 tym on Vande Bharat. But shocked to see another train in the name of Vande Bharat. Washrooms are pathetic and services are worst. Still charged fare as per actual Vande Bharat."

His tweet said the incident occurred on June 10 when he was scheduled to board the Vande Bharat Express with train number 22439. The train operated between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi.

But, instead of the actual train, Mr Pandey said Tejas Express arrived and, which had clogged toilets and "worst" services.

His tweet gained a lot of attention and soon began a conversation on Twitter, with some users sharing their own experiences.

"Some passengers are at fault, they throw wrappers etc, which leads to clogging inside the train toilet," commented one user. "Sometimes due to a technical error or some maintenance issues, Vande Bharat rake is not deemed fit for running for that Day.  That's why the extra Tejas take is kept at NDLS to cater to such emergencies. Since Vande Bharat is a train set, the whole rake is deemed unfit for run," said another.

One user remarked that it doesn't look like the Vande Bharat train. "Yes, it was not. We booked Vande bharat but they changed the train to Tejas," Mr Pandey said while responding to him.

"This has been happening often in railways. They've been doing this with Humsafar as well, they charge more than normal 3AC as Humsafar charges and then provide normal LHB 3AC coaches. This is proper scam and no one talks about it," another user commented.

Railway Seva, the official Twitter handle dedicated to providing help to railway passengers, asked for details from Mr Pandey, and later informed in a tweet that they escalated the issue to "concerned official" for necessary action.