Bullet train in India to say ‘sorry’ even if it’s late by a minute

January 27: Indian railways is ill-famed to be late by hours together and that too without any iota of repentance. When it comes to punctuality and efficiency, Indian Railways doesn’t exactly have a satisfactory track record. However, that isn’t supposed to be the case with the country’s first bullet train service because they plan to take punctuality very ‘seriously’. The country’s bullet train service plans to say “sorry” to each and every passenger in the unlikely event of the train being delayed, even if by a couple of minutes.

This will be introduced on the 508-km bullet train service between Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati and Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex station. The train will run at a speed of 320 kmph and is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities to two hours. At present, it takes seven hours by train and an hour by flight. The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) has decided to incorporate this feature from the customer service manual of Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train network.

NHSRCL Managing Director Achal Khare tol: “We will apologise to our clients. We will also issue a public apology in the train, at stations, if we are delayed. This is the Shinkansen culture we aim to imbibe, wherein delay by even a minute or so is considered a delay. We will also explain the reasons for the delay to our passengers.” However, unlike the Shinkansen, NHSRCL will not issue delay certificates. In Japan, the Shinkansen issues such certificates to commuters who can use them at their workplaces to explain the reason for turning up late.

The Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train will see 70 trips per day, running at 320 kms per hour. The fares are expected to be around 1.5 times the fare of AC First Class.