Indian Railways launches new Vistadome coaches with panoramic view for nature lovers

The Indian Railways on Saturday launched a Vistadome coach service on the Mumbai-Pune Deccan Express Special train, which ran full house, informed Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, sharing details on social media. The coaches will provide a panoramiv view of the nature while on move. 

Sharing photos of the new coach on his Twitter handle, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal wrote: "A Panoramic View of the Western Ghats: Wide window panes & glass rooftops of the first ever Vistadome Coach in Pune-Mumbai Deccan Express provide passengers with a unhindered, unique and unforgettable travel experience. Come, experience the Western Ghats as never before!."

Railway Ministry officials said that the first coaches on the Mumbai-Pune Deccan Express Special train were booked full for the debut run with LHB rake and Vistadome coach on Saturday. The coaches which successfully completed the 180 Kmph trial run, will be used on tourist routes.

The Vistadome coach has big glass windows, glass roof, observation lounge along with rotatable seats that allow the passengers to enjoy the beautiful locations during the journey through the Western Ghats, if they are travelling from Mumbai to Pune.

The Railway official are upbeat as many passengers were eager to enjoy unhindered views of the valleys and waterfalls enroute, which is similar to travelling in a Vistadome coach on the Mumbai-Goa route. Currently, the Vistadome coach service is operational in the Mumbai-Madgaon Jan Shadabdi Special train.

While travelling in the Mumbai-Pune route, passengers can also enjoy the scenic beauty and experience being with nature while passing near the Matheran hill (near Neral), Songir hill (near Palasdhari), Ulhas river (near Jambrung), Ulhas valley, areas of Khandala, Lonavala among others with numerous waterfalls and tunnels on the South East Ghat section.

The Indian Railways had launched the newly-designed Vistadome coaches last year providing features never seen before in the coaches. The Vistadome tourist coach has a larger viewing area, including a glass roof, with 44 seats for the passengers that can be rotated up to 180 degrees, besides providing a Wi-Fi-based passenger information system.

For the first time, the Vistadome coach has been built on the LHB platform, which is more safe, informed the officials.

The stand-out feature of the new Vistadome coaches is that they are equipped with air-spring suspension in secondary stage for better ride comfort, large glass windows and glass roof that boast electrically controlled opalescence, transparent roof for the passengers to get a panoramic view of their journey, and an observatory lounge with a larger window at one end.