Mumbai-Pune Deccan Queen train to complete 93 years of service

Deccan Queen the forerunner of the Central Railway , completes it’s 93 glorious years of service between Pune and Mumbai on June 1, 2023, it was a major landmark in the history of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway .It was the first deluxe train introduced to serve two important cities of the region – Mumbai and Pune – and was aptly named after Pune, which is also known as the ‘Queen of Deccan’ (Dakkhan ki Rani), the release said.

Deccan Queen’s birthday celebration had a lot of fervency and cake cutting ceremony at the Pune railway station on Thursday morning before the train departed for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai where

Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil was also present . For the special day, the train was decorated with colourful garlands, and an attractive ‘rangoli’ at the entrance of the platform from the train left along with some background music .

Initially, the train was introduced with two rakes of seven coaches each, one of which was painted in silver with scarlet mouldings and the other with royal blue and golden lines, it said.Since last year, Deccan Queen has been running with the new Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rake which is considered safer and comfortable as compared to the conventional ones. Over the years, the train underwent several transformations to accommodate changing passenger requirements including distinctive colour scheme of cream and Oxford blue with a red band , AC chair cars, providing an additional seating capacity of 65 in a dust-free environment ,new rakes with seating capacity of 1,417 as against 1,232 seats, modern pantry facilities such as a microwave oven, deep freezer and toaster and many more only to give passengers their all possible comfort and luxury .

“The birthday of the train was celebrated even then. I still remember my first journey on the Pune-Mumbai Deccan Queen. The train’s appearance was different back then. The British who initiated the train called it the ‘Blue Bird Baby,” said Harsha who is also the president of the Railway Pravasi Group.

The history of Deccan Queen is literally a tale of two cities. Residents of both cities are happy with the impeccable record of “right-time start and arrival” of the train, according to the railway.