Today's morning commute was in the I Class compartment. You will not believe how much expensive the ticket is. The II Class for that distance costs me Rs.10 and the same in I Class is Rs.108!!!
The only good thing is that the monthly pass for I Class is Rs.620. So it makes absolute sense to buy the monthly pass and even if you make 6 trips, you have like broken even. :)
Anyways, we got seats after we boarded the train. Also the compartment was relatively free of standing passengers right through the trip. The only problem was that a couple of seats had a leaky roof above them. And the seats near the main entrance were subjected to occasional showers getting blown in.
Otherwise compared to yesterday's ordeal in the morning, this morning's trip was a breeze. After we alighted at our destination, we went to the booking counter and asked the guy there to give us 2 I Class tickets. At that time, we didn't calculate the season pass rates that much and decided to buy the one way ticket itself.
The guy at the counter gave us what looked like a shocked expression coupled with utter disbelief that someone would ask for a I Class ticket for one time use. The look was well rounded off with an expression that also indicated that he considered us slightly low on intellect. Anyways, the guy simply told us that he didn't have one way tickets since not many buy those tickets at that station. He said he could issue us a pass and nothing else. We had no option and so we got the II Class return tickets.
The return trip was more exciting. We boarded the train with barely a few seconds to spare. The evening one was not the normal EMU. It was a regular express train, just that since it runs between Chennai and Pondy (and back), it has more stops. Luckily we all got seats and so the journey was comfortable.
We got down at Guindy. Like last evening, I let the ladies handle the auto position. They in fact went one step ahead of my expectation and booked a share auto with the condition to the driver that he should take only the 3 of us. We agreed to pay him Rs.70 and the drop would cover all our houses - at least street end. It was an awesome move and something that I wouldn't have dared to even broach to an auto driver.
After today's trip it is very clear that I will be able to continue with the train only if I come by I Class. So I am planning to get the season ticket tomorrow.
Costs:
Auto morning : Rs. 45.00 (shared)
Train ticket morning: Rs. 108.00
Train ticket evening: Rs. 7.00
Auto evening : Rs. 20.00 (shared)
Total = Rs. 180.00
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