Escalator In India Railway Station

Well... I happened to make a "religious" roam around near Vijayawada. With one of my friends staying there, he had given me pre-notion that the town is not too big and it is just a "small" town. When my train entered Vijayawada station early in the morning like around 4:45AM I could sense busyness all around me. When I got down from the train, I realized that I'm in one of the important junctions (I mean, in Indian railways the term 'junction' itself has a special meaning).

For a fact, the railway station seems to be a true junction with so many lengthy platforms, lengthy & wide overhead bridges, the number of shops, the number of boards giving directions to passengers, the number of plasma TVs, the information displayed getting updated at real time, the entertainment provided in those TVs (which also includes some of those funny YouTube videos, the AFVs, "good" email forwards), the enquiry bench always answering questions over speaker, ... everything seems customer friendly and I'm already questioning my friend's message of 'small town'. The operation of escalator inside an Indian railway station took my surprises to the heights. That is just more than believable.

The customer satisfaction at Vijayawada railway station is sure more because the place stands far ahead compared to any other such junctions in South India. Later when I enquired about it to my friend, he confirmed that Vijayawada is still a town & not a major city but the town is having the busiest railway junction in south. Many of passengers' concerns in such a busy place seems to have been rightly addressed...