I like everything about this Rajdhani except the Jalgaon halt. It seems to be a more political decision. I have been opposed to it from the very beginning. Like the Durontos and other trains, it should have skipped Jalgaon and halted at Bhusaval. The latter is a divisional HQ, a big junction and has crew change facilities. Jalgaon might be a bigger town but is not big enough to warrant a Rajdhani halt.
Here is a post from Farhan Sheikh in FB:
"Farhan...
more... Shaikh: I have spent 2 years rigorously travelling between Mumbai and Jalgaon / Bhusawal....actually both the cities are well connected by road 24x7. People from JL always used to travel to BSL and take their respective trains which was not difficult at all.... But Politics have always won and will always win...."
I have personally experienced something similar having boarded trains from Mughalsarai when living in Varanasi. MGS is regarded as a satellite halt for Varanasi and people have no problem catching trains from there.
Now just to make this happen, the crew from BSL will be transported by car between Jalgaon and Bhusaval. How is it justified that the hardworking crew has to undergo this just for the JL halt? Sooner or later, BSL is going to show up as a tech halt and converted to commercial later. Also the JL halt has opened the door for others to follow - Manmad, Khandwa, Gwalior. So, how many of you would like to see this Rajdhani with 9 commercial halts? That is what I fear the most.
I have seen this happen all too often in the last 30 years. August Kranti Rajdhani started with TWO COMMERCIAL HALTS. Look where it is now. Hoping against hope my fear doesn't come true.