South India’s Golden Chariot has gone off the rails, but looks to salvage itself next year

The Golden Chariot train | By special arrangement

Luxury train service Golden Chariot, which suffered losses worth Rs 40 crore in 10 years, will be off the tracks for a year while it undergoes a complete overhaul.

Bengaluru: South India’s only luxury train, the Golden Chariot, modelled on the lines of the famous northern circuit train trip, Palace on Wheels, seems to be losing its sheen.

When the project was launched in 2008, it was envisaged to become an integral part of every traveller’s tour plan in the southern peninsula. After suffering losses worth Rs 40 crores in the last 10 years, the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) had to halt the initiative on 26 February 2018. The government, however, has decided to bring it back in a new avatar by September 2019.

The scenic route

When it started in collaboration with the Indian Railways, the Golden Chariot was aimed at showcasing the charm of a luxury train while giving the passengers a wonderful experience of the sights, sounds and scenery of the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa, as well as Puducherry.

A lot of planning was put into chalking out the route plans for the Golden Chariot. For 10 years, the train service chugged along two routes. The first one was called the Pride of South. This would take travellers from Bengaluru to the royal palaces in Mysuru, the remains of Tipu Sultan’s empire to the beautiful hunting retreats of the Mysore Maharajas in Kabini. Travellers were also taken through the historical temples and remnants of the Hoysala and the Vijayanagara kingdoms, in a journey that ended in Goa where they were shown a slice of the former Portuguese colony.

The second tour, Southern Splendour, covered the historical temples of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and the backwaters of Kerala before returning to Bengaluru.

With 44 luxury cabins in which 88 travellers can traverse over 1,500 km, the Golden Chariot’s first commercial run was on 10 March 2008.

Poor marketing, steep pricing

One of the biggest marketing strategies that the KSTDC adopted at the time of launch was to showcase the Golden Chariot as a vehicle that took you 1,600 years back in time while unveiling the history of the royal empires that ruled over the region.

However, this description was just not enough to pull people. The KSTDC registered only 32-33 per cent bookings each year and ran into losses of nearly Rs 4 crore annually.

KSTDC officials blame lack of proper marketing for the failure. They admit that had more been done in terms of popularising the destination travel package, it would have turned into a golden goose rather than a white elephant.

Another reason for the chariot’s unpopularity may have been its pricing. According to KSTDC officials, the Pride of South circuit costs Rs 3,53,920 for a foreign national and Rs 1,82,000 for a domestic tourist, while Southern Splendour costs Rs 3,92,000 for a foreigner and Rs 2,17,000 for an Indian tourist. This was seen to be quite steep.

Arun Kundu, director at Therailjourneys.com, a portal that contributed to the foreign tourist bookings for the Golden Chariot, describes it as a “fantastic concept”. He, however, says that pricing has been one of the biggest factors behind the low rate of bookings, pointing out that the concept of luxury in India is different from the one foreign tourists have, and hence the Golden Chariot is not the first choice for them when they visit South India.

“We are still very expensive compared to other trains in the world. Pricing is a major factor why Golden Chariot was not chosen. Even in Parliament there was a question on occupancy on such luxury trains. Despite sops… people did not prefer (these trains) as pricing is very critical,” he adds.

‘Cheaper than others’

However, KSTDC officials argue that the tariffs are cheaper compared to other luxury train services in the country, such as Palace on Wheels, Golden Triangle and Deccan Queen.

“The Railways charged us very high haulage charges that amounted to Rs 50 to 55 lakh per trip. Almost 92 per cent of the gross revenue that we got in the last 10 years went in haulage charges. We did not have any money for the maintenance of the trains. I should say in terms of pricing, compared to the other luxury trains, ours is the cheapest. But the lack of bookings caused the pricing to remain on the higher side,” KSTDC managing director Kumar Pushkar told The Print.

“For foreign tourists who are largely our customers, when they come to India they think only of the Golden Triangle or Rajasthan. Coming to Karnataka is not top of their list and not the most preferred destination. While Golden Chariot gives a better experience, it is not the first preference and that is one reason our occupancy has been low,” explains Pushkar.

A Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report in 2015 had pointed to huge discrepancies in the project.

“The defective agreement giving undue advantage to the management partner, operation of excess coaches than required, a large number of passengers travelling on complimentary passes, extension of benefits in violation of terms of agreement, acceptance of bookings without receipt of money and violation of tariff policy are some of the major reasons for the project’s failure,” the report stated.

Corrective measures

The KSTDC has decided to revamp the train and its catering service as well as hand over operations to a private party to ensure that it becomes a profit-making business.

Moreover, the Railway Board has agreed to share profits instead of collecting haulage charges.

After analysing data spanning 10 years, officials decided that focus needs to be on upgradation, the hospitality partner as well involving a private partner for the operations.

“We had a few issues with the air-conditioning, there were no bio-toilets and the train had to be given a new look, so we decided to take a break of a year to ensure that we bring the train in an absolute new avatar,” Pushkar says.

Sources in the department say that Cox and Kings has bagged the project to revamp the Golden Chariot and they have been given the target of achieving close to 50 per cent occupancy by the fourth year.

Karnataka tourism secretary T.K. Anil Kumar expresses confidence that with a private player now involved, the train will be revamped with world-class facilities.

“In the earlier model the marketing and booking onus was on the government. It is a niche product and requires networking with clientele of a certain order. That is something that state government entities lack,” Kumar says.

“So now we have put the entire onus, from buying tickets to running the show, on an entity that has the network and the skills to handle it. The government will be there to assist, but the marketing and service should be world-class and we are expecting that to be done soon.”