Delhi, New Delhi Railway Station NZM and BDTS

A foreigner has written thus on his blog:
http://extra.wikitravel.org/blog/jani/india_3_jamming_gods

"At 6 AM on a Saturday morning, I clambered into an autorickshaw for a freezing, exhaust-laden journey across pre-dawn Delhi, landing at New Delhi station half an hour before my train. Touts attached themselves to me like magnets before I even reached the building, but I stomped on: an electronic display clearly showed that Shatabdi (check) number 2018 (check) to Dehradun (check) was leaving from platform 2, so there I went, and indeed the train to Dehradun was waiting.

Here was the sign for coach C7... but under it was wagon S16, containing 2nd-class sleepers, not AC chair cars. I walked the insanely long train (there must've been a good 30 cars) from end to end twice, not finding a single matching wagon, and asking a guy in uniform only produced an embarrassed handwave of "in that direction".

Announcements blared non-stop, but they seemed to say something about the Dehradun Shatabdi leaving from platform 11... which, I realized with a sickening feeling, was half a kilometer and a huge scrum of people away. I barged my way through, opting for the unlabeled platform between "8/9" and "12", but the train there wasn't mine.

Only 5 minutes remained until departure and I crossed the platform: "Shatabdi", said the sign, but to where? How do you spell "Dehradun" in Devanagari? I speedwalked onward -- A/C chair car! Number 6! DEHRADUN! -- and clambered aboard to claim my seat. I just about had time to catch my breath before it lurched off."


Comic yes, till you are the passenger!

I got the same feeling at Gare du Nord trying to take a train to Dijon from Paris. How do you find the platform number on the ticket or info boards and how to reach platform 29 even if you are 20 minutes into the station. How do you read info boards in French or ask the info counter, where all conversation is in French.

How do we make the prime station called 'New Delhi' user friendly. NZM (Nizamuddin) and BDTS (Bandra in Mumbai) are prime examples of user unfriendly places. Important trains run between these two stations.

Imporatant(!) people never have a difficulty, because chauffer driven vehicles insulate them into an island unto themselves.

When shall we become comparable to Shanghai?
Where do two divergent lines meet, never.