What's in a Train Name?
I first started travel by train in the 1950s. Then, all important trains had exciting and powerful names like Frontier Mail, Toofan Mail, Flying Ranee, Deccan Queen, to name a few. Even mundane names like Punjab Mail or Kalka Mail had some romance. The first generic name that I recall is the “Rajdhani”. You first had a Howrah Rajdhani, followed by the Bombay Rajdhani. These have proliferated to about two dozen Rajdhanis now. In the 1980s, you started the “Shatabdis”; today there are Shatabdis between virtually all significant pairs of stations. There is no end in sight now with Durantos, Tejas’s, Garib Raths, Antyodayas, Humsafars, etc. etc. etc.
I am all for names that have a meaning, that identify you with a train. If the Deccan Queen was to be called the Pune Inter-city, it will lose its significance and importance and fans are unlikely to celebrate its birthday. Of course, you cannot really do this for all trains, but the more important ones can certainly have an identity. For ease of computerising, the number of the train will have to remain, but the name can certainly be more exhilarating.