Prior to the Eid holidays, the Bangladesh Railway introduced the first luxury train service of the country, the "Sonar Bangla Express", on the Dhaka-Chittagong route.

This was said to be the second non-stop train service of Bangladesh and also the fastest among the 15 trains, after Subarna Express, on this route. It takes only five hours to reach Chittagong from Dhaka on this service.

The new and improved train boasts of attractive new features like - large windows, spacious seats, quality food service, etc. Fans and LED lights are not centrally controlled, so passengers have the choice to turn them on or off at their own will.

The Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation will be catering food on the Express. The price of the meals will be included in the ticket.

The ticket prices are relatively higher as well. While a passenger pays Tk. 750 to travel in AC coach from Dhaka to Chittagong on Subarna Express, they will have to pay around Tk. 1000 for the same on Sonar Bangla Express.

Moreover, within only a few weeks of its inauguration, complaints have surfaced. Some passengers have alleged that the authorities provide low quality food.

And some have even complained that the so-called "fastest train" of the country actually takes around seven hours to reach its destination, exceeding its promised time by almost two hours. The authorities might term Sonar Bangla Express as a luxury train, but their definition of 'luxury' comes into question.