Rail service and travel by rail in the Indian subcontinent

[user 6862]

Some more detailed information from someone who actually did it within the last several months on buying tickets in Kolkata for Maitree (Dhaka) and Bandhan (Jessore/Khulna) Express.

Tickets are available at ER Fairley Place Office at the International Counter in addition to Kolkata International Station's International Counter. Fairley Place opens at 9am and is open till 5pm. Kolkata International is open till 9pm.

Ticket can be purchased by either the traveler or a designated agent, but the traveler's Passport and Visa must be presented at the ticket counter. No copies of any sort accepted. So naturally no tickets using any method that makes it impossible to present the original documents. So no internet.

It is recommended that one gets to the Ticket Office before 9:30 am to get the ticket application form. Tickets are sold in order based on the number on the form. The earlier one gets in the earlier and more likely that one gets ticket. Lines can be long. Fortunately on can get a Return (round trip) Ticket.

The procedure is same in Dhaka. Tickets are available from Dhaka Cantonment station. Similar procedure for buying tickets at Jessore Station and Khulna Station for Bandhan Express.

Security is much tighter on Maitree Express than on Bandhan Express. Apparently a lot of smuggling from India to Bangladesh happens via Bandhan Express mostly in Chair Car. So on that train it is better to avoid Chair Car.

Here is a recent video of a ride on the Bandhan Express to Khulna, goods smuggling and all, though unfortunately in Bengali, but one may still see it with audio turned down..

Thank you very much jis, kind of you.

I have a question which I assume you wont have the answer to as it probably doesn't apply to you.
Whenever I apply for an entry visa they are often online and arrive in PDF form to be self printed. Assuming I apply say a month before travel then is it typical to collect the visa from a Consulate?
Oh yes, we are talking about a visa for Bangladesh aren't we, not India?

 

[caravanman]

Thank you very much jis, kind of you.

I have a question which I assume you wont have the answer to as it probably doesn't apply to you.
Whenever I apply for an entry visa they are often online and arrive in PDF form to be self printed. Assuming I apply say a month before travel then is it typical to collect the visa from a Consulate?
Oh yes, we are talking about a visa for Bangladesh aren't we, not India?

Not sure I understand your question, Jamie?

The procedure seems pretty much the same as the pre-visa on arrival scheme to obtain an India tourist visa in the UK...
1) Download and fill in the application form from the Bangladesh High Commission web site in London.
2) Send that back electronically, then print off a physical copy.
3) Post off your passport, visa fee (as a postal order!) and the physical visa copy to the High Commission.

Allow at least a week to receive the passport back by post, with visa stamp.

Bangladesh High Commission, London

Visa-on-arrival for Bangladesh seems possible, but only for arrival by air to main airport, and seems to not be recommended by UK Govt...

For India itself, UK folk can now apply for visa on arrival, but must apply online in advance, pay, and receive email acceptance. (Similar to USA ESTA procedure.)

Happy travels!

 

[jis]

There are a couple of things that you need to make sure about since you will be using a Land Border Checkpoint:

Make sure that the Visa is endorsed to be valid at Land Borders. Normally, unless you ask for it, it may not be valid. This is particularly important to keep in mind about the Bangladesh Visa.

@caravanman is actually a much better source for information on getting Indian Tourist Visas. I am a holder of an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) Card, and it comes with a Lifetime Unlimited number of Entries Visa with special privileges attached. In effect I can do everything that an Indian Citizen can do except, (1) Hold an Indian Passport, (2) Vote in any Indian Election, (3) Own Agricultural Land, (4) Cross the Inner Line without a Permit (I did get one to travel by road from Manali to Leh in J&K-Ladakh). So I have no idea what one has to do to get an Indian Visa.

 

[user 6862]

Not sure I understand your question, Jamie?

The procedure seems pretty much the same as the pre-visa on arrival scheme to obtain an India tourist visa in the UK...
1) Download and fill in the application form from the Bangladesh High Commission web site in London.
2) Send that back electronically, then print off a physical copy.
3) Post off your passport, visa fee (as a postal order!) and the physical visa copy to the High Commission.

Allow at least a week to receive the passport back by post, with visa stamp.

Bangladesh High Commission, London

Visa-on-arrival for Bangladesh seems possible, but only for arrival by air to main airport, and seems to not be recommended by UK Govt...

For India itself, UK folk can now apply for visa on arrival, but must apply online in advance, pay, and receive email acceptance. (Similar to USA ESTA procedure.)

Happy travels!

Thank you Ed, have just read through your post and checked with the Bangladesh authorities.

Didn't realise that it was a formal visa pre application with passports having to be sent to be verified and stamped. I assumed (silly me) it would be similar to the US ESTA, Canadian visa, South Korea, Thailand etc etc, everything done online with a stamp placed in the passport as the passport is recognised by scanning at the country entry point.

But also picked up something else. Bangladesh while not having a Yellow Fever problem requires certification that the visitor has had a Yellow Fever vaccination at some time in their life... we haven't.

About 6 weeks ago we had an interview at a vaccine center in the UK specifically to have Yellow Fever vaccinations for the very north of Argentina. She talked it through with us and said it was possible but due to age there may be serious side effects, serious ones.
We declined the vaccination and decided to stay away from northern Argentina. After making the decison the health advisor ( a trained pharmacist) said in her opinion it was the correct decision, so maybe we are not going to Bangladesh?
More research on my part re the Yellow Fever vaccination side effects.

Thanks Ed, how are your US rail plans going?

 

[caravanman]

But also picked up something else. Bangladesh while not having a Yellow Fever problem requires certification that the visitor has had a Yellow Fever vaccination at some time in their life... we haven't.

Hi,
I think you may have misunderstood the yellow fever thing?
My understanding is that Bangladesh requires a certificate if you are travelling direct to Bangladesh from a yellow fever country, or that you are spending more than 12 hours (in transit towards Bangladesh) in an airport in a yellow fever country.
I use the Scottish NHS Fit for Travel website: Bangladesh - Fit for Travel

Nothing online can be 100% guaranteed to be correct, so if you have other info, do treble check!

USA trip pretty much sorted now, booked for last two weeks of September, will do a pre-departure trip write up soon.

 

[jis]

Hi,
I think you may have misunderstood the yellow fever thing?
My understanding is that Bangladesh requires a certificate if you are travelling direct to Bangladesh from a yellow fever country, or that you are spending more than 12 hours (in transit towards Bangladesh) in an airport in a yellow fever country.
I use the Scottish NHS Fit for Travel website: Bangladesh - Fit for Travel

Nothing online can be 100% guaranteed to be correct, so if you have other info, do treble check!

USA trip pretty much sorted now, booked for last two weeks of September, will do a pre-departure trip write up soon.

You are correct. The Yellow Fever thing applies only if you have been to a Yellow Fever endemic place within the last two weeks or some such. Otherwise it does not apply.

 

[user 6862]

Hi,
I think you may have misunderstood the yellow fever thing?
My understanding is that Bangladesh requires a certificate if you are travelling direct to Bangladesh from a yellow fever country, or that you are spending more than 12 hours (in transit towards Bangladesh) in an airport in a yellow fever country.
I use the Scottish NHS Fit for Travel website: Bangladesh - Fit for Travel

Nothing online can be 100% guaranteed to be correct, so if you have other info, do treble check!

USA trip pretty much sorted now, booked for last two weeks of September, will do a pre-departure trip write up soon.

You are correct. The Yellow Fever thing applies only if you have been to a Yellow Fever endemic place within the last two weeks or some such. Otherwise it does not apply.

Yes I partly misread that, got it from here the UK Gov recommended site for such things

You are being redirected...

What I don't see is if there is a backwrds time limit, for example in the previous week/month/year. I'll research this further later tonight when I can give it more time.

Thanks to both of you for pointing this out, there is still hope... I had already started to plan how to shorten the journey, but as the destination was such a big part of the motive to make the journey I'm not sure if my heart would be in the planning for a shorter version.

 

[jis]

The Yellow Fever vaccine requirement for India and Bangladesh are the same irrespective of what Passport you hold. It is:

Yellow fever vaccination certificate required for travellers aged 1 year or over arriving from countries with risk of yellow fever transmission and for travellers having transited for more than 12 hours through an airport of a country with a risk of yellow fever transmission.

I was actually incorrect. It just applies to the journey resulting in arrival in India or Bangladesh. There is no specific pre-journey time limits specified.

 

[user 6862]

The Yellow Fever vaccine requirement for India and Bangladesh are the same irrespective of what Passport you hold. It is:


I was actually incorrect. It just applies to the journey resulting in arrival in India or Bangladesh. There is no specific pre-journey time limits specified.

Thanks

 

[caravanman]

If you are still concerned, and still keen on the trip, then a straightforward postal letter of enquiry to the Bangladesh Embassy in London, should definitively clear matters up. (Dunno, I think proper letters gain more attention than emails...?)

 

[user 6862]

If you are still concerned, and still keen on the trip, then a straightforward postal letter of enquiry to the Bangladesh Embassy in London, should definitively clear matters up. (Dunno, I think proper letters gain more attention than emails...?)

Another good suggestion, I'll try to find the definitive answer online but that is a good backup. Lots going on here at the moment, not concentrating enough.

 

[jis]

Incidentally, now there is a third international train between India and Bangladesh named Mitali Express. It runs twice a week between New Jalpaiguri in North bengal, the southern terminus of the famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, to Dhaka. It is a daytime train from New Jalpaiguri to Dhaka, and a night time train from Dhaka to New Jalpaiguri.

It should be noted that New Jalpaiguri (Northeast Frontier Railway NFR) is not in the same railway zone as Kolkata (Eastern Railway ER), so tickets cannot be purchased at Fariley Place in Kolkata. They can be purchased only at New Jalpaiguri station and of course Dhaka Kamalpur Station International Ticket Office. Not that the trains do not depart from Kamalapur but from Cantonment.

This makes a thriangular trip possible if you can somehow manage to get the tickets needed. For example one can take Darjeeling Mail from Kolkata (Sealdah North) to New Jalpaiguri, then Mitali Express to Dhaka and then Maitree Express from Dhaka to Kolkata. Of course you could throw in a side trip to Darjeeling and a view of the Kanchenjunga from New Jalpaiguri.

 

[user 6862]

Yet another good suggestion, thanks.

 

[user 6862]

If you are still concerned, and still keen on the trip, then a straightforward postal letter of enquiry to the Bangladesh Embassy in London, should definitively clear matters up. (Dunno, I think proper letters gain more attention than emails...?)

I've written to get the definitive answer, we'll see.

 

[BlackDiamond]

It is a daytime train from New Jalpaiguri to Dhaka, and a night time train from Dhaka to New Jalpaiguri.

Since I assume they use the same equipment for both trains, do they have sleepers in the overnight trip and then have them available for use even in the daytime trip?

remember Indian time zones are UTC + 0530

Remember that well from my days at Honeywell where I had to get into the office early for our conference call to our subsidiary there before they went home for the day. And hope the phone lines were working.

 

[jis]

Since I assume they use the same equipment for both trains, do they have sleepers in the overnight trip and then have them available for use even in the daytime trip?

Each consist, whether it is Eastern Railway's or Bangladesh Railway's, consists of four AC First Class compartment Sleepers which are sold in daytime as six or three seater compartments and at night as 4 or two berth Sleepers. These are the same cars that are used as Sleepers on domestic overnight service (in India like the Rajdhanis for example). The lower class are four standard Coaches again same cars as used on domestic premium AC trains. They are all cars derived from the original Alstom/LHB design which India bought from Alstom. They are manufactured at an Indian Railways manufacturing facility.

The Bangladesh consists have a Green with Red band livery. The Indian consists have Red and Grey First Class cars like the Rajdhani livery, and the Coaches have Light Blue and Grey livery like the Shatabdis, giving a big hint on which pools those cars come from. The Indian consists are all based in Howrah for the Kolkata originating trains. The New Jalpaiguri originating NF consist is based in New Jalpaiguri. Bangladesh contributes a consist for Kolkata - Dhaka Maitree Express. The rest are all contributed by Indian Railways, since they probably have a much larger pool to dig a few cars out of.

 

[user 6862]

If you are still concerned, and still keen on the trip, then a straightforward postal letter of enquiry to the Bangladesh Embassy in London, should definitively clear matters up. (Dunno, I think proper letters gain more attention than emails...?)

It worked Ed, here's the reply received today:

Greetings from Bangladesh High Commission London and thank you very much for your email.
As far as my knowledge is concerned, I do not have any information that Bangladesh immigration requires Yellow vaccine certificate.

Good service from them, good idea from you. I'll print and carry the email with us, it does have a name and the person's position at the Bangladesh High Commission London shown clearly.

Thanks pal

 

[jis]

This is how India provides WiFi service on select premium long distance trains using satellite links

Link to photo posted on Facebook

This specific example is from the Howrah (Kolkata) Rajdhani Express.

 

[jis]

MODERATOR'S NOTE: The discussion of time zones has been moved to its own thread at :

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/south-asian-time-zones-discussion.85889/
Please continue the time zone discussion in that new thread and direct the South Asian railway discussion to this old thread.

Thank you for your understanding, cooperation and participation.

 

[Rambling Robert]

Since I am still working out details to Bangladesh, I won’t start a thread about it yet. As discussed on an earlier thread at first thought I wanted to go to Kolkata, then take the train to get to Fenny Dhaka, because my father was based during WW2 at an airfield in Fenny, and traveled from Kolkata to Fenny.with one engine out of his twin engine B-25. On the return trip, with one engine out they were faced with whether the Ganges River would give them a thermal lift or a downdraft. They were prepared to face a downdraft and land into the Ganges. They had a checklist for ditching the aircraft into the river. AA the copilot have the small inflatable raft, ready and out hand.

Fortunately, the Ganges river offered a thermal up - and my Dad was able to maintain their own altitude of only 500 feet which is very low.

So as a kid and a dog, I’ve always thought of the trip to Kolkata to be fairly significant for my own being – ha ha.

Aside from crossing the Ganges, my visit to Bangladesh is a fairly simple mission. Fly into Cox’s Bazar, then meet with the international refugee committee people (IRC) and get a short tour of the refugee camp and if allowed take photos and video.

Then it is my home. The IRC will set me up with a driver/interpreter to travel to Fenny Bangladesh, and then visit very small segment of the runway that my father flew 70 missions from. I would also like to see the trunk Road which is right near the base of the south west corner of the airfield is a girls school which 80 years later it’s a very prominent college for women and I was I was hoping they would be interested in the 10 minute film by my father - I believe there is a short clip of the girls school .

So the trip by car from Cox’s Bazar to Fenny‘s about five hours, so I might be able to do everything in remembrance of my father, in one day.

The other half of my trip involves no way to be the halfway stopping point to Bangladesh. I so I would travel to Oslo and leave my cold-weather stuff in a locker and then fly to Cox’s Bazar and about three days later return to Oslo and put on my warm gear, and take the train to Trondheim/Bodo above the Arctic Circle visit the Royal Norwegian, Air Force Museum in Bodo, and then Rent A Car, or take a ferry to the most northern island. I was offered a ride in the cab for the 12 hour trip. That would be really cool.

There are a few no regions. I have channels on YouTube and I might try to see them. I certainly enjoy having coffee with them.

Another thought I had was to take a train out of Cox’s Bazar, and do a little sightseeing and return in a few hours.

 

[jis]

Since I am still working out details to Bangladesh, I won’t start a thread about it yet. As discussed on an earlier thread at first thought I wanted to go to Kolkata, then take the train to get to Fenny Dhaka, because my father was based during WW2 at an airfield in Fenny, and traveled from Kolkata to Fenny.with one engine out of his twin engine B-25. On the return trip, with one engine out they were faced with whether the Ganges River would give them a thermal lift or a downdraft. They were prepared to face a downdraft and land into the Ganges. They had a checklist for ditching the aircraft into the river. AA the copilot have the small inflatable raft, ready and out hand.

Flying from Kolkata to Feni they would have crossed the mouth of Meghna which is the three rivers Ganga + Barhmaputra (Jamuna) at Goalondo => Padma + Meghna (at Chandpur. Downstream of there, the main channel of Meghna is about 3 miles wide, and there are upto half a dozen other channels, all much much narrower flowing into the Bay of Bengal. The overall river bed is over 11 miles wide with many frequently shifting channels separated by flood plains. It fans out to a flood plain that is around 90 miles wide where it finally enters the Bay of Bengal. The eastern edge of the flood plain is at Chittagong (Chattogram) and the western edge is south of Barisal. Your Dad would have crossed over this enormous mouth through which all the waters originating in the Indo-Gangetic Plains to the south of the Himalayas and the Yarlung Tsangpo Valley north of the Himalayas, (except for the small amount diverted away at Farakka Barrage into the Hoghly which flows by Kolkata) flows into the sea.

Another thought I had was to take a train out of Cox’s Bazar, and do a little sightseeing and return in a few hours.

There is currently service between Chittagong (Chattogram) and Dohazari. The segment between Dohazari and Cox's Bazar is under construction and may be completed and ready for service this September (2023). Until then there is no rail service in Cox's Bazar.

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/314836/rail-line-for-cox-s-bazar-nears-completion

 

[user 6862]

Since I am still working out details to Bangladesh, I won’t start a thread about it yet. As discussed on an earlier thread at first thought I wanted to go to Kolkata, then take the train to get to Fenny Dhaka, because my father was based during WW2 at an airfield in Fenny, and traveled from Kolkata to Fenny.with one engine out of his twin engine B-25. On the return trip, with one engine out they were faced with whether the Ganges River would give them a thermal lift or a downdraft. They were prepared to face a downdraft and land into the Ganges. They had a checklist for ditching the aircraft into the river. AA the copilot have the small inflatable raft, ready and out hand.

Fortunately, the Ganges river offered a thermal up - and my Dad was able to maintain their own altitude of only 500 feet which is very low.

So as a kid and a dog, I’ve always thought of the trip to Kolkata to be fairly significant for my own being – ha ha.

Aside from crossing the Ganges, my visit to Bangladesh is a fairly simple mission. Fly into Cox’s Bazar, then meet with the international refugee committee people (IRC) and get a short tour of the refugee camp and if allowed take photos and video.

Then it is my home. The IRC will set me up with a driver/interpreter to travel to Fenny Bangladesh, and then visit very small segment of the runway that my father flew 70 missions from. I would also like to see the trunk Road which is right near the base of the south west corner of the airfield is a girls school which 80 years later it’s a very prominent college for women and I was I was hoping they would be interested in the 10 minute film by my father - I believe there is a short clip of the girls school .

So the trip by car from Cox’s Bazar to Fenny‘s about five hours, so I might be able to do everything in remembrance of my father, in one day.

The other half of my trip involves no way to be the halfway stopping point to Bangladesh. I so I would travel to Oslo and leave my cold-weather stuff in a locker and then fly to Cox’s Bazar and about three days later return to Oslo and put on my warm gear, and take the train to Trondheim/Bodo above the Arctic Circle visit the Royal Norwegian, Air Force Museum in Bodo, and then Rent A Car, or take a ferry to the most northern island. I was offered a ride in the cab for the 12 hour trip. That would be really cool.

There are a few no regions. I have channels on YouTube and I might try to see them. I certainly enjoy having coffee with them.

Another thought I had was to take a train out of Cox’s Bazar, and do a little sightseeing and return in a few hours.

I too want to make Bangladesh a final destination but my reason wasn't as meaningful as yours. Watching the travel series 'Himalaya' by Michael Palin something struck a cord with me about this country, on top of which it would be a great final destination for a long long rail journey starting in Europe.

There's much more as to why Bangladesh stood out for me, please feel free to make contact if you wish.

Best of luck on your pilgrimage, sounds as though it will be an extraordinary journey.

 

[jis]

Here is a very recent documentary on India's busiest station Howrah Terminal. (Kolkata). It actually has two Terminals. Terminal 1 or the Old Complex has platforms (tracks in American parlance) 1-15, and Terminal 2 which has platforms 17-23. It is managed by Eastern Railway, Howrah Division. In addition it is served by South Eastern Railway, Kharagpur Division. The space that would be occupied by Platform 16 is currently a big hole in the ground, recently filled up as the construction of the Howrah Metro Station on the East-West Corridor Line 2 is completed. It is a very deep station, the deepest in India as the River that is crossed through a tube is just a few feet away.



I thought it is very well done and captures the complexity of handling a million passengers a day and the technical and social issues that have to be dealt with.

That station board at the end .... it is so familiar! It is at the end of Platform 9, one of the longest platforms at the old complex (Terminal 1).

 

[west point]

find it interesting how these trains at Howrah overhang the platforms. Almost looks like the snowplows on locos for the Hudson division along the third rail. Is that design so the passenger cars can be wider but still use the current platforms. Do narrower cars run by those platforms?

 

[jis]

find it interesting how these trains at Howrah overhang the platforms. Almost looks like the snowplows on locos for the Hudson division along the third rail. Is that design so the passenger cars can be wider but still use the current platforms. Do narrower cars run by those platforms?

The Suburban EMUs are 12' wide at floor level. All other rolling stock are 10.5' or so wide at floor level. Both types run from the same platforms. The platform height at Howrah is what is considered to be the standard platform height in India, and offset from track center is the standard used for accommodating EMUs.

The platforms at stations where EMUs run are set back a little more than at stations where they do not run. EMUs are thus restricted to run only in the suburban networks. MEMUs are unrestricted. I don't believe there are any Suburban width DEMUs.

This is the reason that India has two types of EMUs, the standard EMUs are Suburban width and the MEMUs (Mainline EMUs) are the standard width similar to other intercity coaching stock.

All this is technically a non-issue since if they chose to do so they could equip the cars with gap fillers/stairs/lifts for wheelchair bound that deploy after the train comes to a stop and are retracted before starting. At present there is no demand for such from the enormous riding public, and of course upgrading all cars in the fleet will probably take a decade or more anyway and will take money away from deploying rail access to unserved areas, so who knows how the priorities should land. Currently it is what it is.