Travelogue from my recent rail travel in India

[Texan Eagle]

I was in India last month and did a rail-fanning trip to the western state of Gujaratm riding ten trains in just over 48 hours. I am writing a travelogue about it on my travel blog in two parts. Here is Part 1 of it (Part 2 is yet to be written)-

Travelogue: Slow Train Through Saurashtra - Part 1

I am linking to the blog instead of writing the travelogue here on AU just because I have photos added and formatting done properly there.

Any questions, comments, discussion.. I would encourage you to put that here, instead of putting on the blog, so that it is easy to reply and read.

 

[caravanman]

Thank you so much for this new taste of India! There have been a few BBC programmes about Indian railways, a recent one mentioned that each train's catering is now often done by individual franchise holders, rather than a central provider... maybe this is why the menu changed.

I was never quite sure of whether meals were included on my rides, sometimes I assumed they were and got charged at the end, or assumed they were not and then was not charged. Either way I enjoyed the food on trains, although the white western style bread was always rather uninspiring, the omlettes and veg cutlets went down well.

Saurashtra is an area I have not visited, so it is great to get a flavour of a potential new destination. I changed trains in Ahmedabad once on the way to Ajanta and Ellora about 30 years ago, but that is my sum total experience in that area.

I would love to ride the meter guage trains before they get replaced, I enjoyed the small trains from Kalka up to Shimla, the steam train from Ooty down to the plains, and more recently the small train up to Matheran.

You have included a map of your travels... as many of us on AU are not familiar with Indian towns and cities, I wonder if smaller route map sections are available to help us to easier locate stations and follow the routes point to point?

I thought the ghostly figure dashing for the open train door a very good photo, and sums up a lot about Indian train travel. I had to smile about your tiny "cup" of chai, I used to have to buy two or three to wet my whistle properly!

Thanks again for the report, I will be re-reading it several times, and look forward to part 2.

Ed

 

[Texan Eagle]

I was never quite sure of whether meals were included on my rides, sometimes I assumed they were and got charged at the end, or assumed they were not and then was not charged. Either way I enjoyed the food on trains, although the white western style bread was always rather uninspiring, the omlettes and veg cutlets went down well

You have included a map of your travels... as many of us on AU are not familiar with Indian towns and cities, I wonder if smaller route map sections are available to help us to easier locate stations and follow the routes point to point?

I thought the ghostly figure dashing for the open train door a very good photo, and sums up a lot about Indian train travel. I had to smile about your tiny "cup" of chai, I used to have to buy two or three to wet my whistle properly!

Thanks again for the report, I will be re-reading it several times, and look forward to part 2.

Ed

Ed- thanks for your encouraging comments. I am glad you liked it.

As a general rule of thumb, meals are included in three categories of fully air-conditioned trains- Rajdhani (overnight sleeper trains), Shatabdi (daytime only AC coach seating) and Duronto (end-to-end, no intermediate stops). It is easy to recognize these trains, Rajdhani trains are red and grey, Shatabdi trains are blue and grey, Duronto trains are psychedelic yellow-green. If you are on one of these, you will have meals included with ticket, but be careful, there are a bunch of "holiday special" and "AC Express" trains running around these days that disguise themselves in Rajdhani colors but have level of service same as ordinary trains aka no catering included.

Since you asked for it, here are three maps explaining the routes I covered in Part 1 of the travelogue-

1) General overview- I started from Mumbai on the west coast of India and took the Shatabdi Express to Ahmedabad, this journey is shown in blue. The meter gauge journey from Gandhigram to Bavla and back to Gandhigram is shown in orange

2) The route I covered in meter gauge journey from Gandhigram to Bavla and back is shown in bright green. The lighter shade shows complete route of the train (we got off midway)

3) Close-up on railway lines around Ahmedabad. Red line shows the first meter gauge joyride that I did, from Ahmedabad to next station Sabarmati, the train continues north as shown by the pink line. Green shows Gandhigram station at the outskirts of main city of Ahmedabad from where I started the second Meter Gauge journey. The meter gauge line that starts from Ahmedabad, goes north, turns south and reaches Gandhigram has now been abandoned since it was backing up road traffic at more than 20 railroad crossings through dense core of the city

 

[Bob Dylan]

:hi: Thanks for Posting, most Interesting! I look Forward to the Next Part of your Adventure!

 

[caravanman]

Thanks for the new maps and the full info on the "meals included" trains. The maps are most impressive, are those detailed maps of Indian rail connections available online? I have some info from basic maps only, such as "Trains at a Glance". I presume the good maps are from your Indian railway atlas, from a glimpse at the top of the page?

Damn! Now I want to go back to India today!!!

Ed

 

[Texan Eagle]

The maps are most impressive, are those detailed maps of Indian rail connections available online? I have some info from basic maps only, such as "Trains at a Glance". I presume the good maps are from your Indian railway atlas, from a glimpse at the top of the page?

Ed

Unfortunately there are no detailed maps of Indian Railways anywhere online (at least any that I know of). The ultimate trusted companion during my train travels in India has been The Great Indian Railway Atlas, which can be purchased here. It is created and published by a professional cartographer who also happens to be an ardent railfan, so it has all the details one can ask for. Frankly, the US/UK price of the atlas is a bit too steep but if you ever happen to visit India, you can pick it up there locally for about 1/5th the price.

 

[Texan Eagle]

I have completed writing the remaining travelogue.

Travelogue: Slow Train Through Saurashtra - Part 2

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions, suggestions...

 

[Bob Dylan]

Really NIce Travelouge, thanks for Posting Part II :hi: The mention of Food Sanitation and the Pic of People hanging out on the Tracksmakes me think of my Past Travels in Third World Countries! (especially Mexico and South America) (Touristas is a Universal Malady! )

Question: I notice the Pics of Signs @ the Stations have English included, is this True of the Stations out in the Boonies and do most Train Crews and Travelers on these Country Trains Speak and Understand English??

 

[Texan Eagle]

Question: I notice the Pics of Signs @ the Stations have English included, is this True of the Stations out in the Boonies and do most Train Crews and Travelers on these Country Trains Speak and Understand English??

Station boards across India always have stuff written in English, Hindi and local state language. There maybe a fourth language included sometimes, but English is always present. Legacy of British empire

Out in the boonies, the train crew may understand and speak some English since instruction manuals, rule books etc are mostly all in English. Crowd, unlikely. If you can find some students or youngsters among the passengers, even in rural areas chances are they will be able to understand and speak some English since a lot of school education these days has English included.

 

[caravanman]

A most excellent travelogue! I was amused by the line of firebuckets in your pic at Sasan Gir, I wonder if they were empty? They reminded me of some at Matheran, locked securely in place, but all empty! Maybe they get unlocked on production of correct chitty in case of fire and filled thereafter...

Loved the retiring room pic, I wonder what the charge was for use... I still have my little card ticket for the use of same at Kanyakamari back in 1984.

A great introduction to train travel "off the tourist track", and a reminder to pack plenty of tiffin rations for emergencies!

Thank you so much for your clear and interesting prose, enjoyed every sentence.

Ed

 

[Texan Eagle]

A most excellent travelogue! I was amused by the line of firebuckets in your pic at Sasan Gir, I wonder if they were empty? They reminded me of some at Matheran, locked securely in place, but all empty! Maybe they get unlocked on production of correct chitty in case of fire and filled thereafter...

Loved the retiring room pic, I wonder what the charge was for use... I still have my little card ticket for the use of same at Kanyakamari back in 1984.

A great introduction to train travel "off the tourist track", and a reminder to pack plenty of tiffin rations for emergencies!

Thank you so much for your clear and interesting prose, enjoyed every sentence.

Thank you for the kind words. I am glad you liked it.

The fire buckets is another legacy that has been going on since the British days. They are supposed to be filled with sand, ready to extinguish any electrical fire that may break out at the station or on the train, but I am not sure how useful they are today.

The retiring room cost around 300 rupees for 24 hour use for 3 people, that's approximately $5. Great value for money, eh?

I wish I had one of those card tickets, they are almost extinct now. This time I was hoping to get one at least on the obscure meter gauge branch lines but even those stations have computerized ticketing now

 

[caravanman]

Ok on the "all computerised" ticketing, India is certainly a land of great contrasts! On my last trip about 3 years back I was able to obtain computerised tickets by internet from here in the UK, via Cleartrip. Unfortunatly the authorities now require an Indian phone number first in order to register to buy the tickets. I understand why, and there are supposed to be ways around it, but it has made the option of buying local train tickets in advance, such as for your trips, a lot harder for overseas tourists!

I will have to look out my old card ticket and check the retiring room price back then. I can't imagine how India will survive without the reams of hand written paperwork that used to accompany even the most minor transaction!

Ed

 

[Texan Eagle]

Unfortunatly the authorities now require an Indian phone number first in order to register to buy the tickets. I understand why, and there are supposed to be ways around it, but it has made the option of buying local train tickets in advance, such as for your trips, a lot harder for overseas tourists!

Yes, I have suffered due to this too. I had to ask friends in India to book tickets for this trip since it was peak travel season and getting a ticket last minute would be impossible. Here is a sort-of solution for anyone who plans to visit India more than once- when you reach India, ask someone local (best bet would be staff at the hotel you stay, they are generally very friendly to foreign tourists) if they would be okay letting you use their mobile phone to receive one one-time-password from IRCTC. Create a new account for yourself at irctc.co.in, give the local person's phone number, once they get the SMS, enter that code on the website and that will complete your registration. After this, you don't need an Indian phone number to book tickets every time, it is needed just for initial registration.

I created an account for myself this time in similar fashion, and I am now able to book tickets directly from the US by logging in to my account. Just yesterday some friend in India was having trouble getting the IRCTC site to work from Mumbai, so I booked a ticket for them sitting here in California and emailed them the ticket PDF

 

[caravanman]

Thanks for that info... I will try and get you to also book my tickets for me next time!

The "work around" I got from "the man in seat 61", a great rail site, was to email a copy of my passport and recieve the one time phone code by email... tried this a couple of times without any response, so you are now my new best friend in the Indian train ticket lottery...!

I am interested to know where the bridge on the picture header of your website is? I am going to guess on the Konkan railway?

Ed

 

[Texan Eagle]

Thanks for that info... I will try and get you to also book my tickets for me next time!

The "work around" I got from "the man in seat 61", a great rail site, was to email a copy of my passport and recieve the one time phone code by email... tried this a couple of times without any response, so you are now my new best friend in the Indian train ticket lottery...!

I am interested to know where the bridge on the picture header of your website is? I am going to guess on the Konkan railway?

Ed

I am aware of The Man in Seat 61. Incredible site for rail travel info for anywhere in the world!

The bridge on the header on my blog site is Vivekananda Setu- a rail+road combined bridge over the Hooghly (a tributary of the Ganges) near Kolkata. Here is a not-so-great photo of Kolkata-Delhi Rajdhani Express over this bridge, taken same day when I took that header photo-

 

[caravanman]

Nice pictures both. I asked my taxi to drop me off at the middle of Howrah Bridge, Rabindra Setu, on my way back to Howrah station on my last visit.

It was nice to walk over the bridge into the station, to the amusement of most everyone I met!

Ed