This season’s independent cinema hit, The Darjeeling Limited, started as a
film about three brothers, but wound up as a film about three brothers and a
train. The director, Wes Anderson, travelled out to India to plan the
project and fell head over wheels in love with Indian train travel. And if
Hollywood can do it, so can you.
The country’s luxury tourist-only trains are superb. You dine in elegant
surroundings, sleep comfortably in proper beds and enjoy the best of India’s
sights from the panoramic-windowed comfort of your hotel-on-bogies.
The public trains, too, are safe, cheap and a lot of fun. True, the stations
are busy by day and downright clamorous by night, and even the expresses
struggle to average more than 50mph, but you won’t find huddled hundreds on
the roof, the trains tend to leave on time, and the byzantine booking system
actually works.
First class, which has air conditioning, comfy two-berth compartments, hot
food brought to your seat and perhaps even a clean shower and toilet, is
less expensive than the cheapest equivalent low-cost flight. And, as
Anderson discovered, you’re riding an Indian institution: the biggest
employer in the world, with 1.6m workers and 14,000 locomotives, maintaining
40,000 miles of track and carrying 12m people each day.
Ah, the people. It’s the human contact that makes a train journey in India so
memorable. Fellow passengers are always ready to lend a hand, by showing you
how the bunk folds down, or how to order your food, or just by chatting and
passing the time. If you want to meet the citizens of the world’s largest
democracy on equal terms, this is the way to do it. Here’s our pick of the
best journeys.
LUXURY TRAINS
The Palace on Wheels
With liveried attendants, wood-panelled dining cars, cosy bedrooms and ensuite
facilities, the Palace on Wheels is the most luxurious train in the land.
The maharajahs were fond of touring their states in their own opulent
carriages, and each of the 14 that make up the Palace on Wheels is a
refurbished original.
The seven-day trip, which starts in Delhi, is perfect for some first-time
flavours of Rajasthan. You’re cosseted in elegant surroundings, with
excellent Indian and international cuisine, a bijou bar, a little library
and a lounge. You sightsee by day and travel by night, snug in little
twin-bedded compartments. Stops include Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur,
Fatehpur Sikri and the Taj Mahal at Agra, with just enough time for a
morning tiger safari in Ranthambhore National Park.
A nine-night trip, with seven nights, full-board, on the Palace on Wheels,
starts at £2,645pp, including flights from Heathrow to Delhi, transfers and
all excursions, with Cox & Kings (020 7873 5000, www.coxandkings.co.uk).
Or try Great Rail Journeys (01904 521936, www.greatrail.com).
For a shorter vintage experience, the new Heritage on Wheels train makes a
similarly luxurious three-night journey from Jaipur (www.heritageonwheels.net).
Deccan Odyssey
Introduced in 2004, this sevennight loop from Mumbai serves up the best of
western India from the comfort of your private compartment. The service is
slick, and the train has an opulent lounge and bar area, all wood and
drapes, two restaurant cars, a mini library a gym and even an ayurvedic “spa
car”. You’ll travel the tracks by night, then spend your days visiting
deserted beaches, taking short backwater cruises and exploring Goa, Poona
and the blockbusting cave carvings at Ajanta and Ellora.
TransIndus (020 8566 2729, www.transindus.com)
has an 11-day Deccan Odyssey trip from £2,845pp (between January and March
2008), including flights from Heathrow, B&B accommodation in Mumbai and
all meals on the train. For more information, visit www.deccanodyssey.com.
EXPRESS TRAINS
Shatabdi Express
The Shatabdis operate on daytime routes from Delhi, stopping less often than
regular express trains. They have a good first class, with leather seats,
air conditioning, tinted windows and relatively clean sit-down loos
(usually). You also get airline-style hot food served at your seat.
There is also a route in the south, which connects Chennai (Madras) to the
green, sandalwood-scented city of Mysore in seven hours, and climbs over the
Eastern Ghats. Audley (01993 838 300, www.audleytravel.com)
can arrange a tailor-made 15-night tour of southern India, including the
Shatabdi Express from Chennai to Mysore. Prices start at £2,500pp, including
flights from Heathrow and stays in Mahabalipuram, Cochin, the backwaters of
Kerala and Madurai.
Other good Shatabdi and day-express trains run from Delhi to Amritsar, Jaipur
and Varanasi.
Konkan Express
If you want to travel as the Indians do, join them on the Konkan Express,
their scenic and comfortable beeline from Mumbai to the beaches. The first
class isn’t quite equal to that of the Shatabdi, but it’s comfy enough: the
compartments hold six, with three tiers of bunks that fold away to become
seats during the day.
The line, which opened in 1999, winds through the fabled Western Ghats to Goa.
It passes through nine tunnels that are more than a mile long (the longest
is more than four miles). Daytime and overnight trains take about 12 hours,
or you can press on south to Cochin, which takes another 15 hours.
Pettitts (01892 515966, www.pettitts.co.uk)
has a 10-night trip from £2,250pp, including the train from Mumbai (three
nights) to Goa (five nights), Heathrow flights and the services of local
guides and drivers.
Rajdhani Express
There’s something special about overnight trains on the subcontinent: it’s the
sense of adventure and the magic of seeing the sun peeking over the horizon
as village India wakes to a new day.
Some of the overnighters can be a tad uncomfortable, however, so the best bet
for the experience is the Rajdhanis, a group of deluxe sleeper trains that
run from Delhi, with good air-conditioned carriages and complimentary meals.
The newer rolling stock is smart, with leather bunks in the first-class
section and two- or four-berth lockable cabins. Useful trains include Delhi
to Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Calcutta, Mumbai and Trivandrum –
Kerala’s laid-back capital, just a few miles from stunning beaches at
Kovalam and Varkala.
MOUNTAIN RAILWAYS
Darjeeling Toy Train
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is a spectacular 51-mile ride from the plains
north of Calcutta to within sight of Mount Everest. On the flat, it seems
that even the water buffalo are ambling faster than your little blue
carriage, but soon the train fusses and flusters into its element, and the
tiddly 2ft narrow-gauge line branches off into undisturbed mountain scenery.
It’s steep enough to need reverse zigzags, and there are four loops to
leverage extra altitude. It’s a seven-hour haul in all, and sometimes more.
If that sounds too much like a day-long end-of-the-pier ride, an alternative
is the steam-powered excursion from Darjeeling down to Ghoom, which runs
three times a day in summer, takes two hours and costs £2. For more
information, visit www.dhrs.org.
Simla Toy Train
The charming hill station of Simla also has a toy train, which plies the
routes from the plains to the viceroy’s old summer seat. Between 1865 and
1939, the entire panoply of the Raj was carted up the mountain to escape the
heat every spring, then carted back down before the snows. The old cart road
was bypassed in 1903 when the railway opened.
It takes about five hours to ride this 60-mile miracle of engineering, during
which time you pass through 100 tunnels, over 869 bridges and around 919
curves. You wind up at Simla station, at 6,750ft, less than a mile from the
once salacious epicentre of the town, Scandal Point – as dwelt on at
length by Kipling. There are two trains on the route: the Himalayan Queen
costs £1.70, one way, and the posher Shivalik Express costs £4, including
food. Book through India Rail (www.irctc.co.in).
Nilgiri Rack Railway
The delightful hill station at the top of the track has had its name changed
from Ootacamund to Udhagamandalam, but everyone still knows it as Snooty
Ooty. It’s another town that was built for the Brits to cool down in, and
engines have been chugging up the 28 miles of narrow-gauge track since 1899.
For part of the journey, it’s still pushed by a steam loco, and it’s the
only railway in India to use a rack-and-pinion fail-safe system. That means
it’s steep. Trains leave from Mettupalayam, and the journey takes about five
hours, through terrific tea-plantation and forest scenery. First class costs
£1.50, one way.
How to book
All luxury trains are best booked via tour operators. Expresses can be booked
from outside India on the internet: e-ticket bookings for most long-distance
trains open 90 days in advance at www.irctc.co.in.
Register and book, then pay by credit card and print your ticket. You might
need a few tries to get into the site, as it can get swamped; booking is
notavailable between 6pm and 11.30pm GMT. UK postcodes won’t fit in the
registration, but any numbers will do to get you going. Select United
Kingdom as your country of residence.
If you want to buy tickets as you go, most of the big tourist centres have
international tourist bureaux where foreigners can book trains in uncrowded
surroundings. Tourist quotas mean that you might get onto a fully booked
train within a day or two of departure.
Fares are low. A first-class sleeper from Delhi to Mumbai, for example, costs
about £25, one way.
For advice, contact SD Enterprises (020 8903 3411, www.indiarail.co.uk),
the agent for India Rail in the UK. It sells IndiaRail passes, allowing
unlimited travel over a given period – first class for seven days is
£73pp. Specialist tour operators such as those mentioned in the main piece
can also book Indian rail journeys.
A useful website for all things train travel is www.seat61.com.
Agree with all, but have to add that food is better than airline fare anyday! At least economy class airfare.
Recent Shatabdi journey First Class Executive (can't go higher), greeted with
I litre mineral water bottle each on very spacious seats;
followed by juices,
followed by a pot of tea/coffee and hot/cold snacks,
followed by soup,
followed by dinner (a cooked hot meal,) with ice cream to follow..
all in a space of 4 hours and the price of 11.50 approx O/W. In normal first class you get smaller seats with similar meals at half that price.
bnani, london,