Anyway, I thought I would write about my (fairly) recent travels on trains in India. I went to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur over the Easter weekend and made my first 2 journeys on the railway in India.
Firstly factfans, here are some interesting ...er... facts about the Indian rail network:
With 63,000 km of rail routes and 6,800 stations, the railway network in India is the third biggest in the world after Russia and China, and the biggest in the world in terms of passenger kilometres. Indian Railways are also the world's biggest employer, with over 1.5 million staff. It's perversely comforting that even with 1.5 million members of staff you can't find one to tell you if you're on the right platform - it's not just a British Rail problem!
Anyhoo, we caught the Shatabdi Express which is the superfast train from New Delhi to Agra. I have to say this was one of the best train experiences I have ever had - not at all like the suburban trains I see chugging through Mumbai with hundreds of people hanging out of the doors. Finding and getting on the train was trouble free (except there was a man, lying in a pool of blood outside the station, who everyone seemed to be ignoring) and the train left on time. We were travelling AC Chair Class, which is one of the 8 classes of ticket you seem to be able to get on the railway here. The carriage was pretty new, and full of other tourists on the day trip to see the Taj Mahal. It was wider than a train back home, as there were 3 seats on either side of the aisle - in fact it was a bit more like an aircraft with all the seats being recliners. It cost us about Rs. 390 each for the 2 hour journey (about £4.50), for which we also got a hot vegetarian breakfast (needless to say I didn't partake in that), a large bottle of mineral water and a carton of fruit juice - result! In fact, the only thing that wasn't first world about the train trip was apparently the toilets, which luckily I didn't need to use!
Our train from Agra to Jaipur was actually a much more interesting experience. For a start it was late, which wasn’t ideal as the trip take around 5 hours anyway, but it did mean that we got a chance to experience waiting on a platform. All human life is there – people cooking food on barrows and selling it to people through the train windows, proper shops selling books and toys, groups of western backpackers listening to their i-pods and looking bored, gangs of small children with no shoes begging for money and food, big barrows of fruit, porters carrying luggage on their heads, and flies. Lots of flies. And a very unpleasant smell where they empty the train toilets when the train is at the platform (nice).
When the train finally arrived we were in a 3AC carriage, which basically has 3 drop down bunks (as shown in the picture here which is from http://www.seat61.com/india.htm - incidently this is a brilliant website for all things train related).
This felt a little bit more like 'proper' train travel in India, although it was air conditioned. I got to travel on the top bunk, and they come and deliver a pillow and a sheet so you can relax and have a sleep. It was actually quite fun, even though the train got more and more delayed the longer we were on it. We were sat at the end of the carriage opposite the 4 ticket inspectors who were also on the train - after telling us we were sat in the wrong place (we knew, but there was some cargo on my bunk when we got on so I couldn't sit on it) they were actually pretty friendly. Now I reallu want to try a sleeper service in the UK for comparison!!!
So I am in India for about another 3 weeks now and I still haven't tried the following forms of transport:
- Elephant
- Sedan chair
- Camel
- Horse and trap
- BEST bus
- Suburban train
Somehow I don't think I'll get round to them now. However, I haven't done too badly as I have managed:
- Auto rickshaw
- Non-AC taxi
- AC taxi
- Private car
- Cycle rickshaw
- Motorbike
- Intercity train
- Aeroplane
- Boat
So I have actually been on plane, trains and automobiles - fantastic!!
