Vivek Express-Dibrugarh in Assam to Kanyakumari in Tamil Naidu[4286 km in 83 hours]

[Lurker]

I just spent three months travellin India by Indian Railways. Saw a fair bit of the country side and yea, it's really beautiful but the novelty wears off if you have to sit 10 - 15 hours to get from one place to the other.

Not everybody is there to experience the "novelty". They are there to move from point A to point B. Lest you forget India still has bulk of population who dont make enough money to get into a plane or get into super fast trains. Stop cribbing about things that are not relevant to you. If you want to keep the novelty fly via planes or pick Shatabdis and Rajdhanis.

[EnterTheVoid]

Up to your family how they travel, why the hell are you telling me? Slow trains and difficult to get reservations. Seriously, can't get a reservation two months in advance? :WTF:

[Lurker]

Up to your family how they travel, why the hell are you telling me? Slow trains and difficult to get reservations. Seriously, can't get a reservation two months in advance? :WTF:

lol..Well I think you justified the reasons why some here may consider you nuts.

[EnterTheVoid]

Yeah, likewise for you too.

[akshayxyz]

Indian railways suck. See how difficult it is to get a reservation -- I tried to book two bloody months in advance and I couldn't even get a seat. Gave up and booked flight instead.

Tell me a railway system which manages such huge volume, in a better way - China must be an exception. I am not saying it is perfect, but the fact is the problems it faces are w/o precedence ( including corruption)

[EnterTheVoid]

Japan? Their railway networks are ridiculously advanced, more so than China. Indian Railways may be adequate for many but the reason I wouldn't use it is because they are not suitable if you are on a tight schedule. Having said that, I do respect the logistics involved in transporting large goods via Indian Railways.

[nballa]

window seat on an indian airplane: 5000 Rs window seat on an indian train zooming past the country land at 20mph: priceless.

[EnterTheVoid]

window seat on an indian airplane: 5000 Rs window seat on an indian train zooming past the country land at 20mph: priceless.

Yeah, should be slow enough to take in the smells of the different curries and cooking oils :hysterical::hysterical: Lahori Logic.

[Desi Cartman]

Its a pain to book tickets on Indian railways since they dont accept international credit cards :whine: A lot of trains are slow since they are meant for people living in smaller towns :dontknow: There are other options to travel between metros like Rajdhani, Shatabdi etc or even planes.

[EnterTheVoid]

Its a pain to book tickets on Indian railways since they dont accept international credit cards :whine:

LOL, tell me about it. Lurker is busy romanticizing about smelling the different cooking oils used in the different states as these slowcoach trains pass through them .. :hysterical::hysterical:

[Mariyam]

Tell me a railway system which manages such huge volume, in a better way - China must be an exception. I am not saying it is perfect, but the fact is the problems it faces are w/o precedence ( including corruption)

I've been on an inter city train in China. In terms of sheer convenience, cleanliness ( stations especially) they are better than us and the general demeanor of the co passengers ( but that could be because we were tourists) is friendlier. The Chinese are also come across as the most uxorious of all nations. But thats a different topic altogether. :P However, the one major flaw with the Chinese railway system is that everything is in Chinese. I mean everything. From the times printed on your ticket, to all the announcements made in the train on the PA, to the signs on the station. We were traveling from Louyang to Xian. Our guide indicated at what # station we should get off. It was a fast/bullet train, and the journey took some 2 odd hours. My parents dozed off, and the others were busy talking about inconsequential things, so it was up to me to keep a track of the number of stations that had passed. Being the bumbling fool that I am, I even managed to make a hash of that. Luckily there was a Spanish Jesuit also on the train who spoke some Chinese and even lesser English. I managed to get him to ask the locals on the train when exactly to get off and how many stations had passed. Whew! Other wise the next stop was some 40 kms after Xian. :omg: Also, in terms of being a mass mobilizer and as a unifier, Chinese railway is not anywhere close to Indian Railways. The train I mentioned above was a bullet/fast train, and they cost more than regular inter city air travel there, where as for us its the other way around. Also, from what I've read, they don't transport as many people as Indian railways do. Most of their lines are freight only. Also, unlike in India, the prevalent culture is not to travel to far off cities for jobs. That kind of intra province migration in China is less. Whether the railway are a cause of that or the effect, I do not know. :isalute:

[Mariyam]

LOL, tell me about it. Lurker is busy romanticizing about smelling the different cooking oils used in the different states as these slowcoach trains pass through them .. :hysterical::hysterical:

I actually find the whole notion of train travel extremely romantic. Right from the ending sequence in DDLJ to the station scene in KKHH where Anjali leaves the college and Rahul, when she finds out that Rahul loves Tina. Railways and trains always have an underlying romantic innuendo. Contrast this, with those monstrous pieces of junk that you saw in Hiroshima. Would Simran ever manage to catch up with Raj, if he was on a bullet train? She'd end up marrying Kuljeet. What a killjoy. :whack: Edit: I've traveled by trains inter city just on only 2 occasions. To Delhi and back. Given the time, I'd love to travel to more cities in a train. Palace on Wheels is also on my bucket list.

[EnterTheVoid]

10 hour trips once a week every week for nearly 3 months? The romance goes out the window. The Japanese bullet train are ridiculously efficient, no to mention they are also engineering marvels. The Indian trains are just slow, no matter what yardstick you use.

[Sir john]

am a former railway tc. not going to say even a single word against them.:bubblegum:

[punjabi_khota]

I actually find the whole notion of train travel extremely romantic. Right from the ending sequence in DDLJ to the station scene in KKHH where Anjali leaves the college and Rahul, when she finds out that Rahul loves Tina. Railways and trains always have an underlying romantic innuendo. Contrast this, with those monstrous pieces of junk that you saw in Hiroshima. Would Simran ever manage to catch up with Raj, if he was on a bullet train? She'd end up marrying Kuljeet. What a killjoy. :whack: Edit: I've traveled by trains inter city just on only 2 occasions. To Delhi and back. Given the time, I'd love to travel to more cities in a train. Palace on Wheels is also on my bucket list.

:hysterical::hysterical: On topic: For 4 years I Did Assam->Delhi->Assam on Rajdhani and sometimes the Northeast express every 6 months. Rajdhani was 28 hours , great food, great facilities, and clean. NE express 36 hours (2nd class compartment) was a stinking piece of **** made tolerable by college mates. It had the worse toilets imaginable which given a choice even an animal wouldn't poop in.

[Sir john]

I travelled alot in train.there is a train from pathankot to baijnath.train take 8 hours to complete 140 km distance. i want to share a incidence. in 2009 my whole family had booked a ticket from chaki bank to jabalpur.train time was 8pm.we all reached station at 6 pm. Than riots in jalandhar starts.people burns trains.than we came to know that our train is 6 hour late.chaki bank station is dirty,mosquitos :mad: .i spend most of time roamin here nd there. @12 pm announcement came train time is 6 pm. I ge aming

[Sir john]

That day train take 42 hours to reach jabalpur,instead of 28.i feel tired nd sick in whole 2 day travel for 2500 km travel.

[Clarke]

Totally Agree. I always feel proud about Indian Railways. The kind of terrains they have covered across the length and breadth of country is praiseworthy. Daily management of such a behemoth is not an easy task. They have been quite pro-active in terms of technology adaption as well' date= be it computerized reservation across country or online booking (irctc).

Yep, i'll agree on the consumer side they were pro-active. They had installed kiosks to gather updated reservation info as early as the late 90s. Core rail engineering, not so much. It took donkeys of years to install something as basic as an anti collision device.

[Clarke]

I just spent three months travellin India by Indian Railways. Saw a fair bit of the country side and yea, it's really beautiful but the novelty wears off if you have to sit 10 - 15 hours to get from one place to the other.

Up to your family how they travel, why the hell are you telling me? Slow trains and difficult to get reservations. Seriously, can't get a reservation two months in advance? :WTF:

IR is a govt run organization that provides a means of transport to hundreds of millions of poor, middle class as well as affluent citizens of the world's second most populous country. Since it is run by the govt, it will have deficiencies as opposed to a privately run company. Its primary role is affordable travel and that is something it has been successful at since independence. Compared to what it must cost in most other countries, air conditioned travel is dirt cheap and the premier trains are jolly well maintained. I'll tell you something else .. i knew a lot of affluent relatives and other folks who continued to use second class as their primary means of travel. They prefer living a simpler life with less 'luxuries' and getting the most value of their money. Which does make me wonder, is there really a market for high speed rail other than the usual Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi etc routes ?