Railways of India through the eyes of a Russian traveler. Indian Railways
Indian Railways is one of the most popular modes of transport in India. Railways in India transport about 6-7 billion people and 350 million tons of goods per year, and their network covers almost every corner of this country. It is one of the largest and busiest railway networks in the world.
Reuters photographer Navesh Chitrakar traveled three months on Indian Railways to make this report.
9,000 walk in India passenger trains that transport 20 million people every day. Here is one of them in a hurry not to miss the train at the train station in Mumbai, December 5, 2012. The photo was taken from the car. Not very comfortable.
Hotel for drivers. This one has been driving trains for over 40 years. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
The machinist shows his photo when he started work 40 years ago. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Control room. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Railways in India began their development in 1853, and today their total length is 63,140 kilometers. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Locomotives on Indian railways are not the freshest and do not shine with technical bells and whistles. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Almost the entire rail industry is owned by the state-owned Indian Railways.
Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station. Located in lower Mumbai, before entering Colaba. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
By the way, for its beautiful architecture in 2004, the building of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Station was recognized by UNESCO as a site " world heritage». (Clickable, 2040×1360 px) . (Photo by greenwood100):
The beautiful architecture of some stations contrasts strongly with the interior elements of other stations. For example, this is how the window with the train schedule looks like at a station in the state of Uttar Pradesh. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Window railway ticket office in Uttar Pradesh on October 24, 2012. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Travel on Indian railways is often extreme. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
(Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
(Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
The cars inside also do not differ in special chic. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
(Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Bicycles. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
...and cans. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Late passenger. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
These are not sellers, these are women drying their clothes on the platform, October 31, 2012. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Train schedule. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
India's most beloved sport game is cricket. It is played by everyone and everywhere, even on platforms. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
It is very common to see children playing galli cricket after school - street cricket. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
The train passes through the slums in Mumbai. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
India is the world leader in the number of railway accidents. Every year, about 300 serious accidents and accidents are recorded on the country's railways. According to statistics, from 1995 to 2005, more than 4,000 people died in railway accidents in India. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
On the train. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
Rush hour at the railway station in Mumbai. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar | Reuters):
India- a country not only of elephants, spices and yogis, but also of railways. Their length in this country exceeds 60,000 km and ranks third in the world in terms of length. Its network has entangled all the Indian states in a dense web. In almost every more or less large locality There is railroad station. This type transport is the most convenient for domestic travel on long distance and gives a great chance to feel and touch India, as they say, from the inside.
To the inexperienced eye of a European, it may seem that the railways of India are complete chaos, and some of their features even cause shock. However, this is not entirely true, and if you look, Indian trains are quite a comfortable and convenient means of transportation.
What is the minimum knowledge required to travel on Indian trains?
First of all, in India there are several classes of trains and wagons in them.
- ShatabdiExpress or Shatabdi expresses are the most expensive trains, usually plying between major cities, the maximum duration of the trip, as a rule, is no more than one day. In these express trains, there are only two types of carriages AC chair and AC executivechair.
- The Rajdhani Express or Rajdhani Express is a train that connects Delhi with the state capitals. They include the following types of cars: AC 1st class (1AC), two-tier AC (2AC), three-tier AC (3AC) and 2nd class
- Other Express, as well as mail trains- the bulk of Indian passenger trains long distance. They have cars: 2AC, chaircar (seated), non-AC sleeper (sleepers without air conditioning) and non-AC 2nd class (second class without air conditioning).
- Passenger trains - follow short distances and are a kind of similarity to our commuter trains. This type of train is the cheapest. The carriages in them may vary in different states, but in any case, these will be carriages for "Spartans" and "extremes", and traveling in them (if you dare to do so) can be one of the most unforgettable adventures of your life.
The average train speed in India is something like this:
- express trains - 80 -100 km/h
- ordinary express, postal and passenger 30 – 50 km/h
When planning a trip and including a trip by train in India, remember that you need to book tickets in advance, preferably at least 2 to 3 weeks before the trip. At major stations and tourist centers there are special ticket offices for tourists, where you can sometimes buy tickets when they are no longer available at regular ticket offices. However, you should not count on it one hundred percent. In addition, if you intend to purchase tickets in them and pay in Indian rupees, in addition to your passport, be prepared (sometimes may be required) to present a certificate from exchange office or check of the electronic terminal. But we will devote a separate story to this method of buying tickets - Tourist railway quotas
India is one of largest countries in the world in terms of area, and in terms of population, it generally ranks second. For now.
The country stretches from west coast before eastern states where a foreigner needs a special permit to visit. From Kanyakumari - the most southern point on the map all the way northern point near the Siachen glacier disputed territories- Jammu and Kashmir.
The most popular transport in India is trains. Firstly, it is one of the largest railway networks in the world, and secondly, railway transport is affordable for the widest segments of the population.
The network of roads links all the most big cities and also represented in every state.
Some statistics:
- 64,460 kilometers of railway tracks
- more than 7 thousand railway stations
- 7,651,000,000 passengers per year
Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that owns the railroad system. Interestingly, almost two million people are employed in the service.
Tickets
India has some of the lowest tariffs in the world. Online ticketing was widely introduced as early as 1995 - tickets can be ordered online and mobile devices. Tickets are sold at a discount for pensioners (who are over 60), students, and people with serious illnesses.
For foreign tourists there is also a nice bonus - this is the so-called Indrail Pass– Railway subscription, which allows an unlimited number of trips for a certain period (there are from 1 to 90 days).
Reservations open 60 days prior to travel date.
Wagon classes
Classes of wagons in India are like our reserved seat, coupe, sv. Just more hardcore.
Shared wagon
An analogue of our common carriage - the number of people depends only on how many people can physically fit. People will stand, lie down, sit in the aisles and on each other's heads.
The price is about 3-5 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
sleeping car
This is our reserved seat, only instead of two floors of shelves - three. Whoever occupies the upper ones lies, the rest sit on the lower shelves. There are actually fewer people than in the general class.
The price is about 8-10 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
First class / First class Non-AC
This is our stripped-down compartment - instead of four, there are two shelves, one above the other.
Third class
The same sleeping car - the same three-story shelves, but there will no longer be people in the aisles and 10 people sitting on the lower one - everyone has their own place. According to the plan, there should be 72 people in the car.
The price is 16-20 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
Second class
An analogue of the third class, only two tiers of shelves, instead of three.
The price is 25-28 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
First grade
It's already Lux. Two seats - opposite each other, an isolated room, soft backs - everything to feel like a white person.
The price is 50-60 dollars per 1000 kilometers.
Trains in India are very late. If you take a ticket for a train at which your station is not the initial one, but the transit one, then do not be surprised that when you get out on the platform, there will be no train. You will have to wait a few more hours. So if you are traveling from Goa, for example, to Delhi by plane, then it is better to leave so that you have at least 15-20 hours left from the declared arrival time. The train is guaranteed to be late.
Train at Dudhsagar Falls in GOA:
Trains in India. Inside view:
The mountain railways of India are worth traveling, if only because there are real toy trains that were designed and installed more than 130 years ago by British engineers. In fairness, it must be said that it is in India that you will see outstanding examples of railways in the mountains, built taking into account the most difficult conditions of the mountain landscape and lush tropical vegetation.
The first directions for the movement of this type of transport were opened between 1881 and 1908. In the process of creating amazing railway lace and serpentines, very bold and witty engineering solutions were used. As a result of the project, India received efficient railway lines laid in highlands extraordinary beauty.
Today they are still operating, carrying passengers in full. The rolling stock has also been preserved from those times immemorial and serves as a living example of how machine-building enterprises worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to the idea of designers and engineers, the mountain railways of India should connect high-mountain climatic resorts with foothills, making their winding paths through picturesque mountain landscapes cut by valleys and rivers. The implementation of such grandiose plans at that time was the embodiment of the outstanding plans of British technicians, an example of engineering marvels and colossal changes in technology.
In total, seven small railway lines, six of which are narrow-gauge railways (gauge - 2 feet, i.e. 610 mm) and one - 1 m wide. Today, there are only about 20 similar railways in the world that are still in operation. All the roads that will be discussed, built in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by order of the British, who led the country at that time.
Three of the seven roads listed above are in very hard-to-reach places, among them:
- Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (eng. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, 1881)
- Kalka-Shimla Railway (eng. Kalka Shimla Railway, 1898)
- Kangra Valley Railway Pathankot (1924)
The fourth - Masren Hill Railway (eng. Matheran Hill Railway) is located in Maharashtra.
The next one, Lumding-Silchar - built at the turn of the 20th century, the railway line lies deep inside the state of Assam, in the valley of the Barak River and the Kachar Mountains.
In 2005, another mountain railway was put into operation in India - Kashmir, its branch runs in hard-to-reach mountainous areas in the Himalayas in northern India.
UNESCO-listed mountain railways of India
According to the UNESCO World Heritage List, there are three ancient lines in the country included in its lists:
1. Kalka-Shimla Road(English Kalka Shimla Railway) - laid in the foothills of the Himalayas, in the state of Himachal Pradesh (north of India, the capital city of Shimla), its length is 96.6 km. The branch was designed in the middle of the 19th century, its operation began in 1903. Passengers who used this route claim that the scale of the construction carried out in those years is really impressive to the core. Obviously, the difficulties that the engineers and builders of this road overcame were also enormous.
The city of Shimla, the starting point of the railway line, served as the summer capital of the British colonial government of India in the middle of the 19th century, since it was located in the very north of the country, in the Himalayas, fragrant in summer, cool and clean. mountain air. In southern India, the state of Tamil Nadu (Tamil Nadu) and its capital Chennai performed a similar role of the same summer retreat for the government.
The need to build a mountain railway in the direction of Shimla was caused precisely by the displacement of the ruling officials. For the summer, they, as a rule, left Delhi for the mountains, for a comfortable climate, and by autumn they returned back to the offices and offices of the capital. There are currently four trains running on the Kalka-Shimla-Kalka route, two of which are UNESCO-listed historical rarities, the Shivalic Express and the Himalayan Queen. The third is a modern representative of railway transport, Rail Motor, the fourth is the most cheap transport Simla Express.
Travel time of historical toy trains is approximately 5 hours. Shivalik Delux is more luxurious than the Himalayan Queen in terms of comfort, Rail Motor has an average level of comfort, i.e. less comfortable than Shivalik Delux. In accordance with the level of service, the fare on these trains is also determined.
Ticket price on Indian mountain railways
You can ride from Shimla to Kalka:
- for 415 rupees ($6) - at Shivalic Delux
- for 305 rupees ($4.15) - on Rail Motor
- for 255 rupees ($3.8) - on Queen
- for 65 rupees ($1) - on Simla Express
Schedule of trains on the mountain railway Kalka-Shimla-Kalka
The first flight from Kalka (Rail Motor) is at 5.10 am, Shivalic Express is at 5.30 am, Simla Express is at 6.00 am, Himalayan Queen leaves Kalka at 12.10 am. Shivalick Express is a more comfortable and more convenient train, which can be seen in the price of the ticket.
2. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway(Eng. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway)
This Himalayan railway is located in the foothills of the Himalayas in West Bengal (a state in the northeast of India), its length is 88 km. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the Toy Train, is a 2-foot (610 mm) narrow gauge railway between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was created between 1879 and 1881 and is about 78 kilometers (48 miles) long. As the train travels along the route, it overcomes elevation changes from 100 meters (328 feet) at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 meters (7,218 feet) at Darjeeling.
3. Nilgiri(Nilgiri Hills) - a mountain railway line is located in the Nilgiri Hills (Blue Mountains) in the state of Tamil Nadu ( South India), its length is 45.88 km. The peculiarity of this region is belonging to the territory biosphere reserve Nilgiri, also included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
At the beginning of the 19th century, these places were very popular in the summer and on weekends as excellent oases for the British to relax. In 1827, the town of Ooty became the official summer resort capital of the province of Madras. Since then, the construction of local mountain roads, and in 1899 a huge work was completed - the Nilgiri mountain railway. Trains still run along the rails of the old railway line.
The rare New Delhi Express is a toy train known far beyond the borders of India, running along the Nilgiri line, it is also included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Toy steam locomotive with passenger cars runs the route once a day - from Mettupalayam departs at 07.10 and reaches Ooty at noon. The return flight from Ooty is at 14.00, passengers arrive in Mettupalayam at 17.35.
According to the new plans, the train on the Mettupalayam-Ooty route is planned to be connected to the Nilgiri Express, which runs from Mettupalayam to Chennai via Coimbatore.
In the summer, to increase the number of traffic, it is planned additional flight which will operate in April and May. It will depart from Mettupalayam at 09.30 (AM) and from Ooty at 12.15 (PM). There are also daily trains between Koonur and Utagamandalam stations, with four trips each way. The Nilgiri Express covers a distance of 26 km (16.2 miles) on the mountain railway, passing through 208 curves, 16 tunnels and 250 bridges. Uphill journey takes about 290 minutes (4.8 hours), descents last 215 minutes (3.6 hours). The Nilgiri Hills branch has the steepest track in Asia with a maximum gradient of 8.33%.
Do you want to go on a mythical journey, feel the breath of the Himalayas or the Blue Mountains of India? We recommend doing this at least once in your life!
Train timetables can be found on the Indian Railways website - indiarailinfo.com.
Because most we made our movements between the cities of India by rail, the time has come to tell about it in more detail.
I think any person on planet Earth, when he hears the phrase "Indian Railways" imagines something like what we see in the photo above. I want to upset you, and maybe even please you, that this is not entirely true, I would even say - not at all.
Of course, if you wish and with some luck, you can arrange something similar for yourself, but, in general, Indian railways make a rather positive impression. Although, perhaps, this was caused by our initially low expectations.
For me, it is better to use Asian - it is cleaner, since it is easier to maintain order in it, plus Indians use a hygienic shower, and not toilet paper, and this also has a beneficial effect on the cleanliness of the room.
Fellow travelers
As we have said more than once, Indians are big kids, so get ready for unceremonious attention from them. No aggression or hostility - only childish curiosity, everyone will want to get to know you, communicate, and so on. In Mumbai, for example, we had not yet had time to get into the car, and a simple Indian guy had already come to our aid. In general, we didn’t need help, but it didn’t bother him at all ☺.
The fact is that the lists of passengers are posted right at the entrance to the car, and you can always make sure whether this is your train in front of you, or just the same, but late for a day.
So the guy "helped" us look for our names in the list, although it was difficult for him. But when we got into the car, he gladly changed places with me so that Oksana and I would ride side by side. Well, how else, we already know each other - almost relatives, one might say.
In general, it's certainly all very nice, but sometimes quite tiring. Although, you see, it’s better that way than if they looked at you like a wolf all the way.
Stations
For the most part, railway stations in India are quite utilitarian structures. Those. no embellishments and frills for you - cheap and cheerful. Here is a concrete box - this will be a waiting room, here is a platform with a canopy made of corrugated board, here are overhead crossings over the tracks with bars so that no one falls out, and so on.
Of course, there are exceptions to any rule, for example, in Mumbai. But that's the exception, to prove the rule.
Apparently, realizing this, the stations are still trying to somehow revive. For example, look at the funny drawings in Jaipur at the station, in my opinion, very nice.
And you can always agree to meet at the column with the cow ☺. Again, it is easier for children to remember where their parents were left to sit. All in all, pretty and functional.
Peculiarities
There are no conductors in Indian trains in the usual sense, i.e. no one will check your ticket when boarding the car, instead, a list of passengers is posted on each car with all the route information - no privacy, yeah ☺. The ticket is checked by the controller, already on the way, also according to the list. Two more follow from this feature. The first, as such, you may not have a ticket in your hands, one of these is enough:
Most likely, if you don’t have any of the above, nothing terrible will happen, it’s unlikely that another Vasily Pupkin is traveling with you in the car, but I wouldn’t check this possibility ☺. By the way, you can read about how to buy tickets for Indian trains.
And the second, in your rightful place, another passenger may well be sitting, who mixed up the train, carriage, date or his own name. By the way, the same thing can easily happen to you, so you don’t need to make a fuss right away - it’s better to wait for the controller.
Be prepared that every minute a merchant will pass through the car with something, and sometimes more than one. Traffic jams can also arise from merchants right next to your place, plus they all loudly shout out the name of their product. Unfortunately, there is no recipe against this, but: "Forewarned is forearmed!"
If in cars without air conditioners you can easily catch a heat stroke, then in cars with them you can freeze. Plus, fans are installed in the car, which theoretically can be turned off, but the Indians immediately turn them on again - apparently, they are hot ☺.
I really liked that the cars have sockets, although the AC 3-Tier Sleeper had only one socket per compartment, but it's better than one per car. In order not to monitor the phone, we put our Power Bank there to charge, and only then charged our phones from it - very convenient.
By the way, about tracking things. Everywhere they write that it’s better not to leave things unattended, one really wants to answer this: “Thank you, captain!” But to protect yourself even more, you can fasten your luggage to special cables, which are presented in abundance under each seat.
Also, on the Internet you can find stories about the delays of Indian trains. The most terrible stories describe being late by almost a day. So is it really, we have not been able to verify, fortunately. All three of our moves were exactly on schedule, apparently, we have good karma ☺.
That's all, if I remember anything else, I'll definitely add it. Yes, do you have any questions? Ask, we will try to answer. And most importantly, do not be afraid of Indian trains, of course, they are not up to it, but this is a very convenient and economical option for moving around India.
