National Geographic Travel: Indian Railways (worst, old, mountain, easy)

[k374]

It's the world's largest railway network, a legacy of the British Raj, and also one of the largest employers in the world with a workforce of 1.6 million...it's the Indian Railways replete with 100 year old steam engines climbing some of the highest mountain passes in the world... Fascinating stuff!


YouTube - National Geographic video - The Great Indian Railways Part 1 of 5!

[sponger42]

I've only ridden the popular and busy Agra - Mumbai - Goa - Bangalore line. It wasn't too bad in 2nd class. The AC worked, the people were friendly, and I wasn't dumb enough to think that my stomach could handle the bugs in the train food/drink. The train was pretty slow, but the bunks were fine for napping.

"Interestingly" the gutters of the tracks leading out of Victoria Station are used as open sewers/toilets for those living near the tracks in the morning. Yummy.

Chinese K-class trains are the worst I have ever been on. They manage to take the Indian arrangement of a 8-bunk open "cabin", subtract 2 bunks, and add a whole lot of misery to punish the 6 people for daring to travel anywhere for any reason.

[slackjaw]

They are okay, actually in large cities pretty easy for foreigners to figure things out. One thing disturbing is broken windows on trains that workers say is from people throwing rocks as they go by.