Pause…

Want to build some Indian cars while I ponder and read over some more books. I have never looked at India with any interest before

India rethink

After a bit of reading on India, by mark twain, gandhi and some others I might want to rethink my route. I want to take in only some sites

Calcutta

The Kumbh Mela…

possibly Allahabad, Hardiwar, Ujjain & Nashik for its pilgrimage history.

• In fact the railway stations for these 4 towns was designed around the demands of these pilgrimages and the millions of people who would come every 4 years.

Chennai, in a nation with few cars, aparently it is the car capital

Hyderabad

Mumbai & Matheran

Pune

Jaipur

Agrah for the Taj Mahal

Chandigarh (le cobusier designed it) , and of course

New Delhi

View Larger Map

Calcutta south

Trains in the NE have a bad rap, poor maintenece etc.

routes south

Junction @ Kharagpur

South coastal route, to Bhubaneshwar, Orissa Privince

West to Jamshedpur, Raipur then south, bypassing Orissa through the mountains

Distances in hours south:

Bhubaneshwar 7h

Vishakhapatnam 14h

Chennai 28h

Calcutta

Howarth Junction is the central station.

From Raxual its a minimum 18 hours trip.

Indiarailinfo is the best resource.

Train 3022 is the express from Raxaul to Howarth Jn.

• 1000-0400+1 | 693km | Sleeper Rs 140 / AC2 Rs 239

Currently the trains for today was running 4 hours late at Muzaffarpur and 2.5 hours late just outside Calcutta.

Google Earth tour of 3022’s route.

Raxaul

Has both meter guage and broad gauge network. It is a major town but not the focal point of the local services.

Gorakhpur is the most influential major center.

Raxaul lies to the east along one of the paths north of the Ganges converging again at Katihar

about a dozen Meter gauge trains run each way between Narkatiagani and Darbhanga.

Other routes from Gorakhupur – Narkatiagani & around Samastipur have either been converted or are being converted to broad guage.

Its important as the meter gauge trains on the Narkatiagani to Darbhanga cover 192km in 8hours, about 25km/h

where as the fewer broad gauge trains from Narkatiagani to Samastipur cover 210km in 4.5hours

next stop Calcutta

There are 2 ways that I can see to make the trip. You can take the direct daily Mithila Express,

take the 0600 meter gauge to Darbhanga (a1330) then at 1445 the Mithilanchal Express

take a train to Muzaffarpur Junction then on the Bagh Express to Howrath Junction.

There are a couple of other routes too, after checking it appears that the Bagh express has much better availability than the Mithila. eg: sleeper class still has availablility for tomorrows dep, the Mithila has a Wait List for all classes for the next 8 days.

This is likely due to the tourist factor and border crossings. It also keeps much better time, at least over the last month.