I’d arrived in Delhi from Hong Kong at 1:00 am, grabbed a couple of hours sleep and was standing on the platform at Delhi Railway station by 6:30, when the train was supposed to leave.
Only to be listening to announcement after announcement explaining that trains from various locations were delayed. By several hours, in most cases.
Not encouraging.
I was on my way to Chandigarh for a 2 week project and my client had suggested the train as the best way of getting there.
From Hong Kong that didn’t sound like a bad idea at all – I’ve always loved train journeys. But I was revising my opinion rapidly at that moment.
We eventually left about 30 minutes late and I watched as Delhi moved slowly past the window.
Chandigarh is in Punjab and almost due North of Delhi. In theory a 3 hour train journey.
Although I’d made several trips to India (Delhi and Calcutta) prior to this trip, this was the first time I’d taken a train.
And, therefore, the first time I’d seen the way people are packed into them and onto them. Literally.
The local commuter trains are so busy that people are hanging from the carriage doors, clinging to any point they can on the outside of the carriages and sitting on the roof.
Because my train was a long distance train (they called it an express but it wasn’t very express at that moment), and because I was sitting in an air-conditioned carriage (the equivalent of first class), I could watch the commuters from relative comfort.
I say ‘relative’ because the accommodation was by no means plush.
But I did have my own seat, a lot of space and a window to look out of.
Indian trains (at least the one I was on) are incredibly smooth. There’s no jerk as it moves off. In fact it’s easy to not notice you’re moving at all until you’ve already picked up some speed.
They’re also very quiet.
But they’re definitely not high speed. I don’t know what actual speeds we reached on that trip but it was closer to 50 miles per hour than 150.
There were stops and delays en route, made worse by the fact that we had to be diverted because a train crash the previous week (more than 100 people were killed) had closed the direct line.
So instead of 3 hours the journey took more than 5.
But I enjoyed it. It was very relaxing, very smooth and we were served excellent tea at regular intervals.
The countryside from Delhi up to Punjab is very flat. If you like wide open spaces this is for you. Me – I prefer mountains and variety.
But I enjoyed the trip enough that I’ve wanted to go back and do a long train trip – Delhi to Mumbai or Delhi to Chennai, for example.
With all the time in the world (no client deadlines), I think a trip like that would be wonderful.
I haven’t done it yet, but it’s there on my list of things to do.
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