India's International Passenger Trains

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jis

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I was just looking at the type of accommodation provided on the four international trains that operate between India and its neighbors:

A. India - Pakistan - two services, both require a change of train at the border. The accommodation on the Indian side are as follows:

1. Samjhauta Express - Delhi - Atari - [change train] (Wagah - Lahore)

10x Sleepers and 1x AC 2 Tier Sleeper, twice a week - Pantry catering, thirteen car Indian Railways ICF consist on the Indian side. Consist composition on Pakistan side unknown.

2. Thar Link Express - Bhagat ki Kothi (Jodhpur) - Munabao - [change train] (Zero Point - Karachi), 9 car Indian Railways ICF consist on the Indian side. Consist composition on Pakistan side unknown.

7x Sleepers, once a week - no catering (just a five hour run)

B. India - Bangladesh - one current service, one to be inaugurated 1 July 2017. Neither require change of train at the border.

1. Dhaka Maitree Express - Kolkata - Gede - (Darshana - Dhaka) - notionally replaces pre-1965 Kolkata - Goalondo Ghat East Bengal Express service which connected to Dhaka by ferry from Goalondo.

4x AC Chair Car 4x AC 1st Class, four times a week - fully Air-conditioned, two meals catered, ten car Indian LHB consist - one provided by Indian Railways and one by Bangladesh Railway.

2. Khulna Maitree Express - Kolkata - Petrapole - (Benapole - Jessore - Khulna) - to be introduced 1 July 2017 - replaces pre-1965 Barisal Express service

1x AC 1st, 1x AC Chair Car, 3x non-AC Chair Car, once a week - catering planned even though less than 5 hour run, seven car Bangladesh Railway Indonesian PT consist.
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One thing that becomes obvious is that the service to Bangladesh is more robust with clientele that is more numerous and more well to do. There is strong pressure to make the Dhaka service daily. Also Customs and Immigration checks are planned to be moved to the origin and destination station in the near future eliminating the 3+ hour border stop. The Khulna service is also expected to become more frequent than once a week soon after its commercial inauguration.

The service to Pakistan at present at best is limping along. Hopefully things will improve some day. But the current lack of trust between the two countries appears to make that day a far away dream. The clientele for the Pakistan service seem to be not as affluent as that for the Bangladesh service.

____________________________________________

Future:

1. India and Bangladesh are planning to run a sealed train through Bangladesh connecting Kolkata with Agartala in the Indian state of Tripura, reducing the travel time between the two by effectively a day, replacing an overnight journey by a day train.

2.Three more border crossings are being reopened and are likely to get at least some local passenger service across the border.

3. The completion of the new Padma Bridge between Bhanga and Naraynganj will open up a second shorter route from Kolkata to Dhaka. How train service between Kolkata and Dhaka might get reorganized and whth additional service will be added to Barisal with the completion of the Faridpur - Barisal - Payra projects are all open possibilities being explored.

4. Meanwhile, it is more than likely that both the Kolkata - Dhaka and the Kolkata - Khulna services will become daily within the next couple of years.

5. At the present time there are no major efforts afoot to increase service between India and Pakistan, though there is enough demand to increase the frequency of both the trains in spite of the difficulty encountered by travelers in obtaining visas, and the restrictions on foreign Passport holders regarding land border crossings.
 
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Does anything go through between India and Pakistan these days? Freight?

Or are the two systems effectively isolated.
 
What other international connections are there, or are those it (unless via Pakistan or Bangladesh)?
Those are it for now. There is some talk about a joint project connecting Myanmar with Bangladesh and India around Chitagong, forming part of the south branch of the Trans Asia Rail Link, connecting thence to China and Southeast Asia to be funded jointly by China, India and the ADB. As it turns out given a reasonable higher speed rail infrastructure Yangon is probably a day's journey from Kolkata.
Any further link to the west will naturally be through Pakistan and is subject to political stability issues of that country.

More locally there are several proposals for extending railways into Nepal. There is an active project for a branch line to Bhutan.

And finally there is a strategic project to extend rail connectivity close to the Chinese border at Nathu La, which some day may connect up with the branch from the Tibet Railway that China is building down to the same area to Yadong from Xegaze in the Tsangpo valley.

There is a second survey that has been done for a line to Tawang near the Chinese border in Namka Chu valley in Arunachal Pradesh. But that is politically more fraught since China claims most of Arunachal Pradesh to be its territory occupied by India. It will take much diplomatic give and take to resolve that issue first.

It looks like most if not all of it will get built, but will take several decades. I would bet on the Myanmar connection happening first, with new links built from there to Thailand and to Kunming in China being built first since it is easier to build that.
 
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Everything you've noted is in like with what I've read elsewhere. I'd also note that part of the problem with Pakistan in this context is that it's not like the next few countries over are great economic powers: Afghanistan has all sorts of issues, Iran is an economic basket case, etc. So while running some freight through isn't inconcievable, running pax through is going to be tricky.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but (though the alignments aren't great since they date from *ahem* the 1940s or before) aren't there at least former alignments most of the way from India into Thailand?
 
What about Sri Lanka? Obviously there is no land connection, but are there boat trains or train ferries?

And in terms of international train trips going through Pakistan or Bangladesh (or even into those countries), how far can you get in terms of Indian Railways being able to sell you a ticket or provide timetable info, even if the trip involves several connections?
 
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Everything you've noted is in like with what I've read elsewhere. I'd also note that part of the problem with Pakistan in this context is that it's not like the next few countries over are great economic powers: Afghanistan has all sorts of issues, Iran is an economic basket case, etc. So while running some freight through isn't inconcievable, running pax through is going to be tricky.
Never been o that part of the world myself, but from the snippets of news I've read here and there I get the imprerssion that the railroad system in Iran is actually quite usable and that there is a fair bit of investment going on.
 
Everything you've noted is in like with what I've read elsewhere. I'd also note that part of the problem with Pakistan in this context is that it's not like the next few countries over are great economic powers: Afghanistan has all sorts of issues, Iran is an economic basket case, etc. So while running some freight through isn't inconcievable, running pax through is going to be tricky.
Never been o that part of the world myself, but from the snippets of news I've read here and there I get the impression that the railroad system in Iran is actually quite usable and that there is a fair bit of investment going on.
Yes. Iran has a very nice railroad system with some electrification around Tehran. They have finally fixed the new trackage connecting Kerman to Zahedan (the gauge change point between Indian Broad Gauge and Standard Gauge) sot rains can operate reliably. They are in the process of a massive renewal bringing in modern rolling stock and setting up license manufacturing of some stuff in Iran (again). Actually Iran is not as much of an economic basket case as the US propaganda would have one believe.

The only real critical problem in the South Asian leg of the Trans Asian Railway is Pakistan. China is trying mightily to fix it some, but the political challenges, often of Pakistan's own creation, are difficult to overcome at present.

What about Sri Lanka? Obviously there is no land connection, but are there boat trains or train ferries?
Economically and technically it is feasible to construct a long trestle over the shallow waters of the so called "Adam's Bridge", but the Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka has muddied the waters politically against such, and it is unlikely to happen. For the same reason there are few if any ferries operational, though the situation is improving some.

And in terms of international train trips going through Pakistan or Bangladesh (or even into those countries), how far can you get in terms of Indian Railways being able to sell you a ticket or provide timetable info, even if the trip involves several connections?
None of the railways cross sell the other railway's tickets. IR and BR sell tickets on the international trains for the trains originating in their territory, and only recently they have started selling return tickets.

However, everything is available via their web sites, oddly enough, except tickets for the international service! There are travel agency web sites that will happily set you up with itineraries between India and Bangladesh, and help you get the necessary Visas.

Between India and Pakistan it is much more difficult, both getting tickets (get them only at the designated station ticket windows) and Visas to cross the land border.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but (though the alignments aren't great since they date from *ahem* the 1940s or before) aren't there at least former alignments most of the way from India into Thailand?
There has never been a rail connection between the British colonies in Burma and India. The Japanese built a connection between Burma and Thailand through the Three Pagodas Pass - the famous Death Railway which people were familiarized with mostly through the film "Bridge on the River Kwai", about the construction of a bridge at Kanchanaburi at the Thai end of the line. There have been talks on and off of restoring that route, reconnecting Nam Tok in Thailand with Moulemin in Myanmar. But my speculation is that if/when the Myanmar-Thai railway is built, it will be on a new much higher speed alignment probably connecting into Chiang Mai in Thailand and it will be Standard Gauge, not Meter Gauge.
 
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Yeah, I see the connection to the "big" trans-Asia railway that China is funding to be the most immediate connection to the east.

I thought I'd heard or read that some of Sri Lanka's rail has been axed, though that could be very wrong information.
 
Yeah, I see the connection to the "big" trans-Asia railway that China is funding to be the most immediate connection to the east.

I thought I'd heard or read that some of Sri Lanka's rail has been axed, though that could be very wrong information.
Sri Lanka had lost a lot of service to the north during the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) insurrections in Jaffna. Now a lot of that has been restored. Any ferry or eventually fixed link to India, if it ever happens, will of geographic necessity be from the Vavunya Province which was the hotbed of that insurrection. - specifically from the area around Talaimannar on Mannar Islands along what is known as "Adam's Bridge".

Ferry service between Rameshwaram and Talaimannar was restored sometime around 2011. Indian Railways cut back from the southernmost point on the Pamban route from Dhanushkodi to Rameshwaram after a cyclone destroyed the line to Dhanushkodi. Apparently ferry has been restored from Dhanushkodi to Talaimannar too, but the still it is not possible to buy a through ticket from Chennai to Colombo as was possible in the 60's. See this interesting article:

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Layout/Includes/TOINEW/ArtWin.asp?From=Search&Source=Find&CollName=TOI_CHENNAI_DAILY_2009&DOCID=720502&Key=TOICH%2F2014%2F01%2F23%2F4%2FAr00400.xml&PageLabel=4+&Keyword=(%3Cmany%3E%3Cstem%3Erailways)&skin=TOINEW&AppName=1&ViewMode=HTML
 
Thanks, that's an interesting article. II like how they called it "effortless" - probably simple, but not effortless (at least in my book) to transfer from train to ferry and back.

I thought I'd read that since the civil war would up that there had been some service cuts to the hill country or south coast though.

BTW what are "lungis"?
 
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Lungi is a wraparound piece of clothing that is popular in India as shown below (Copyright belongs to the creator):

lungi.jpg
 
BBC produced a set of videos on India's Frontier Railways, the first of which is about India's rail connection with Bangladesh. It was made in the early days of the service when it ran just twice a week between Kolkata and Dhaka. It has been posted many times on Youtube with various qualities. I found a very good quality one, and here it is:



What has changed since then are:

1. Maitree Express is now a 5 days a week service. It is fully AC with 4 Chair Cars and 4 First Class compartment cars (Couchette).

2. Maitree Express C&I inspection is now at Kolkata and Dhaka Cantonment, and there is no inspection at the border, only crew and locomotive change stops.

3. There are two more cross border trains, both twice a week. The first is Bandhan Express from Kolkata to Khulna via the Benapole-Petrapole border crossing. The second is Mitali Express from Siliguir in Northe Bengal (the connection to Darjeeling Himalayan Railway) and Dhaka via the Haldibari-Chilahati border. They all have the standard 4 AC Chair Car, 4 AC First Class Couchette Car India - Bangladesh service consist.

4. Purnendu Basu, the Indian Guard shown in the video regretfully passed away of Covid. Several members of IRFCA knew him personally as did my cousin who was the Finance Commissioner of Eastern Railway and later Indian Railways before he retired.
 
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Bangladesh railway has just announced that the Kolkata - Dhaka Maitree Express is most likely going to be one the first trains to run on the new Jessore - Dhaka route via the new Padma Bridge. The India - Bangladesh border crossing will move to Petrapole - Benapole border instead of the Gede - Darshana border. This is likely to happen sometime in 2024.

This new routing will reduce the running time to around 5 hours. This will make it possible for the same consist to run a round trip between Kolkata and Dhaka in a single day. There is a possibility that there will be two trains each day, an Indian consist running Kolkata - Dhaka - Kolkata and a Bangladesh consist running Dhaka - Kolkata - Dhaka each day.
 
While most are focused on Kolkata - Dhaka service, another new link is about to be inaugurate in September on the Eastern frontier of Bangladesh between Akahura (Bngladesh) and Agartala (Tripura, India) capital city of Tripura State).

https://www.hindustantimes.com/citi...completed-on-indian-side-101682090025736.html
Currently service connecting Kolkata and Tripura has to go all the way around Bangladesh on a 1500+km hike through treacherous mountainous territory requiring more than 31 hours. With the completion of this link and the new Padma Bridge route, it will become possible to run a sealed train through Bangladesh to cover the 400 or so km in 8 hours or so.

1692631281860.png

That will be a game changer. I suspect though that such will be preceded by a Dhaka - Agartala service augmenting the existing bus service with rail service on this previously popular travel corridor that was severed with the creation of Pakistan and has been gradually restored over the last 20 years.

There already is a Kolkata - Agartala bus service via Dhaka, but one requires a Bangladesh transit visa for that. It is hoped that a sealed train won't require a transit visa, though it is more likely that the authorities will punt on that complexity and simply require visas as if one were traveling to Bangladesh and then back to India.
 
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JIS wrote:
With the completion of this link and the new Padma Bridge route, it will become possible to run a sealed train through Bangladesh to cover the 400 or so km in 8 hours or so.
If a precedent is needed there are the Austrian "corridor" trains to Innsbruck, which cut across Germany as sealed trains for many years until the Schengen treaty became effective.

 
JIS wrote:

If a precedent is needed there are the Austrian "corridor" trains to Innsbruck, which cut across Germany as sealed trains for many years until the Schengen treaty became effective.

For many years there was also the CP/VIA Atlantic Limited that ran from Montreal to Halifax via the US State of Maine and ran mostly sealed through Maine with one coach accessible for local travel. No documentation was needed for Canadians just riding through AFAIK.

One often forgets that there is a substantial chunk of India to the East of Bangladesh which must present a lot of issues with transport, especially when traditional travel routes were initially disrupted by the original partition in 1947.
 
If you see any video of what happens in terms of lawlessness at Benapole when the Kolkata - Khulna Bandhan Express arrives from India, it would give some pause as one realizes why the idea of a sealed train may be a non-starter. Oddly enough the situation is not as bad at Darshana on the Dhaka train which is more carefully guarded I suppose and does not involve any border check at Darshana unlike Bandhan Express doing its Bangladesh border check in Benapole, which may give some hope for the feasibility of a sealed train

Bangladesh being unable to control smuggling into its territory is purely Bangladesh's business. But keeping a train from India to India secure makes it as much India's business, and issues of security forces and sovereignty come into play.

It is quite possible that India will not trust Bangladesh Border Police with guarding an Indian train through Bangladesh. That is the issue. We are not talking of a sleeper train in the middle of the night through a sparesely populated area, but of an often oversold train with some people eager to earn a buck or two by being mules through one of the world's most densely populated area. All this suggests to me that such a train will require full border inspection at both ends, and anything else will be logistically difficult.
 
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