Train Journeys That Are Worth Taking for Their Own Sake

Most rail travel is a means of getting somewhere. On a small number of Indian routes, that relationship inverts entirely — the carriage becomes the destination, and wherever you disembark is incidental.

The Konkan coast in the rain

The Konkan Railway between Maharashtra and Goa cuts through a landscape of river crossings, tunnels and dense green hillside. In the monsoon it becomes something close to theatrical: mist sitting in the valleys, waterfalls appearing beside the track, and long viaducts crossing rivers in full flow. A window seat on the correct side is worth planning around.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway

Slow, steep and more than a century old, the rack railway climbing to Ooty covers a short distance in a long time. That is the appeal. The gradient, the switchbacks and the shifting vegetation from plain to montane forest make it one of the few journeys where the pace itself is the attraction.

Kalka to Shimla

A narrow-gauge line through more than a hundred tunnels and several hundred bridges, climbing steadily out of the plains into the hills. It is frequently busy and rarely comfortable, but the engineering alone justifies the ticket. Travelling in the early morning, before the haze rises, gives the clearest views.

The long-haul routes across the interior

Less celebrated but arguably more revealing are the multi-day services crossing the country’s interior. Over thirty hours the landscape, language, food sold on platforms and composition of the carriage change entirely. There is no faster way to understand the scale and variation of the country than to watch it pass slowly from a sleeper berth.

Practical notes

Book well ahead; the good seats on scenic routes disappear months in advance. Carry more water than you expect to need. Charge everything before departure. And resist the urge to fill the hours with a screen — the entire point of these routes is outside the window.

Air travel treats distance as an inconvenience to be minimised. On these routes, distance is the product.