The Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge

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Mark_Lester

@Mark_Lester

Beginner

Posted: 15 years ago

Namaste,
We are organising the mother of all train journey's on Indian always next February 2011. The plan is to go from Mumbai to Mumbai, via Dwarka, Udhampur, Tipong (far east of Assam) Kaniyakumari and back to VT, inside 15 days!!.
We have about 20 people daft enough to do this, including several 2nd and 3rd generation UK and US Indians, abd quite a few railfans in India, but we really need more native Indians to get involved in the project if we can find people crazy enough. You dont have to do the whole thing, but it would be great of you could join up for parts if you fancied it.
We are raising money for Railway Children, the UK and India based charity, but if you want to get involved and have our own pet charity you like to support then that's perfectly OK. We have a facebook group here
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=372971199730#!/group.php?gid=372971199730
the whole project is a celebration of your railway, so please join the group and support us if you a have a facebook ID.

We also have a blog which we'll be filling up live with pictures and videos and reports during the trip itself.
http://gcirc.wordpress.com/

Here is the itinerary. Other than the IR rep here in UK who most of us here will be using, there are no agents or tour operators involved in this.

Start Mumbai Central Station, Friday Evening, February 18th, 2011

Friday dep Mumbai 20:25 9005 Saurashtra Mail (961km)

Saturay arr Dwarka 15:07, taxi/coach to Porbander, dep Porbander 20:25 (or Jamnagar 23:15) 9216 Saurashtra Express (464km)

Sunday arr Ahmedabad 06:00, dep Ahmedabad 11:10, 9223 Ahmedabad-Jammu Tawi Express (1184km)

Monday arr Jalandhar 12:45, dep Jalandhar 15:10 1057 Amritsar Express arr Amritsar 16:30 (theres loads later if the ADI-JAT is late, alternatively Makhu 11:03 and taxi to Amritsar for 13:00) Golden Temple at night

Tuesday dep Amritsar 01:10 am, 9225 Bhatinda Jammu Tawi Express (206km) arr Jammu 07:00 . dep Jammu 11:25, 4033 Jammu Mail (54km) Arr Udhampur 11:40, Luncheon, dep Udhampur 19:05 2446 Uttar Sampark Kranti (630km)

Wednesday arr New Delhi 06:25, dep New Delhi 14:00 2424 New Delhi-Dibrugarh Town Rajdhani (2396km)

Thursday on Board

Friday arr New Tinsukia 03:35, dep New Tinsukia 08:40 905NFR Dibrugarh-Ledo Passenger (57km) arr Ledo 10:45, Tipong Colliery, chartered bus to Dibrugarh

Saturday taxi to Bogibeel, the ferry stuff, bus/44 to Dhemaji, dep Dhemaji 18:38 5814 Arunachal Express (366km)

Sunday arr Rangiya 05:05, dep Rangiya 07:27 2510 Guwahati-Bangalore City Express (361km) arr New Jalpaiguri 14:05 (several later trains if we are late), taxi to Darjeeling

Monday dep Darjeeling 09:15 2D Darjeeling-New Jalpairguri Narrow Gauge (88km) arr New Jalpaiguri 16:50, dep New Jalpaiguri 20:00 2344 Darjeeling Mail (602km)

Tuesday Arrive Sealdah 06:00, tram and ferry to Howrah, dep Howrah 14:50 2841 Coromandal Express (1662km)

Wednesday arr Chennai Central 17:15, dep Chennai Egmore 19:55 6101 Rameswaram Express (600km)

Thursday arr Rameswaram 08:35 dep Rameswaram 17:30 2789 Rameswaram Cape Express (407km)

Friday Arr Kanniyakumari 04:05, Dep Kanniyakumari 10:30 6525 Bangalore Express (67km) arr Trivandrum 12:45 , Coffee Break dep Trivandrum 19:15 2431 Rajdhani Express (1752km)

Saturday arr Panvel 18:05, metro to Mumbai CST (69km).

End Mumbai "VT" Station, Saturday Evening, March 5th, 2011