TRAIN, Mumbai

Mumbai train station is more commonly refered to as CST, the real name is Victoria Terminus and it is a beautiful colonial building.

If you are a foreigner go inside the train station and walk up the stairs, there is a counter for foreign quota tickets, it does only have limited hours though so check these before you go.

There are lots of touts at the train station who will try and tell you that the trains are full (they used Goa as a destination when we were there!) to try and get you onto their expensive buses - just ignore them and walk upstairs.

You can buy the invaluable Indian Railways timetable from the stalls around the station.

On the trains there are a few different classes of travel. On long journeys I would suggest you try and get a bed. We travelled in sleeper class, which is the cheapest with a bed, next up is AC3 - Same as sleeper, just a different class of people and air con. After AC3 you go up to AC2. Tickets are priced accordingly.

On the train the beds are usually three tier in a section of six, with 2 more on the end. I always tryed to get the top bunk as you can sleep when you like (the bottom are used as seats) and I felt safer up there with my valuables.

I have found a site where you can give your point of departure and to where you go in Mumbai and its works out the train route for you even to telling you when to change trains and what train to take for your connection. its gives the route station to station for your whole route.. I found this very helpful in planning my train routes in Mumbai . Will include the web site
http://www.mumbai-central.com/trains/

Train - It’s a good idea to buy the timetable train book.
I don’t know why but often at desk counter they don’t tell you all options you have to get to destination.
Tourist quota tickets are the best way to avoid long queue but the rule is that you can book only 24 hours in advance (not always applied) so you can book at the other counters previously filling a form with train name and number and personal detail.
Travel agencies can’t sell tourist quota tickets so could be, they say that a train is overbooked when there are still ticket.
You can get to someplace where there are no tourist quota ticket and tickets are already booked for days so that you get inserted in a waiting list and a seat can be confirmed only last hour.
So that’s happen to me, they confirmed the sleeper seat for a long overnight train but I had to share the seat with another person !!! Be aware that from seat number 70 it can happens.
So what you can do, in any case you don’t have a decent place, it is to give a bribe to the TC (man in charge in your coach), he certainly find a free place for you. The supposed amount is between Rs. 150 – 250. I didn’t try but indian people confirmed me, even at the counter !!!

Trains are fast and economical. The Mumbai Suburban Railway system has the highest passenger concentration of any urban railway system in the world. About 6 million people use the trains every day. The railway actually carries more than half of the total daily passenger capacity of the Indian Railways, the oldest railway system in Asia.

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Mumbai is well connected to all parts of India with their rail service. The city is the headquarters of the Central and Western Railways and is the final destination for a number of long distance trains. The Western Railways departs Churchgate and runs to the western region of the city while the Central Railway departs from Mumbai CST and covers most of the northeast parts of the city and the central area. The harbour line runs for 54kms along the south-eastern section of the city.

I’m not sure I can really call this a train, its more like a children’s amusement however I took it because it was organised for me and pretty much everyone else did too just for the novelty of it. It is not like the walk of the pier is any great length, in fact I walked it on the return as waiting for the train to come back would have taken too long. You pile into this little contraption which seats 2 comfortably each side of the wagons and chug at 2kms p/h at best. We had a little breakdown enroute and I was prepared to get out and walk but it kicked into life again and we finished the last few metres in style.

The first time I visited Bombay, I arrived on the Daily Udyan Express train, leaving at 8:30pm from Bangalore, which made for a fascinating journey. Between the three of us we had managed to get two bunks in a second class sleeper carriage for the journey. My friend and her sister took the lower one together whilst I shared the middle one with our case, which our fellow passengers had told us to guard carefully. The friendliness and openness of these people made for a wonderful atmosphere and by the end of the 25 hours, any of us would have been able to write biographies of the others!

We were provided with a good filling meal of potatoes and cabbage with puris, which beat anything I’ve ever been offered on a train in the UK. The train also made several stops at the larger stations along the way which allowed passengers enough time to stop for water, food and magazines. Tea sellers also boarded the train at each station selling sweet strong milky tea, coffee and sometimes juices too along each carriage from seat to seat. I was intrigued to see that a lady selling guavas split and dusted with chilli and salt was followed at the next station by a man who swept up any discarded scraps of fruit and other rubbish for the coins we gave him for his service.

There were toilet and washing facilities in the train, including both Indian and European style toilets, the former, which remainined much cleaner throughout the journey, were more pleasant to use, if the view of the tracks whizzing past underneath didn’t put you off!

We were approximately one hour late arriving at our destination, which took us past sunset and although the train had been well lit inside the night before, when we left Bangalore, no lights were switched on at this stage, which meant the last part of our journey took place in darkness.

The website listed below is useful for train information and bookings but seems a little slow to use

Given that train travel is my addiction and that Mumbai is one of my favourite places, really my heart should beat faster inside one of Mumbai’s trains and I’m sure that it would have, had there been space!

Arriving at Dadar Station (Central), on the train from Bangalore, we had to change to a local train which stopped near our friends’ home and were advised by the station staff on where to stand for the ladies’ carriage, where they thought we’d stand a better chance of clambering aboard with our luggage during the peak travel time. Well, even there, we missed boarding the first train entirely but having noted the tactics used by other passengers to board, we swung our case onto the next train, all but using it as a battering ram to make a way through for us to jump on behind! Once inside the atmosphere seemed a little calmer and I noticed a few ladies seated peacefully cross legged on the floor feeding their children and one even preparing some vegetables.

I travelled on the local trains a few times on my first visit to the city but have never forgotten this first journey, which cost me a shoe, in addition to my fare and when I was lucky enough to return to the city a couple of years later, using the train was top of my list of things to do on our visit!

We found the system very efficient and inexpensive and the station signs were generally in English in addition to Hindi, which was helpful when deciding whether we'd arrived at the right place to get down. We never found we had to wait long for a train to take us where we wanted

The map on the website listed, shows the railway connections over an outline of the city: