Agra Transportation

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There are several train services which run from Delhi through Agra to Bhopal, Gwalior, Trivendrum, Hyderabad and Chennai. The Shatabdi Express will take 2 hours, the Intercity Express takes 3 hours and the Taj Express takes 2 ½ hours to reach Agra.

The main bus station is conveniently located close to the Alsisar Haveli, a great place to stay in Jaipur. There are supposed to be 12 busses serving this route per day.
It took about six hours to get to Agra.

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To take the sleeper to Varanasi, you can coveniently(because not too far away from Taj Ganj) book the tickets in advance at the AGRA FORT TRAIN STATION, at the north side of Agra Fort. On the left side of the main entrance there is a building for the bookings.
The train itself leaves from the IDGAH AGRA STATION, quite a little bit away - so take a rickshaw.

Price for two sleepers was 506 Ruppes.

There are a number of ways how to get to Agra.
By bus, from the bus station in Delhi
by train (express from Delhi)
or by car (private/rent)

By car is the best way as on the way you can enjoy local food from a number of restaurants on the way. The drive takes up to 5 hours to Agra and the same back. But for sure this depends of how often you stop on the way :)

For example to rent a car for 3 people will cost up to 200$ (for the group of people)

We took the train. It left right on time 6:00 am and I came back on time. The price was a bit more than 700 rps including breakfast and dinner, including a bottle of water. I was not able to eat the food. It was extremely spicy for me. The exit is located right by the kitchen. I saw the kitchen and I am glad I did not eat the food. The kitchen was too dirty. As soon as you exit the train station to your right you see a little kiosko (goverment touristic office). You can hire a car with a driver and a tour guide for 950 rupies for the whole day until is time to catch your train to go back to Delhi (the train left on time 8:00 pm). 950 rps did not include the entrances to the major places in Agra but when you pay the 700 rps entrance fee at the Taj Mahal with the same ticket you get a little discount to see the other places in Agra. Many tourists arrived there and they hesitated in using this service. I had already read here about it and I agreed with the fellow who wrote the comments. It was a nice and clean car. They insisted very much in visiting factories and places like that. I let them know I will go to those places after they took me to see all I wanted to see. I recommend you not to visit these places until you see all because you get tired of going around and I rather I see everything first. The driver would take you everywhere you want to see in Agra including the ghost city (forgot the name something Sicrit) which is 40 kms away from Agra. From my own experience I rather I use them I did not want to spend time barganing with a rickshack. In Agra I do not recommend a rickshawk. There is too much pollution in Agra. I recommend to hire a taxi from the goverment office.

We hired a Qualis to see the Taj. Before we left Delhi there was a puncture and the driver put on the stephanie (spare tire). After about an hour of driving, on the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh state boarder just after the toll booth the spare tire went flat.

We waited two hours in the rice field for the driver to hitch a ride to the nearest tire repair, get both tires fixed and return to get us back on our way. Thankfully it was December. I am sure our family would have melted in the June heat.

The passing camel carts made the wait interesting.

Taj full day tour(07:00-21:00) from Delhi to and around Agra.
Including breakfast, buffet lunch, evening snacks,
visit Sikandra Tomb, Agra Fort, English speaking guide in Agra.

The tour was well organized, excellent food - good combination of Indian & western.

The local guide was commission oriented busy in taking us from one store to another.

Booked the tour by net, no payment in advance.
Rates per person: Rs. 1,500
not including:
entrance fees Rs. 750 for Taj Mahal, Rs. 250 for Agra Fort

In order to protect the Taj Mahal from further decay due to pollution, all motorized vehicules are now off limits up to 1km from the monument grounds. All visitors must now park in specific lot and are shuttled to the entrance of the grounds by Natural Gas powered buses.