Above: A key stage in the journey is the
excellent weekly Istanbul-Tehran train, the
'Trans-Asia Express'...
Photo courtesy of Bob
Johnson.
There were newspaper articles last year about the possibility of train
travel from London to India or even
Dhaka in Bangladesh, prompted by Calcutta-Dhaka trains resuming
after 40 years and the planned completion of the final
missing gap in the rails between Bam &
Zahedan in southeast Iran. The Bam-Zahedan section
was finally completed in late 2008 (having been "under construction" for decades)
and a passenger service reportedly started running in
June 2009*, so the
rails do indeed now stretch all the way from St Pancras to
Karachi, Lahore, Delhi & Dhaka, with just a short
hop by ferry necessary
across the Bosphorus in Istanbul (a gap due to be filled
by the Bosphorus tunnel now under construction).
However, you can't just
buy a London-Delhi train ticket and hop on a train to
India. Far from it!
Such a 2- or 3-week trip should not be undertaken
lightly, as it will take a lot of D.I.Y. organisation, including the bureaucracy involved in getting an
Iranian visa, and there are
security concerns with
bandit attacks in southeast Iran near the Pakistan
border. But for more adventurous travellers
willing to brave this, it promises to be an epic trip.
* Latest
reports in late 2009 say that a passenger
service still hasn't started on the new Bam-Zahedan part
of the line.
This page
outlines the best routes, timetables, costs and how to
go about putting such a journey together. Please
remember it's not a tour or a package, just some
guidance in putting your own independent trip together
using scheduled train services across Europe and Asia.
The itinerary
shown here assumes you're travelling eastbound, but it would
work exactly the same way westbound:
Days 1-4:
London-Istanbul: Travel from London to Istanbul (3
nights) by train. There are daily departures via a
choice of routes, the best being
London-Paris-Munich-Vienna-Budapest-Bucharest-Istanbul.
The whole journey (which involves at least 6 separate trains)
can be booked via several UK European rail ticketing agencies
in the UK, and we're talking a minimum of £350 one-way, £550
return. See the London
to Turkey page for times, fares, & how to buy tickets.
Days 5-8:
Istanbul-Tehran: Take an evening ferry across the
Bosphorus to Haydarpasa station on the Asian side and travel from
Istanbul to Tehran in Iran on the comfortable weekly 'Trans-Asia
Express' (3 days), see the London
to Iran page. This train departs every Wednesday, so your
timetable will need to be built around this. We're talking £40 each way including
sleeper, plus maybe £15 booking fee.
Day 9:
Tehran-Kerman: Travel from Tehran
to Kerman in southeast Iran by daily overnight train leaving
Tehran at 16:50 and arriving at Kerman at 07:00 next morning.
The train has comfortable air-conditioned sleepers (4-berth compartments).
There's also a later train if this train is full. Times and fares can be confirmed at
www.raja.ir
(click the 'house' logo then 'English' top right). Fares are very cheap, less than
£10, though an agency may charge more.
Day 10:
Kerman-Bam: The railway was extended
a further 225km to Bam in 2004, so change trains at Kerman onto the
08:00 connecting train to Bam, arriving 11:00. The
journey takes you through spectacular desert. The fare
is only a few pounds, see
www.raja.ir.
Day 10:
Bam-Zahedan: This section of line has been under
construction for some time, but was reported as physically complete in May 2009.
A train service reportedly started running over it in June
2009, but it's not yet clear what form this train
service takes - possibly a direct
train from Tehran to Zahedan, maybe weekly, maybe daily, maybe
several times per week, who knows. Details have yet to be released. Latest
report August 2009: No passenger train service
has yet started between Bam & Zahedan.
Alternatively, there are buses from Kerman or Bam
to Zahedan . A bus reportedly leaves Kerman daily at
20:00, calls at Bam a few hours later and arrives Zahedan at
04:00 next morning. The fare is just a few pounds.
Day 11+:
Zahedan-Quetta: From Zahedan, a
mixed passenger and goods train leaves on the 3rd & 17th of every month at
10:00,
arriving in Quetta (in Pakistan) at 20:30 the next day (see
report below).
This train consists of several very basic passenger seats cars
attached to a freight train, with no sleeping berths or
restaurant. The fare is about Rial 30.000 (£2 or $3).
The more frequent Taftan Express on this route,
which had sleepers, was withdrawn due to security problems a
few years ago. Bring plenty of food and above all, lots of
drinking water, as it gets very hot in the desert and there's
nothing available on board. As an alternative, there are
also regular overnight buses on this route, but the train will
show you great desert scenery in daylight - treat it as an
adventure. Expect an arrival in Quetta 3-6 hours late.
Alternatively, there are share taxis available from Zahedan to
the Pakistani frontier, then more taxis from there to Quetta,
and this option can be a good bet - see the
Travellers' reports section
below.
Please check locally that the twice-monthly train is running,
as there have been reports that even the twice-monthly train has
been temporarily suspended because of bombing. If it
isn't running, buses
may be available as an alternative. If you have more information that might
help other travellers, please
contact me.
Day 13+:
Quetta-Lahore: From Quetta, the 'Quetta Express'
runs daily trains with comfortable air-conditioned sleepers to Lahore,
taking 24 hours, see the
Pakistan page for times and fares.
Expect this to cost less than £20.
Day 15+:
Lahore-Amritsar: From Lahore there is
a twice weekly train, the 'Samjhota Express',
taking 7 hours (see the
Pakistan page eastbound, see
above westbound) or daily taxis/buses to Amritsar in
India, 46km away. The time taken is down to the border
formalities, not the distance! Spend the night in
Amritsar, an perhaps visit the Golden Temple.
Day 16+:
Amritsar-Delhi: There are regular daily trains from Amritsar to Delhi,
see above for information
on Indian train travel.
Onwards to
Dhaka in Bangladesh: Take the prestigious overnight 'Rajdhani Express'
from Delhi to Calcutta, and the new
'Maitree Express' train
(currently running Saturdays & Sundays only, an all-day
journey) or daily buses from Calcutta to Dhaka in Bangladesh.
Onwards to
Kathmandu in Nepal: Take a train from Delhi to
Gorakhpur then a bus, see the Nepal page
for more info.
Onwards to
Burma, Thailand, China: Unfortunately, there are no easy
overland routes from India or Bangladesh into either Burma
(Myanmar) or Thailand. It's possible, visas and permits
permitting, to travel to Kathmandu in Nepal then take a $300
tour (you can't go independently, it's not allowed) across the
Himalayas to Tibet then a train into China,
see the Nepal page. For overland travel from
Europe to China the easy way, see the
Trans-Siberian page.
Read through
the arrangements for getting an Iranian visa on the
Iran page. It's quite
bureaucratic, but do-able.
You'll also
need to understand visa requirements for Pakistan &
India, particularly any 'onward ticket' requirements
which annoyingly assume everyone travels by air so can
pre-book everything. Read the visa pages on the
Pakistan and Indian embassy websites carefully, and if
necessary call them to ask advice. Buying
refundable air tickets then cancelling them is one dodge
to get round such requirements, if necessary. To
be honest, the visa requirements are likely to be the
most difficult part of making this trip, sorting out the
transport arrangements is the easy bit!
***
Critical issue *** In summer 2009 I have had one
report that Pakistan is not allowing westerners to use
trains or other surface travel within Pakistan, to avoid
the embarrassment of having a westerner involved in any
potential terrorist incident. The correspondent
was refused a visa for Pakistan by the Pakistani embassy
in London when they realised he
was entering overland and intended using surface
transport. This clearly affects people's ability
to travel overland to
India through Pakistan. I have
not had any confirmation of this, and do not know if it
is temporary or not. If you have any more
feedback, please please let me
know! It was later reported by the same
correspondent (in early October 2009) that the Pakistani
embassy in Birmingham also refused a visa
on those grounds, but that the Bradford Pakistani
embassy had no problem issuing a visa for overland
travel, and he can now travel(!).
I'd suggest
planning the trip out carefully before you start to book
anything, using a simple spreadsheet, so you can see
which days you'll be in which place. For advice on
planning in this way, see
How to plan an itinerary & budget.
The
Istanbul-Tehran train only runs once a week, on
Wednesday nights, and together with the twice-monthly
train (which will perhaps run more frequently when the
Bam-Zahedan line is completed) this will probably
determine the rest of your timetable.
Each leg is
ticketed separately, even on the London-Istanbul
section, so you can stop off wherever you like for as
long as you like, be it Paris or Vienna or Budapest or
Istanbul or Tehran. Where, how often, and for how
long you stop off on the way is entirely your decision.
Security situation in
Southeast Iran & in Quetta in Pakistan: A key
issue when considering whether to make this trip is the
security situation in Southeast Iran & Pakistan. Check the
Foreign Office advice on Iran and Pakistan at
www.fco.gov.uk, although this errs on the
paranoid side. Traveller Noelle Virtue reports
travelled from India to Europe in March 2009:
"Although we didn't have any problems in Quetta itself,
we were told by a member of the police and several
others that it wasn't a safe place for foreigners to be.
We left Quetta on an overnight bus to Taftan with no
problems and no escort. However, once we crossed to
border into Iran we were told that we needed an escort
to Zahedan and that we would have to pay for a taxi to
take us and the escort there as buses wouldn't take
foreigners. Once we got to Zahedan we were taken to the
police station where we awaited a squad car to take us
to the bus station for onward travel to Kerman. This
involved changing into 3 different squad cars and
showing our passports again to each police officer. The
whole process from the border to Zahedan should take 1.5
hours but took us about six. We heard from fellow
travellers that the train is still in operation between
Zahedan and Quetta but that it's not a great experience
and they had difficulty finding a hotel in Zahedan that
would take foreigners. They also had to be escorted
everywhere in Zahedan during their stay there." If
you make this trip and have any more information that
might help fellow travellers,
please let me
know!
It's not so
much a question of 'buying a ticket to India' as an
exercise in project management, arranging all the
various tickets from a variety of sources and being
prepared to buy some on the way as you go.
The critical
administrative issue is getting an Iranian visa.
See the Iran page for
advice on agencies in Iran to contact for this.
You'll also
need to arrange visas for Pakistan and India.
For Pakistan visa arrangements, see
www.pakmission-uk.gov.pk. Turkish tourist visas can be bought when the train
reaches the Turkish frontier, so this isn't a problem.
London-Istanbul train tickets can all be arranged
through a UK European rail ticketing agency such as DB's
UK office or europeanrail.com. See the
London to Turkey page for more
advice and information on booking this journey.
Istanbul-Tehran train tickets can be arranged through an
Istanbul travel agency such as Tur-Ista,
see the Iran page.
The agency
you use to obtain support for your Iranian visa may be
able to organise the Tehran-Kerman-Bam trains, and
perhaps the Kerman/Bam to Zahedan bus and train ticket
from Zahedan to Quetta. If they can't do the train
out of Iran, you can book this at the station in
Zahedan, but check that you can still get a visa without
onward tickets.
Trains
within Pakistan and India are most easily left until
your arrival in those countries, and booked at the
ticket office.
Request for
more information...
If
anyone has any more information, an account of this
journey, photos or travel reports that would be useful for
this page, please
e-mail me!
Traveller
Frank Sprenger rang Zahedan station to get confirmation
of the train situation in August 2009:
The
Zahedan-Quetta train usually runs twice a month, it
departed yesterday [August 3rd 2009] and will do so
again on the (28th Iranian Calendar) this should be in
15 days from now.
We where told that departure days vary a little
depending on demand. But as I said, usually every two
weeks. dep time is (again "usually") late morning or
early afternoon. The journey time is "usually" around 30
hours. Best to phone, or have someone calling the
station, a few days in advance to confirm the departure
day and time. Be careful as Hotels often get a
commission from bus companies! Space should be no
real problem as there are not many passengers using this
train for cross border traffic, mostly Pakistani.
Accommodation for the international portion is bench
seating only. Open window coaches with roof fans for
Rial 30.000. But may be sleepers will be attached
after Taftan. So no confirmation on this. The departure
from Quetta is usually 3 days before the departure from
Zahedan. I was told that the train always ran and was
never suspended, albeit not as frequent as it did before
2005. There where never any bombings on this train as is
written in some books
Traveller
Danny Allen comments on the train/bus from Zahedan to
Quetta (March 2009):
"I can't add anything useful
about the train, as when I was there it was officially
running, but pretty eratic and I couldn't be bothered to
wait 6 days on the offchance. I took a local share taxi
(there is also a local bus) from Zahedan bus station to
the Pakistani border at Taftan. Once inside Pakistan
there is a bus that leaves Taftan for Quetta each
evening, although it's awful. I believe there are also
'coaches' which are better. But there is another
alternative, which is a taxi. Although this sounds an
extravagant way to travel 600km, the cost is relatively
low at around 30 Euros per person. There are a couple of
these vehicles, running daily depending on demand. They
are actually pick-up trucks, but they're modern and have
4 free seats and plenty of space for luggage. The
journey takes 10-12 hours and is a great way to get a
feel for the extraordinary landscape between the two
cities. I found this through the manager of the PTDC
(Pakistani Tourism Development Council) motel in Taftan,
where I stayed for a night before moving on to Quetta."
