Recently I was on a Diwali visit to my native place Ajmer. By train it takes 48 hours to reach my home. Her Highness told me for this "Are you nuts? You will be traveling for 4 days and staying at home only for 2 days. Can't you just take a flight and avoid this wastage of time?". I just smiled and told hopefully one day I will be able to explain you why I still travel by train. There are several reasons why I still travel by train. Here goes the reason's
1. Affordable : No matter how much the airline guys shout about cheap travel they can't beat Indian Railways in terms of price. I pay 1400 bucks for 3 Tier AC and just 500 for Sleeper class. Now even if u get air ticket for free still u need to pay some 2000-3000 as tax, also the airports are far from city (at least Bangalore airport is far away...its some 50-55 kms from city)
2. Time for yourself : During my travel through train I get 2 full days just for myself without any distraction, there are no managers, no laptop, no work. This way I get sufficient time to think about my career - how I am doing and how to improve it further?. I get time to read my favorite books. I know people will say common you can save lot of time through air travel and read books at home...even though I read lot of books but still my laptop is my biggest distraction, in train there is none.
3. Sight seeing : I travel across the length of the country covering close to 2500 kms. During this travel I get a chance to see the diverse landscapes; from the hilly Western Ghats in Karnataka and Maharashtra, the rivers and lush green mountains on the way to the desiccated areas of Rajasthan. I enjoy watching the farmers toiling their farms with their bullocks, the herdsman driving the cattle. And guess what all this sight seeing for free!!
4. Comfort : As mentioned in case of price, in case of comfort also the low cost airlines can never beat the mighty railways. This is what Shashi Tharoor has to say about economy class airlines "Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!"
5. The 1960 factor : Inspiration for this came from the movie Love Aaj Kal where the protagonist Veer Singh of 1960 era travels thousands of kilometers for just one glance of his sweetheart. This time it was same for me :)
Why I still travel by train?
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3 Responses to "Why I still travel by train?":
one more advantage is meeting people and listening to their tales(which are often concocted stories and exaggerated ones at that ,but nonetheless good for whiling away time).This is quite different from traveling by air where everyone sits with stiff upper lips and would talk to you ,if at all they do so,as if they are doing a favour to you.
I have met some wonderful people on train journeys.
However when you go home twice a year traveling by air does save a hell-a-lot-of time. In your case you could have got more than just 'one glance' ;)
@Rohit
ya true even i had met some really nice in train and it was fun talking to them. I feel a person learns a lot from talking to people and from reading books
Even i travel by train from ranchi to ahmedabad , but i love to travel is because no one disturbs ur sleep on the upper berth for 36hr , wehn at home or travel in flight the disturbance of mails is going to kill you
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