INDEPENDENT TRAVEL - PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Replies: 16 - Last Post: Nov 26, 2012 2:46 AM Last Post By: danielle787
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INDEPENDENT TRAVEL - PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Hi travellers,We would appreciate your comments and observations.
We have back packed South East Asia and China quite extensively over the years and it has been quite easy. However, as the years roll on, we have become a little older and now we are quite mature age, yet fit, healthy and adventurous. A little comfort is now becoming more desirable!
We are looking at India - the North Triangle and some Rajasthan, then possibly Goa and Kerala in South India.
We prefer small towns and villages rather than huge cities. Some of our misgivings are mainly Public Transport between major cities and then between towns and occasional coastal villages.
We have read the travel books, the forums and the blogs but little emphasis is given to Town to Town or Village to Village public transport travel. Possibly the long trips Delhi to Goa we would fly, other than this we would train or bus.
Your observations on Public Transport (considering our age), would be very much appreciated. In advance thank you for taking the time to post a reply to us.
Kind regards, Sabresail.
1
I can tell you about Goan Public transportWe have 3 main towns
mapusa -north goa
margao -middle
Panaji -capital
Margao is connected to panajii by kadamba buses .The buses themselves are ok but its waitng in the queue that takes an hour
panaji to mapusa -shuttle service kadamba
private operators ply the route
panaji to calangute -direct buses
panaji to mapusa -then othe beaches in north goa?
margao to benaulim,varca-buses near kamat hotel
margao to palolem
take canacona.karwar buses -get off at char rasta???
There are prepaid taxis at margao railway station which have fixed charges
2
Some of our misgivings are mainly Public Transport between major cities and then between towns and occasional coastal villages.
Sabresail, you have good reasons for your misgivings about Public Transport in India.
Kadamba buses in Goa and regular buses for the masses in other Indian towns are high on adventure and low on comfort.
Some higher fare delux and tourist buses in major cities will have good seats and travel will be comfortable but otherwise regular buses can get crowded and often there is no regard for the maximum seating capacity and many buses are overpacked with passengers standing inside the bus or even hanging by the door or enjoying fine view sitting on the top.
As a person shall we say of mature age I am not fond of bus travel in India and one main reason is my worry that I may need to go to the washroom and of course the buses do not have toilets although generally they will make a stop every 3 hours or less.
For me train travel is far more comfortable. I can get up walk around and stretch my legs and most importantly go to the washroom when I want to.
I also think that road traffic in India is crazy with cars and buses constantly overtaking the slower traffic dangerously at times with passengers watching this overtaking drama and praying for their own safety.
Trains have more sitting space and for shorter travel my favourite would be a chair car seat (CC) and for longer journeys I try to book a 2AC seat.
Welcome to travel in India - not easy - but lot of fun !
3
"Kadamba buses in Goa "I was talking about the shuttle buses connecting margao-panaji
panaji -mapusa
If one goes to calangute from panaji one always finds the odd foreigner on a bus-mainly young ones though
you could opt for motorcycle taxies in goa -if you are comfortable as a pillion ride on a motorcycle
4
I think trains are the best..... if you want comfort go for ac2 or ac3if you do take a bus-try to take one that has a seat reservation because then you are guaranteed a seat! that doesn't mean the bus won't be filled with people\stuff in the middle aisle..... only means you won't have to stand. some of the bus booking websites list the amenities of each bus.
once you are in goa- you can hire a scooter and drive around yourself to see all the smaller towns along the coast.
6
You can structure your travel based on train travel for the North and most of Rajasthan. There are no direct services between Udaipur and Jodhpur/Jaisalmer and so you may need to go via Jaipur. For Goa you could take the night train from Dadar Mumbai which would get you into Madgaon next morning.Likewise there is a night train from Madgaon to Kochi.7
#6There are a lot of trains from Mumbai to madgaon.Some pass thro Panvel(mangala express) which is on the outskirts of Mumbai.from dadar get to panvelTrain No. Train Name Origin Dep.Time Destination Arr.Time Travel Time Days Of Run
12618 +MNGLA LKSDP EXP *KALYAN JN 08:35 MANGALORE JN 00:40 16:05
19262 +KOCHUVELI EXP *VASAI ROAD 10:55 MANGALORE JN 03:00 16:05 N 16345 +NETRAVATI EXP LOKMANYATILAK T 11:40 MANGALORE JN 04:40 17:00
12619 +MATSYAGANDHA EX LOKMANYATILAK T 15:20 MANGALORE CNTL 07:30 16:10
16335 +NAGERCOIL EXP *VASAI ROAD 20:35 MANGALORE JN 13:30 16:55 N
06745 +DR TEN SPL #DADAR 20:40 MANGALORE JN 12:10 15:30
12133 +MANGALORE EXP MUMBAI CST 22:15 MANGALORE JN 12:40 14:25
===================================================================
Some terminate at Mangalore and some go further south
the above query mumbai (CSTM) to mangalore Central MAQ
From Mangalore there are plenty of trains going south
my confusion is over two stations at mangalore .mangalore juction and mangalore central -sorry
Trains from mumbai may start at Chatrapati shivaji terminus (CSTM) or Lokmanya tilak terminus
Again my knowledge is incomplete
12618 +MNGLA LKSDP EXP *MANGALORE JN 00:50 ERNAKULAM JN 10:00 09:10
12218 +KERLA S KRANTI *MANGALORE JN 02:25 ERNAKULAM JN 10:10 07:45
16345 +NETRAVATI EXP *MANGALORE JN 04:50 ERNAKULAM JN 14:10 09:20 Y
16333 +VRL TVC EXPRESS *MANGALORE JN 13:40 ERNAKULAM TOWN 22:25 08:45 RIVANDRUM EXP MANGALORE CNTL 14:25 ERNAKULAM TOWN 23:35 09:10
16603 +MAVELI EXPRESS MANGALORE CNTL 17:45 ERNAKULAM JN 02:25 08:40
16630 +MALABAR EXPRESS MANGALORE CNTL
9
We (heading towards mature!) used the trains a lot on our last trip, but were advised to book as much as poss before we left home, which we did using the Cleartrip website.It was very simple 2 years ago, unfortunately more tricky now as there is a lot of faffing to get your account up and running (see other posts about that, also Seat61 and IndiaMike websites).
But worth the effort, as then you can easily see which trains go where - and importantly, which ones have seats available and which ones it looks like you'll need to book now. Cleartrip is far easier to use than the India Rail site IMO.
You do need to do a fair bit of forward planning - but I'd at least try to pre-book any overnight train journeys. As far as I could see (we only bought 1 ticket while in India) pre-booking saves a lot time trying to buy tickets when you're there, there's a lot of form filling and queueing and nail-biting while hoping for wait-listed tickets to get confirmed.
We found sleeper class absolutely fine for day time travel and used AC3 for overnights, but the 3 tier bunks made sitting up difficult, so I'll go for AC2 next time. Some trains have an AC chair class, which is very comfortable, and sometimes even includes a meal.
10
Hello all you very kind people who replied to our post on Public Transport.All advice is excellent and very much appreciated. We will only travel by train where possible, avoiding bus travel, as no one has given bus travel a good report.
Many, many thanks to each one of you and now we will start planning India and looking forward to another overseas trip to enjoy different cultures, different life styles and meeting charmig people.
Thank you once again.
Sabresail (and wife)
11
In Rajasthan the RSRTC buses run by the local government are O.K. for short trips on short notice i.e. Jaipur to Jodhpur. We tried to book trains as far ahead as we could however there were a few times in out 12 trips to India, that we used the buses and they were O.K. One needs to be adaptable in India as I'm sure you understand. Have a wonderful time!12
Also forgot to add that we hired a car/driver from www.jasvilas.com when we were in Jaipur in 2004. We had spare cash and travelled quite splendidly then. Now it's backpacking! Still a lot of fun though! You might like to email them and ask about the gorgeous Deogarh Mahal Palace also. It's on the drive from Jaipur to Udaipur and worth a night's diversion, just for the jewel-box rooms and the wonderful food served by turbaned, lightning fast waiters! Enjoy!13
Lyndy- G'day & Hi,Thank you Lyndy for your 2 replies and that bus travel Jaipur to Jodpur is O.K.
We also checked jasuillas.com, just a bit expensive. The comment on Deogarh is a new destination to research.
So thanks Lyndy - wow, 12 times to India, you must love it.
Simongoa - Simon - do hope you received our private message of thanks sent to you via Thirntree.
Sabresail
