10 Scenic Train Ride in India

Planning a vacation doesn’t include a train expedition nowadays. But if it does it certainly take us back to the childhood days when holidaying meant traveling in a train and admiring the changing landscape as the train passes through towns and villages.

Train Ride is very romantic and most enchanting mode of travel in the world. Nothing can match the Joy scenic Train Ride irrespective of the age Group. Almost every part of India is covered by the Indian Railways, however remote it may be. I am talking about the best picturesque train ride in India. Probably India is the only country in the world where you can find all kinds of landscape in the world and that too by traveling in trains.

The Inland Railways takes passengers, mails and commercial goods from Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India to the highest mountainous towns in the Himalayas. All over the world there are many like you and me who love to travel by train just because of the scenic beauty. After reading this blog post the various scenic train rides in India will beckon the train enthusiast.

Being a good passenger of the Indian railways for more than 15 years; and traveled through the beautiful train routes around the country. This time I‘ll take you to some of the most fascinating train routes in India that cover absolutely exciting and diverse landscape, steep mountain slope, narrow valleys and wide seas.
Here are few beautiful natural scenic train routes of India railways that I can share with you.

The Nilgiri Mountain Train Ride also called as The Blue Mountain Express: 

I would rate this at the top of the list of panoramic train routes. It was my first hill train ride. The narrow gauge train starts its 5 hrs journey from Mettupalayam this toy train has been operating for more than 100 years. This train ride is miserably slow up the hill but the most enjoyable one. When it reached the final destination Ooty, I forgot all the inconvenience caused and the slow train ride. While going up, the breeze starts getting cooler. I came across majestic and lush green, mountains and numerous tunnels and mountain streams. Wild trees and plants rows and rows of Eucalyptus trees, tea and potato planted slopes, myriad forest flowers and playing monkeys will give you company on your scenic train ride. Above all I didn’t forget the sound of streams and exotic birds as I silently looked through the train window.

Shimla: traveling to Shimla in the narrow gauge train was very cherishing. The journey was truly enchanting but a slow pace as the train ascends the slope rhythmically through different stations.

While travelling from Hubli to Madgaon, I experienced one of the most thrilling and enchanting train journeys. The train passes through the most magnificent DudhSagar waterfalls that gush out from 300 metres in full vigour. Once the train reached the waterfall, I was amazed at the cascading beauty and force. To get a better glimpse I got down at Londa Junction, which is the nearest station to Dudh sagar falls.

The snow sojourn scenic train ride: It is a refreshing ride through the Kashmir valley, weaving through the snow-capped peaks at a distance and the chinar trees all around. It was the most thrilling ride in India, as the train passes through thick snow covered landscape and even the rail tracks are covered with white snow. The sight of small village in the distance as the train cuts through pine forests would make your heart skip a beat. The train passes through the Banihal tunnel which is said to be the longest tunnel in India. The scenic train ride is absolute picturesque in the winter. This memorable scenic train ride is called snow sojourn.

Jaisalmer Jodhpur: the Rajasthan trip was really great. It is usually full of colours. I travelled to Jaisalmer from Jodhpur in Delhi Jaisalmer express, which is also called as Desert Queen. The journey is not at all monotonous. In fact you will see diversified topography like typical desert landscape with xerophytic vegetation, yellow soil, dunes, grazing camels and scattered settlement of the desert inhabitants. I really got the feel of the desert safari before reaching the land of the Golden Fort.
At last I had a bag full of cherished memories as a return gift.