After a short stop back in Singapore, I finally made it to India! The city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is everything all at once. Chaotic but colorful, smelly yet fragrant, from the glitz of Bollywood to the slums of Dharavi, this city is full of surprises!
Today, on my second day in Mumbai, my friend Bron and I decide to take the train from our friend’s home in the Bandra West neighborhood to South Bombay for a day of sight-seeing and exploration. Now taking the trains in India is not like hopping on the subway in New York. During rush hour on a weekday, the trains get so crowded that anyone making it on board will have to be content with being pressed against any object or person that is next to you. Fortunately, today is Saturday, and the trains were not nearly as crowded.
Being that this was our first time taking the train in India, we decided to splurge on a First class ticket as the First Class cabins are usually not as crowded. Costing a total of Rs 52 each, we easily navigated the Bandra Station and found our way onto the next train to Church Gate Terminus, thanks to a very detailed hand-drawn map and description provided by our good friend Brian who is living in India with his wife Jenn, both of whom are teaching at the American School of Bombay.
Because the trains do not have air conditioning, and it can get stifling hot in the cars, many commuters choose to stand by the doors, which remain open even while the train is in motion. This makes for a breezy, yet exhilarating ride as we thunder past the Mumbai streetscape.
On the way back, we decided to risk it and get a Second Class ticket instead. At Rs 6 each for a ticket, this was a steal, and fortunately, being the weekend, we even managed to find a seat, and rode comfortably back to Bandra.
Rail travel, like air travel, has a certain level of romance for me. Between stepping aboard the Eurostar from London to Paris on my first trip to continental Europe; to the early morning dash (with no sleep!) across Budapest to the Keleti pályaudvar (East Railway Station) to catch a train into Vienna for a flight home barely 5 hours later; to the slow ride through the Sacred Valley on PeruRail to Manchu Picchu (pictured above), rail travel has played a large role in some of my most memorable travel experiences! Having taken trains all over Europe, in South America and in Asia, it is therefore ironic that it took me this long to finally step foot aboard an Amtrak service.
Amtrak’s Empire Service runs from Niagara Falls on the New York side of the border with Canada all the way down to New York City, making stops in cities such as Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany. I rode on a short segment of this line between Rochester and Schenectady in upstate New York.
Arriving at the Rochester Amtrak station (picture of trackside view below), the lack of investment in the rail infrastructure of the United States is clearly evident. For a city the size of Rochester, NY, with the state’s second largest economy and the third largest population, the small and dark Rochester Amtrak station is more fitting of a suburban commuter rail stop, than the city’s interstate rail gateway.
Once onboard, the car and economy seat was comfortable, though clearly older, and less advanced than comparable systems in other developed countries. A half eaten box of food was left on at least one seat (which the conductor cleared after the first stop), and a thick layer of grime can be seen along the window seals. However, I was surprised at the cleanliness of the bathrooms on board. The deli car was open throughout most of my trip, but I did not get a chance to visit it.
Unlike my experience with rail travel in Europe, with its to-the-minute punctuality, my Amtrak train departed 17 minutes late, and brought me to my destination almost 30 minutes behind schedule. At one point, we had to stop for almost 10 minutes while a freight train going in the opposite direction passed us on a single line of track.
With the expected announcement this month of the Obama administration’s stimulus funding apportionment for High-Speed rail development, I am hopeful some of these shortcomings can be reversed. For starters, build dedicated passenger rail lines so that published schedules can be more reliable. Update stations and cars to bring them up to 21st century standards. If current proposals to update the Empire Service comes to fruition, in the three and a half hours it took me to travel the 210 miles from Rochester to Schenectady, I would have made it all the way to the Plaza and sipping on a martini in New York City.
Posts
