Thread: The Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge

Hello, we're running a charity trip round Indian railways next February. It's just for fun, and charity, the only companies involved are Indian Railways, and whatever railway food vendors we hit.

There's a blog about the project (oops, I cant do URLs of course) just google The Great Circular Indian Rail Challenge or "GCIRC & trains" .

Lots of fun and charity...

I like such activities..

Waste of time..........

Originally Posted by gaggan4392

Waste of time..........

if you travel with your friends and your family, its a waste???
can i know why can be travelling a waste??

if someone wastes his money in buying a 15mbps internet connection, with knowing nothing about the world, its a waste, considering that with the same amount you can travel in our beautiful country from top to bottom, can make a one life experience, make strange friends, get knowledge of people, places, and do a lots of photography...



wont you take your kids( in future ofcourse) anywhere???


Indians lack in travelling, we are homely people, who cannot adjust with new places, people,

and so we frankly say, (proudly infact) that we havent offended outside our own borders past three thousand years...

we actually dont have the guts, to travel across.. thats it!!!!

Originally Posted by mickey

f someone wastes his money in buying a 15mbps internet connection, with knowing nothing about the world, its a waste, considering that with the same amount you can travel in our beautiful country from top to bottom

Ticket to Singapur Rs. 33000 for 3rd class........
One time Lunch cost = Rs. 750+ for good meal/ person.....
Hotel cost = Rs. 2500+/ day for good hotel and go up to 50,000 or even more....

Now go and travel the world..........

Originally Posted by gaggan4392

Ticket to Singapur Rs. 33000 for 3rd class........
One time Lunch cost = Rs. 750+ for good meal/ person.....
Hotel cost = Rs. 2500+/ day for good hotel and go up to 50,000 or even more....

Now go and travel the world..........

you sound unhealthy..


don't you think, some people can/will like to do this investment??

Originally Posted by mickey

you sound unhealthy..


don't you think, some people can/will like to do this investment??

Ya, Because my Grandfather was gone there last year.......
That`s why I know.......

^^Ask him....

Apart from costs( no one can ignore travel/eating/blah-blah-blah costs) didnt he enjoy a new country, new people???

i dont think he will regret foreign tour.. did he??

Originally Posted by gaggan4392

Ticket to Singapur Rs. 33000 for 3rd class........

wrong just check with Tiger Airways its too cheap. for as low as Rs. 2000/- you can go to Singapore

wow, seems like I've bumped into a happening forum.
Go to Lauterbrunnen in switzerland then tell me Indian middle classes dont travel. Sommat to do with Bollywood. I'm not allowed to post links, but for a mere 20 USD you can get a dahl rice and chappati at the summit of the Jungrfaujoch!.

ah, I am allowed a link, go to my "homepage" if you cant be bothered googling gcirc.

Originally Posted by Mark_Lester

wow, seems like I've bumped into a happening forum.
Go to Lauterbrunnen in switzerland then tell me Indian middle classes dont travel. Sommat to do with Bollywood. I'm not allowed to post links, but for a mere 20 USD you can get a dahl rice and chappati at the summit of the Jungrfaujoch!.

ah, I am allowed a link, go to my "homepage" if you cant be bothered googling gcirc.

yes...

travelling is still considered expensive.. scenes are changing now...

i feel that you are very happening..
have you ever been to Norway? i want to visit that country.. atleast twice in my life.. i will def. do..

Originally Posted by Mark_Lester

wow, seems like I've bumped into a happening forum.
Go to Lauterbrunnen in switzerland then tell me Indian middle classes dont travel. Sommat to do with Bollywood. I'm not allowed to post links, but for a mere 20 USD you can get a dahl rice and chappati at the summit of the Jungrfaujoch!.

ah, I am allowed a link, go to my "homepage" if you cant be bothered googling gcirc.

i will like to have some local specialities than regular "Daal Roti"...

travelling is more of explorations, one should enjoy adjustments in new place, thats called travelling, and that makes good travelling..

Sounds like a plan, Mark. Great Project with fun involved. I'll definitely try to be a part of it in all the ways. I've bookmarked your blog to keep myself updated. Although I haven't travelled much but it's one of my unfulfilled desires to explore the world. What better place to start than India!

Originally Posted by itsmemad

Sounds like a plan, Mark. Great Project with fun involved. I'll definitely try to be a part of it in all the ways. I've bookmarked your blog to keep myself updated. Although I haven't travelled much but it's one of my unfulfilled desires to explore the world. What better place to start than India!

India is a world in itself,,, dont you think??

@gagan4392, Travel can never be considered as "waste of time". Now, it depends on how much one can afford to spend. There may be other priorities in life - and there always will be. But once in a while, people should travel just to get out of the routine.

Even a small trip to a nearby resort / reserve will refresh your mind and rejuvinate the system.

@Mark_Lester, you will be able to post links after 15 posts. Generally advertising is forbidden here. But if it is a good cause, no one objects. Meanwhile you can post a link like this:

a) use "hxxp" prefix instead of "http" prefix
b) separate the url with spaces like www. google. com
c) use the phrase "<dot>" instead of "." like www<dot>google<dot>com.

etc ...

I have written "Waste of time" because I do not have time nowadays ............
I also like travelling here and there.............
Will soon be going to Shimla.......

I really appreciate your work.Keep it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!up

sorry chaps, my email subscription to this thread didnt seem to work.
We've got a facebook group now, I still need to do some more posting to get my post count up to be able to post links, but search for great circular indian railway challenge on facebook, or go to the the gcirc dot wordpress dot com and se the link at the top of the margin.
We've got lots of the hard core IRFCA rail fans joining now, I really do want as many Indians to be able to take part in this as possible, even it's just for ja short ride, or at one of our change overs stops. We'll be on the ground in the following places, so if you live there and can get to the station it would be great to see you
heres the full route

Start Mumbai Central Station, Friday Evening, February 18th, 2011

Friday dep Mumbai 20:25 9005 Saurashtra Mail (961km)

Saturay arr Dwarka 15:07, taxi/coach to Porbander, dep Porbander 20:25 (or Jamnagar 23:15) 9216 Saurashtra Express (464km)

Sunday arr Ahmedabad 06:00, dep Ahmedabad 11:10, 9223 Ahmedabad-Jammu Tawi Express (1184km)

Monday arr Jalandhar 12:45, dep Jalandhar 15:10 1057 Amritsar Express arr Amritsar 16:30 (theres loads later if the ADI-JAT is late, alternatively Makhu 11:03 and taxi to Amritsar for 13:00) Golden Temple at night

Tuesday dep Amritsar 01:10 am, 9225 Bhatinda Jammu Tawi Express (206km) arr Jammu 07:00 . dep Jammu 11:25, 4033 Jammu Mail (54km) Arr Udhampur 11:40, Luncheon, dep Udhampur 19:05 2446 Uttar Sampark Kranti (630km)

Wednesday arr New Delhi 06:25, dep New Delhi 14:00 2424 New Delhi-Dibrugarh Town Rajdhani (2396km)

Thursday on Board

Friday arr New Tinsukia 03:35, dep New Tinsukia 08:40 905NFR Dibrugarh-Ledo Passenger (57km) arr Ledo 10:45, Tipong Colliery, chartered bus to Dibrugarh

Saturday taxi to Bogibeel, the ferry stuff, bus/4×4 to Dhemaji, dep Dhemaji 18:38 5814 Arunachal Express (366km)

Sunday arr Rangiya 05:05, dep Rangiya 07:27 2510 Guwahati-Bangalore City Express (361km) arr New Jalpaiguri 14:05 (several later trains if we are late), taxi to Darjeeling

Monday dep Darjeeling 09:15 2D Darjeeling-New Jalpairguri Narrow Gauge (88km) arr New Jalpaiguri 16:50, dep New Jalpaiguri 20:00 2344 Darjeeling Mail (602km)

Tuesday Arrive Sealdah 06:00, tram and ferry to Howrah, dep Howrah 14:50 2841 Coromandal Express (1662km)

Wednesday arr Chennai Central 17:15, dep Chennai Egmore 19:55 6101 Rameswaram Express (600km)

Thursday arr Rameswaram 08:35 dep Rameswaram 17:30 2789 Rameswaram Cape Express (407km)

Friday Arr Kanniyakumari 04:05, Dep Kanniyakumari 10:30 6525 Bangalore Express (67km) arr Trivandrum 12:45 , Coffee Break dep Trivandrum 19:15 2431 Rajdhani Express (1752km)

Saturday arr Panvel 18:05, metro to Mumbai CST (69km).

End Mumbai “VT” Station, Saturday Evening, March 5th, 2011

if mickey or someone could post the link to the facebook group in here I'd be very gratefull

The Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge | Facebook

I might join you guys at some point.... how many are there and what about train tickets? are they not supposed to be booked in advance?

Hi Parminder, where abouts are you ?, Amritsar way ?.
yes, train tickets have to be booked well in advance, that's actually a hot topic right now with a fellow brit, but that's another story.
It needs to be done 90 days in advance, so just add yourself to the actual event on the facebook group (see events or the link on the right margin in the group) and you'll get messages when booking time is arriving, and then for each train on the day you need to log on to make your reservation. if we get a problem with the reservations we'll start rattling some cages at IR.
It's difficult to work out how many will actually turn up, but it's certainly double figures and could be as many as 50 at certain stages of the tour. If we get a good idea of how high the demand for tickets is in the next few months we might be able to organise for an extra carriage to be appended to any trains where there's going to be too many of us.
Ah! I have been promoted , here's the link to join the event, two new people in here, I'll go say hello
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?ei...612956&index=1

Thanks yet again everyone in here for joining. I actually need a "techno salon" as the technical side of keeping the blog up to date is critical. This is exactly the place to do that obviously.
We've also got a position(s) available for anyone who cant make the trip but is keen to take part in the project as web admin for the blog, fixing posts that might have got misshaped uploading from an iphone or whatever, redistributing posts and pictures onto places like IRFCA and some of the travel specific forums, and clearing comments for publication (anything goes as long as it's not just plain racist or abusive).

Originally Posted by Mark_Lester

Hi Parminder, where abouts are you ?, Amritsar way ?.
yes, train tickets have to be booked well in advance, that's actually a hot topic right now with a fellow brit, but that's another story.
It needs to be done 90 days in advance, so just add yourself to the actual event on the facebook group (see events or the link on the right margin in the group) and you'll get messages when booking time is arriving, and then for each train on the day you need to log on to make your reservation. if we get a problem with the reservations we'll start rattling some cages at IR.
It's difficult to work out how many will actually turn up, but it's certainly double figures and could be as many as 50 at certain stages of the tour. If we get a good idea of how high the demand for tickets is in the next few months we might be able to organise for an extra carriage to be appended to any trains where there's going to be too many of us.
Ah! I have been promoted , here's the link to join the event, two new people in here, I'll go say hello
Login | Facebook

Thanks yet again everyone in here for joining. I actually need a "techno salon" as the technical side of keeping the blog up to date is critical. This is exactly the place to do that obviously.
We've also got a position(s) available for anyone who cant make the trip but is keen to take part in the project as web admin for the blog, fixing posts that might have got misshaped uploading from an iphone or whatever, redistributing posts and pictures onto places like IRFCA and some of the travel specific forums, and clearing comments for publication (anything goes as long as it's not just plain racist or abusive).

This is going to be a good way:_)

Mark i hope you enjoy your rides through India...

I am at Newdelhi

Are you going to book all the tickets at once? How would you make sure every one got the same compartment? If everyone booked their own tickets you guys will be scattered all over the place and it wont make much sense coz no one will be able tio interact with others in the group!

All the foreigners will probably go via the Indian railways guy in UK.

However, there are pluses and minuses to all being together. Imagine 2 weeks on a train facing the same person who you never met before, you'd go crazy!. There will also be people in different classes. I am going to do a fair bit of it in SL, about 65% of it is on Rajdhanis and similar which dont have SL, so I'll probably stick with 2AC.
Co-ordinating with the locals though will take some doing, but we should be able to manage it if we inform everyone what carriages we are booked into, which we should be able to do as we are able to book in advance.

I'm just going to talk to my experts about co-ordinating with people buying tickets in India though, I'll be back ....

So, not so good. You can't specify which carriage you are in via the internet booking. If you can be bothered to go down to the station and sort it out then may be, but we've got 18 trains, you'll be down there every day for a fortnight.
We may be able to work out seat swap deals though. I always had a vision of people spread up and down the train anyway. We've got a small group who will go 1st whenever available. Most foreigners will go 2AC. As the idiot who came up with this whole idea I have to go SL whenever possible (it's really the only way to do this trip anyway!). We'll be able to work our way up and down the train anyway.
if I get anymore info on this I'll keep you informed. (actually parminder, you just read that one from murli of course)

So lets get down to the tech stuff which is what you guys are all here for ....

I've had a helpful guy give me this information
"make them postpaid connections as prepaid connections are banned in Assam and Kashmir. Also, in Kashmir, theres a total ban on text messaging, although I'm not quite sure if this ban has been relaxed."
he's also suggested vodafone as having the best coverage in those out of the way places. Note we're going to eastern Assam, Dhemaji way, also Udhampur in Jammu. We will want to make live posts from both those places if at all possible.

We'll want to have full Internet connection as much as possible, and if not then be able to update the blog, and hopefully facebook also, via texting.

We've got 10 months to work this all out, but I'm sure there will be debate to be had. We will make sure we have 2 of everything, and that will include service providers.

BSNL has the best coverage in remote areas. Vodafone and Airtel ignores rural India.

thanks meetdilip, I'm just working through your many pages of advice. I'll get back to you with more pertinent questions later.