Delhi train for sight-seeing

slumpainter

I know they are hopelessly crowded, but I find local commuter trains great for looking around and getting a feel for the immensity of Indian cities, at least in Mumbai and Kolkata. Are the Delhi Subway lines all underground? Are there commuter trains to jump on and get good views of the city from high up?

nanstallon

I can recommend the morning (about 06.40 or so I recall)local from Old Delhi to Rewari - not hopelessly crowded but good for sitting quietly and drinking in local life. The milkmen hanging churns on window rails, station scenes etc.

roopesh_kohad

The commuter trains in Delhi are of three types -
First one which radiate out of Delhi and connect towns in adjacent states like Palwal, Ghaziabad and even Meerut & Mathura. These are generally crowded during office times as many people come to work in Delhi from these towns.

Second one is the Ring Railway on conventional railway network. It starts from a point like New Delhi or Hazrat Nizamuddin and takes a circle of Delhi and comes back to same point after almost 2 hours of journey. It goes through myriad of localities of Delhi.

Third one is the ultra modern metro. Its end points are Dwarka, Shahdara etc. and is partly underground, partly surface and partly elevated.

Now to serve your purpose, best would be to take the second one. Metro should be all polished, enclosed & fast where you wouldn't get to see much of surroundings.

Hope this helps.

shashank.aggarwal

I feel that delhi is not a city that is defined by trains..metro being an exception..like local trains are essence of life in Mumbai, its not the same way in Delhi.

In Delhi trains except for Metro are primarily being used by blue collar workers, as geographically Delhi is circular and trains rind railway and other trains do not cover large parts of Delhi..

You can try out any train you like, however they would not give you the picture of average resident of Delhi, except for Metro the trains are used by people from small suburbs and villages in and around Delhi..

If I had been your position, I would have boarded metro to get the current feel of Delhi and its residents..

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roopesh_kohad

I agree that Delhi is not defined by trains and there is no single way to get feel of Delhi in passing-by. The workers travelling in ring railways and professionals travelling in metro are both part of Delhi so depends whether one wants a rustic or sophisticated way of life of Delhites to witness.

What defines Delhi are roads !! Delhi has maximum density of roads in India (21% area is roads) and in turn maximum number of vehicles as well. I would suggest to take a "Mudrika" bus instead which goes around the 42km long Ring Road and comes back to the same point. The starting points are spread across the ring road. Ring Road is one of the most important arterial road of Delhi and you will see many snaphots of Delhi life around it. But beware, the journey has to be endured. It will easily take 2 hours to complete the journey and around 500 people will board the bus and get-off in one trip.

shashank.aggarwal

Thats the way to do it..
you should go on a mudrika tour and probably try the Metro from CP to Dwarka and back..
it would help you understand a lot about the city and its people..