Opinion - Mumbai to Goa leaving Panvel Station on 2618 Mngla Lksdp Exp

As much as we like to play it by ear on vacation, the quickly booking trains have otherwise convinced me that we should hedge our bets a bit and book a few trains ahead.

We would like to take the train during the DAY from Mumbai to Goa. We will book for both February 10th and 14th, and cancel one set later on.

Looking at the schedule departure times, and length of journey we think we'd like to take:

2618 Mngla Lksdp Exp
Departs Panvel (PNVL) 0930
We'll get off at Thivim (1808) or Madgaon (1925).

Questions
1. Will the train be incredibly crowded during the day in any class but 3A & up? We were thinking to take Sleeper, but there are a few seats left in 3A.

2. I have read that Panvel is a pain to get to. Can anyone advise on this? We were thinking of taking a train there the afternoon before & staying somewhere near Panvel to make for easy morning departure. Is this foolish? We will have been in India for 3 weeks at this point, and have over a month ahead to relax in the Kerala area after. I also am assuming that there is somewhere to stay near Panvel, but have not checked yet.

3. Would you suggest an alternate route entirely? The 0103 Mandovi Express seems okay in that it leaves from CST, but it takes much longer and leaves a bit early for our liking.

Thanks!!

The Jan Shatabdi would be a better option, it's a lot quicker and starts from downtown Mumbai.

2618 starts it's journey in Delhi, so may get delayed (it's actually quite a reliable train).

Panvel is easy enough to get to, and you wouldn't need to stay there overnight, it all depends on where you're staying in Mumbai.

Just a thought, you can get to Panvel from Matheran (the motor free hill station)

Why are you visiting Mumbai?

It's one hell of a great city, but you need to be there a good while to find this out, it's expensive and there are better tourist attractions elsewhere, you can also get to Goa from most other places, so don't think you need to go to Mumbai.

Thanks steven_ber! you are incredibly helpful and I really appreciate it. I definitely am going to search with the India Rail site instead of cleartrip. Cleartrip came up with 8 good options, but NOT the Jan Shatabdi. I'm still not sure entirely about the 5 a.m. departure time though. 930 for the 2618 seems more our style, even if it adds a couple hours to the trip. I think we will wing it and stay by Panvel.

Could you recommend an ideal way to get to Panvel via train?

We are flying from Jaipur into Mumbai as we've found cheap flights ($50 Canadian) so it will allow us to skip quite a lot of travel time down. We are staying with a local Mumbaier that is friends with someone that I hosted from Bhopal earlier this year, so this will cut down on the cost quite a bit. We only plan to be there for a couple days. If we decide on the 14th for departure we will spend more time up north somewhere.

One reason for Jan Shatabdi not showing on Cleartrip would be the class that you selected. Jan Shatabdi has only Chair Cars (CC). A better site for just checking trains between 2 stations is www.erail.in. Shortlist your train here and book through Clear Trip.

The easiest way to get to Panvel would be by local train. Though it will depend where in Mumbai you will be put up.

Thanks aarosh!

We'll check into local trains once we get there, I assume for these we won't have to book so far ahead, or at least if they are full, we will have other options.

No need to book tickets in advance for local trains. Purchase the tickets and hop on the train.

Thanks again!

One last question - is sleeper going to be very crowded during the day with many, many people without tickets on board? I think we would like to go by sleeper, but if it's absolutely packed we may want to book 3A while there are still tickets available.

In sleeper class, during the day, people without tickets do board the trains for going short distances. It would be better to book 3A if seats are available.

Out of curiosity, why not look at the Mandovi Express? This leaves Mumbai CST at the far more earthly hour of 6:55 am and reaches Madgaon at 6:45 pm. A little slower than the Mangala Lakshadweep, yes, but you don't have the hassle of commuting to Panvel. An added bonus is the food - the pantry car of the Mandovi is arguably one of the best in India, and offers an incredible variety of dishes.

Sorry, didn't see that last bit =/