Varanasi to Kolkata

Greetings,

I am trying decide if I should take a day or night train from Varanasi BSB to Kolkata HWH. Does this route go through Bihar and if so are there any safety issues that I need to be aware of traveling solo? Would a day train or night train be safer traveling in 2A? Thank you for clearing this up for me.

allwet, I have twice taken a night train from Varanasi to Howrah, Kolkata, via Bihar, without mishap except that my train was twenty hours late reaching Howrah on the second trip.

The reason for delay was never explained except that other travellers suggested that all kinds of delay were possible in Bihar.

Re security of train travel in eastern India, the day train I took south from Howrah through Orissa had a large group of para-military guys on board. Maybe they were travelling for another purpose as they hopped off in Orissa.

This is an exception rather than a rule.

All the trains coming from Varanasi to Howrah pass through the state of Bihar. Millions of passengers, including sizable number of non-Indians, travel daily on this route without any security issue. I don't know from where or from which incident you have become apprehensive about security, but I think one should not assume stray one-off incident as regular feature. Specially since you will be traveling in 2AC compartment, usually control on entry of unauthorized people in such compartments is much better. Generally speaking, there is hardly any difference between traveling in the night or in the day time in the context of "security'.

I went ahead and booked the Vibhuti Express. I saw some older posts questioning the safety of train travel through Bihar and was unsure if this was an issue. Thank you for clearing this up!