Delhi to Patiala

onewoman

Hi - this thread leads on from an earlier post about buses from IGI airport, Delhi to Rajpura. It appears that those buses only leave from 10pm, leaving me in Rajpura at 4am or something like that. Does anyone know the times, prices and departure place of buses going from Delhi (airport or city) to either Patiala, Rajpura or Ambala. The problem is that I am arriving at 4.15pm and clearing the airport at approx. 5.15pm - so I need a bus that leaves the aiport after about 5.15pm or leaves the city after 6.15pm 'ish.
I have considered staying in Delhi overnight and going to Patiala but we'll see - all help much appreciated.

SHIMLA

You can take the 4521 Intercity Express from New Delhi station (18=50) to Patiala(19=49). However, it may be cutting it a bit too fine ! Also, this train does not run on Sat. and Sun.

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onewoman

If this train does leave Delhi at 18.50 then that would be perfect, but as far as the Indian Railways website says the last one leaves at 15.50, and arrives Patiala at 19.49. Actually, thinking about this there is no way the train could make it to Patiala in under an hour. I have found a train # 0403 that goes from New Delhi to Ambala, the NDLS JAT SUP SPL (whatever that means) - I think it's final destination is Jammu. Just wondered if anyone could confirm if that train is still running etc.

soulfood

Yes, the site doesn't mention Intercity express for some weird reason but the train does exist. Don't know about the timings though.

You'll get buses from ISBT to Ambala every 10 minutes or so. Those to Patiala / Rajpura should be quite frequent as well.

SHIMLA

onewoman,

You are right on both counts - the intercity does not leave at 18=50 and there's no way the train can reach Patiala in one hour from Delhi.

When I checked earlier on the IR website, it showed 5 or 6 trains between Delhi and Patiala, now it shows only one; the Dadar-Amritsar Express !! Something funny !

Cannot locate the 0403 Jammu SPL on the website !

onewoman

I don't know - this is becoming more and more confusing. Some parts of the Indian Railways website say there are trains, and then you try to check price or availability and they've disappeared. Can't say I'm surpirsed - I suppose it's all part of the charm. Where is the ISBT (don't think I ever went there) and any idea how long it takes on the bus from Delhi to Patiala?
Thanks for all your help SoulCurry and Shimla.

soulfood

SoulCurry? Sounds delicious.

Inter State Bus Terminal [ISBT] is in Kashmiri Gate, old Delhi...quite far from the airport. There are regular busses from the airport though. Have you found out the timimgs of the Patiala bus from the Airport and considered taking a flight to Chd?

onewoman

Sorry - SoulFOOD! Maybe there's someone on TT called Soul Curry, I don't know. Apparently the first bus from the airport goes at 10pm - the Indo Canadian Express. Any advance on that would be great - I ideally need to be getting a bus at 5.30/6pm. How long is the bus from the airport to the ISBT? I think if I'm going to do that I may as well get a train to Ambala (the same one that keeps appearing and disappearing!). Or the other thing that I thought I could do was just get back to Paharganj, check into a hotel, and get the early train from New Delhi to Patiala - but guess what.....that train keeps disappearing too! That train number is 1057.....who knows!

raos

AFAIK, the intercity from Delhi to Patiala arrives at 19:50. I've only taken the intercity from Patiala to Delhi, but I know someone who has taken it from Delhi. It's a good train, usually scheduled to take 4 1/2 hours, so I would guess that the train from Delhi would leave around 3 p.m.

soulfood

I think you have to rule out the ISBT bus option because the earliest you can leave Delhi by bus would be around 7pm and that would drop you in Patiala around 12.00-1.00am. I think you don't want that.

You have to rule out train becuase I see only three trains on Indian Railways site and none of these seem relevant:

4521 INTERCITY EXP NEW DELHI 15:50 PATIALA 19:49
4731 NDLS BTI EXP NEW DELHI 14:30 PATIALA 19:03
1057 DR-AMRITSAR EXP NEW DELHI 05:10 PATIALA 10:40

That leaves you with two options: spend the night in Delhi or take the 10pm bus.

I suggest the latter as it will be less of a hassle. You can spend the time at the Airport or make a visit to nearby Gurgaon's "Mall district". There are some 3-4 big malls in Ggn where you can shop, eat or watch...if killing time bothers you.

As to the problem of landing at Rajpura at 4am... my advice is, don't. Stay in the bus until Jallandar and take another bus to Patiala from there! A little long-winded route but still better than other options you have. What do you think.

soulfood

There are two more trains, Amritsar Shatabdi and Kalka Shatabdi but none of them are suitable either. The closest being Kalka shatabdi that leaves Delhi at 5.15pm and reaches Ambala at 7.45pm.

onewoman

As I say according to the Indian Railways website there is a train which departs from New Delhi at 8.30pm and arrives at Amblala at 10.30pm ish. But when I try to enquire about fares it says this train is cancelled...? Anyone know anything about this train - number 0403???

onewoman

Which ads..?

soulfood

Oh Ambala? Pelenty of trains. Try this page [select stations and choose ALL CLASS]. There's one at 8.40, 8.50, 9.05. But won't that be too late? You'll reach Ambala at 12 or something.

About the ads, they're at the top of the page under title of the thread. That's my standard signature actually...a way to support IndiaMike. Each time a user clicks on those Google ads IndiaMike earns some money [just a few cents]. Ignore the ads this time...not useful.

steven_ber

NDLS = station code for New Delhi.

JAT = Station code for Jammu Tawi.

SUP = not really sure - Suplementary ? Superfast ? (unlikely as superfast is normally SF)

SPL = Special train, normally run at busy periods like festival time, there are hundreds of them in the summer, there is even a timetable for them in Summer.

Indian Railways sometimes forgets to take them off their website even though they no longer run.

These special trains can be booked in the same way as ordinary trains, mind you, you have to know they are running in the first place.

The train number os 'special trains' normally begins with a '0', though this is not always the case, and there are a couple of normal service trains whose number begins with an 'O' - Only on Indian Railways.

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