I can't count the number of occasions when I dropped off friends at the VT station for the 11:00 pm train to Goa, the Konkan Kanya Express. I'd wished on more than one of those occasions that I was taking that train. Thanks to a Tatkal booking, I took the overnight journey to paradise.
The 3 tier air-conditioned compartment looked more spacious than the ones that I am used to. The odd cockroach aside, it was a comfortable ride through Maharashtra's Konkan coast. Maharashtra probably has more landmass than many European countries. Till 9 am, we were still in this large state.
Before the Konkan Railway was built, environmental groups (bankrolled by bus operators) claimed that the railway would create an ecological disaster. It's not the railway per say that is causing a problem but the dirty masses that use the trains. The sides of the track are littered with all kinds of garbage. Most of it is dumped from the non-air conditioned coaches as the windows are open. That doesn't necessarily mean the wealthier travellers are clean.
By 10 am, were in Thibim, in North Goa, ready for Bardez and the tranquility of Candolim Beach in the monsoons.
The 3 tier air-conditioned compartment looked more spacious than the ones that I am used to. The odd cockroach aside, it was a comfortable ride through Maharashtra's Konkan coast. Maharashtra probably has more landmass than many European countries. Till 9 am, we were still in this large state.
Before the Konkan Railway was built, environmental groups (bankrolled by bus operators) claimed that the railway would create an ecological disaster. It's not the railway per say that is causing a problem but the dirty masses that use the trains. The sides of the track are littered with all kinds of garbage. Most of it is dumped from the non-air conditioned coaches as the windows are open. That doesn't necessarily mean the wealthier travellers are clean.
By 10 am, were in Thibim, in North Goa, ready for Bardez and the tranquility of Candolim Beach in the monsoons.
