Watching the news, you could be forgiven for thinking
that Bangladesh was not so much a country as a disaster
zone. But you'd be surprised. It is a
fascinating country with a rich and varied history and
at present fairly few tourists. Bangladesh has a
largely British-built rail network linking most major
towns and cities, including Dhaka & Chittagong.
The network is divided into two halves, eastern and
western, by the great rivers which divide the country
itself. The western network is largely broad
gauge, the eastern network largely metre gauge.
Unfortunately, connections between these two networks are often
poor. There is a railway route map at
www.railway.gov.bd.
There is a good train service between the capital city,
Dhaka, and Bangladesh's second city, Chittagong.
Dhaka & Chittagong are both in the eastern half of the
country on the metre-gauge train network, linked by fast
daytime 'InterCity' trains and two good overnight trains
with sleeping-cars. The high-quality InterCity
trains are very popular and often leave full, so make
reservations at the station as soon as you can.
Here is a timetable of the best trains which you can
check at
www.railway.gov.bd:
Dhaka
► Chittagong
Train number:
704
4
722
702
2
742
Notes:
InterCity
Express
InterCity
InterCity
Mail
InterCity *
Days:
daily
daily
not Sunday
not Friday
Daily
daily
Dhaka depart:
07:40
08:20
15:00
16:20
22:30
23:00
Chittagong arrive:
14:30
18:45
21:45
22:15
07:20
06:15
InterCity =
Fast quality train, fully air-conditioned, restaurant
car, recommended.
AC class seats, 1st class & 2nd
class seats.
InterCity * =
TURNA EXPRESS. Fast quality overnight train, with
air-conditioned 2-berth sleepers, AC
class seats & 1st class seats.
Recommended.
Trains have
AC class, first class, second class. The overnight
train also has 2-berth AC sleepers.
Above: AC class air-conditioned
intercity car on a Dhaka-Chittagong train.
Photo courtesy of Bob Hindley...
Above: AC class seats on a
Dhaka-Chittagong train. Photo courtesy of
Bob Hindley...
Above: AC class 2-berth sleeper on the
Dhaka-Chittagong overnight train (bedding is
provided).
Above: Buying tickets at
Dhaka station. Both photos courtesy of Bob
Hindley...
Travellers' reports...
Traveller S.P Chattopadhyay reports: "I
travelled via AC sleeper on the overnight inter-city
express, and trip was comfortable and uneventful. Train
arrived at platform in Chittagong "new" station about 45
minutes ahead of departure time of 11pm. Compartment
was clean, but the linens looked worn. AC was working
well and arrival into Dhaka was on time at 6:20 am. I
was able to buy the ticket the day before departure,
without any problems. I would recommend this train over
intercity bus travel between the two cities which
involved traffic tie-ups and harrowing
over-taking/lane-changing in face of unheeding opposing
traffic!"
There is no
train service to Cox's Bazaar (Bangladesh's prime beach
resort), but you can take a train from Dhaka to
Chittagong then a bus from there. Bus information
not available.
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Calcutta
▶ Dhaka by
direct train (started 14 April 2008)...
A new train service
started on 14 April 2008 between Calcutta (Kolkata) and Dhaka.
Called the 'Maitree (Friendship) Express', it will be
run for half the year by the Indian Railways, and the
other half of the year by Bangladeshi Railways.
The distance via the somewhat round-about route is 538 km (120km in India, 418km in
Bangladesh), and it's routed via the border points at Gede
& Darshana. Train services from Calcutta to Dhaka were
suspended following the India/Pakistan war in 1965 and
this is a major step forward.
Here is the new faster
timetable & changed days of running from August 2009:
Calcutta ► Dhaka
Dhaka ►Calcutta
"Maitree
Express"
Wednesdays &
Saturdays
only
"Maitree Express"
Tuesdays &
Sundays only
Calcutta (Chitpur
station) depart
07:10
Dhaka
(Cantonment station) depart
09:30
Gede
(Indian time) arr/dep
09:25 / 11:25
Darshana (Bangladeshi time) arr/dep
15:00 / 15:20
Darshana (Bangladeshi time)
13:05 / 13:25
Gede (Indian time) arr/dep
14:00 / 16:00
Dhaka
(Cantonment station) arrive
19:30
Calcutta (Chitpur station) arrive
18:45
Remember that Indian time is
always GMT+5½,
Bangladeshi time is GMT+6 or (in summer) GMT+7.
Times shown are always local time for the location
concerned.
Fares
Non-AC seat
AC seat
Sleeper
$8
$12
$20
Which
class is best? AC seats and non-AC seats are
in fact identical, and similar in layout & appearance to
Indian AC Chair Class. The only difference is that
AC seats are air-conditioned with sealed windows, non-AC
seats have opening windows. Sleepers are in
compartments with berths for lying down and more room
(yes, even though it's daytime train!).
Photos of the Maitree express showing seats car interior.
How to
buy tickets: Tickets go on sale 10 days before
departure, and sales close 3pm the day before departure.
In Calcutta, buy tickets at the Fairlie Place
reservation centre at the Foreign Tourist Reservation
Counter, open 10:00-17:00 Mon-Sat, 10:00-14:00 Sundays.
In Dhaka, buy tickets at Dhaka Kamalapur station ticket
office. Passports & visas must be shown when
booking. Only one-way tickets can be booked.
Eastbound,
customs and immigration take place at Darshana just
inside the Bangladeshi border. Westbound,
immigration controls take place at Dhaka Cantonment
station.
Daily alternative train+bus
link:
There are two train links from
Calcutta (Sealdah station) to the India/Bangladesh
frontier, one to Gede and one to Bangaon. At Gede,
the Bangladesh railway station of Darsana is a 1km walk
across the frontier, for trains south to Khulna or
northwards, but not to Dhaka. At Bangaon, it's a
short walk across the frontier to Benapol station on the
Bangladeshi side for a daily train to Khulna (but again,
not Dhaka). Please confirm that foreigners are
permitted to cross at your chosen crossing point.
Traveller
Sascha Zaman travelled Dhaka to Calcutta in January
2009: I took the train recently and it was
quite good. Although I travelled first class
(because that was still cheap, about 20 Euro), so I do
not know how the other classes are. Anyway, the
train left quite punctually at 8.30am and at about
2.30pm we arrived the border. Bangladesh
emigration was very easy, though it took almost 2½
hours. Then a short train ride to the Indian side.
There it is a bit annoying, as it took another 2 to 2½
hours, because as the train is coming from Bangladesh
they are really strict with luggage control. They
searched everybody and everything, so it takes quite a
while. At about 6pm the train departed again and
we arrived on schedule exactly at 8.30pm. So the train
ride itself was just about 7 hours or so, but it was
still fairly ok."
Direct air-conditioned
long-distance buses link Calcutta with Dhaka several
times daily, taking 8 or 9 hours. The bus fare
costs about $10-$12 one-way. No known websites.
Thomas
Cook Overseas Timetable
It's probably
the most adventurous timetable ever produced... The famous Thomas Cook
Overseas Timetable has train, bus and ferry time for all of Australia,
New Zealand, Asia, America and Africa. It is published every two
months. No serious overland traveller should be without it!
It costs around £13.99 from the bureau de
change in any branch of Thomas Cook, or it can be ordered by phone on
01733 416477 (+44 1733 416477 from outside the UK).
Never travel overseas without travel insurance from a reliable
insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover. It should also cover
cancellation and loss of cash (up to a limit) and belongings.
An annual
multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip
policies even for just 2 or 3 trips
a year (I have an annual policy myself). Here are some suggested insurers.
Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these
links.
If you live in the UK, get quotes from
Columbus Direct or
Go Travel Insurance, or go to
Confused.com to run a price comparison on a whole range of
travel insurance providers for your dates of travel, seeing
their policy's features at a glance..
Get a pre-paid currency MasterCard from Caxton FX...
You can save money on ATM charges and exchange rates using a
Caxton FX currency card, available in euros, dollars or the
multi-currency 'Global Traveller' card.
Find out about these cards & sign up here.
Get an international SIM card...
Mobile phones can cost a fortune to use abroad, and if you're
not careful you can return home to find some huge bills
waiting for you. I've known people run up a £1,000 bill
in data charges just by leaving their iPhone connected during a
simple trip to Europe. However, if you
buy a global SIM card for your mobile phone from a company
such as
www.Go-Sim.com you can slash the cost by up to 85% and
limit any damage to the amount you have pre-paid. It
cuts call costs in 175 countries worldwide,
and you can receive incoming calls and texts for free in 75 countries. It's pay-as-you-go, so no nasty bills
when you get home. It also works for laptop or PDA data
access. A Go-Sim account and any credit on it doesn't
expire if it's not between trips, unlike some
others, so a Go-Sim phone number becomes your 'global phone
number' for life.
Overland travel by train & bus
around Bangladesh is an essential part of the experience,
so once there, don't cheat and fly, stay on the ground!
But a long-haul flight might be unavoidable to reach
Bangladesh in
the first place. For flights to
Dhaka, start with
www.e-bookers.com. Seat61 gets a small commission through this link.
If you live in the UK, get quotes from
If
you're resident in
Australia, New Zealand, Ireland or the EU, try
If you're resident in the USA or Canada, try
