Above:  A key stage in the journey is the excellent weekly Ankara-Tehran train, the Trans-Asia Express (formerly running from Istanbul)...  Photo courtesy of Bob Johnson.

Europe to India overland

Over the last few years, newspaper articles have raised the possibility of train travel from London to India or even Dhaka in Bangladesh, prompted by Calcutta-Dhaka trains resuming after 40 years and the completion of the final missing gap in the rails between Bam & Zahedan in southeast Iran.  The Bam-Zahedan section was completed in 2008 after being 'under construction' for decades, and a passenger service allegedly started in 2012, so what with the new Marmaray train service under the Bosphorus the rails do indeed now stretch all the way from St Pancras to Karachi, Lahore, Delhi & Dhaka - give or take a ferry ride across Lake Van in eastern Turkey, that is.

However, you can't just buy a London-Delhi train ticket and hop on a train to India.  Far from it.  Such a 2 or 3-week trip should not be undertaken lightly, it takes a lot of D.I.Y. organisation including all the bureaucracy involved in getting an Iranian visa, and there are serious security concerns with bandit attacks in southeast Iran near the Pakistan border.  It's not a route I'd advise for most people.  But for adventurous travellers willing to brave this, it can be an epic trip.

You'll also need to check the Pakistan visa situation, as reports suggest that westerners aren't being granted visas for Pakistan if they want to use trains or other forms of surface travel.  This came in way back in 2009, it may or may not still be in force.

On this page

This page outlines the best routes, timetables, costs and how to go about putting such a journey together.  Please remember it's not a tour or a package, just some guidance in putting your own independent trip together using scheduled train services across Europe and Asia.

Route map   Route, timetable, costs    Planning   How to arrange tickets   Travellers' reports

Route map

Timetable & costs

The itinerary shown here assumes you're travelling eastbound, but it would work exactly the same way westbound...

• Days 1-4:  London-Istanbul:  Travel from London to Istanbul by train (4 nights).  There are daily departures, the best route is London-Paris-Munich-Vienna-Budapest-Bucharest-Istanbul.  The whole journey (which involves at least 6 separate trains) can be booked via several UK European rail ticketing agencies in the UK, and we're talking a minimum of £350 one-way, £550 return.  See the London to Turkey page for times, fares, & how to buy tickets.  In Istanbul you can cross the Bosphorus by ferry, or by suburban train using the new Marmaray rail tunnel.

• Day 5:   Istanbul-Ankara:  Travel from Istanbul to Ankara by high-speed YHT train as shown on the Train travel in Turkey page.  Ankara is worth a day's stop.

• Days 6-8:  Ankara-Tehran:  You now travel from Ankara to Tehran (2 nights, 3 days), see the London to Iran page for full details.

• Day 9-10: Tehran-Zahedan:  A passenger service has finally started in January 2012 over the new section of line between Bam and Zahedan, in fact it's a direct train from Tehran to Zahedan.  It leaves Tehran daily at 16:55 and arrives at Zahedan at 17:20 next day.  Westbound, it leaves Zahedan at 07:30 and arrives Tehran at 07:55 next day.  The train has comfortable ex-German Railways couchette cars.  Fares 188,000 to 280,000 Iranian Rials.  There are details on the Raja website, www.raja.ir.  Feedback from travellers would be appreciated!

• Day 11+:  Zahedan-Quetta:  From Zahedan, a mixed passenger and goods train leaves on the 3rd & 17th of every month at 10:00, arriving in Quetta (in Pakistan) at 20:30 the next day (see report below).  This train consists of several very basic passenger seats cars attached to a freight train, with no sleeping berths or restaurant.  The fare is about Rial 30.000 (£2 or $3).  The more frequent Taftan Express on this route, which had sleepers, was withdrawn due to security problems a few years ago.  Bring plenty of food and above all, lots of drinking water, as it gets very hot in the desert and there's nothing available on board.  As an alternative, there are also regular overnight buses on this route, but the train will show you great desert scenery in daylight - treat it as an adventure.  Expect an arrival in Quetta 3-6 hours late.  Alternatively, there are share taxis available from Zahedan to the Pakistani frontier, then more taxis from there to Quetta, and this option can be a good bet - see the Travellers' reports section below.  Please check locally that the twice-monthly train is running, it may well not be as there have been reports that even the twice-monthly train has been temporarily suspended because of bombing.  If it isn't running, buses may be available as an alternative.  If you have more information that might help other travellers, please contact me.

• Day 13+:  Quetta-Lahore:  From Quetta, the Quetta Express runs daily trains with comfortable air-conditioned sleepers to Lahore, taking 24 hours, see the Pakistan page for times and fares.  Expect this to cost less than £20.

• Day 15+:  Lahore-Amritsar:  From Lahore there is a twice weekly train, the Samjhota Express,  taking 7 hours (see the Pakistan page eastbound, see above westbound) or daily taxis/buses to Amritsar in India, 46km away.  The time taken is down to the border formalities, not the distance!  Spend the night in Amritsar, and perhaps visit the Golden Temple.

• Day 16+:  Amritsar-Delhi:  There are regular daily trains from Amritsar to Delhi, see above for information on Indian train travel.

• Onwards to Dhaka in Bangladesh:  Take the prestigious overnight Rajdhani Express from Delhi to Calcutta, and the Maitree Express train or a bus from Calcutta to Dhaka in Bangladesh.

• Onwards to Kathmandu in Nepal:  Take a train from Delhi to Gorakhpur then a bus, see the Nepal page for more info.

• Onwards to Burma, Thailand, China:  Unfortunately, there are no easy overland routes from India or Bangladesh into either Burma (Myanmar) or Thailand.  It's possible, visas and permits permitting, to travel to Kathmandu in Nepal then take a $300 tour (you can't go independently, it's not allowed) across the Himalayas to Tibet then a train into China, see the Nepal page.  For overland travel from Europe to China the easy way, see the Trans-Siberian page.

Planning

• Read through the arrangements for getting an Iranian visa on the Iran page.  It's quite bureaucratic, but do-able.  Certain nationalities will need the services of a tour company.

• Visas:  You'll also need to understand visa requirements for Pakistan & India, particularly any 'onward ticket' requirements which annoyingly assume everyone travels by air so can pre-book everything.  Read the visa pages on the Pakistan and Indian embassy websites carefully, and if necessary call them to ask advice.  Buying refundable air tickets then cancelling them is one dodge to get round such requirements, if necessary.  To be honest, the visa requirements are likely to be the most difficult part of making this trip, sorting out the transport arrangements is the easy bit!

• Critical issue:  In summer 2009 it was reported that Pakistan was not allowing westerners to use trains or other surface travel within Pakistan, to avoid the embarrassment of having a westerner involved in any potential terrorist incident.  The correspondent was refused a visa for Pakistan by the Pakistani embassy in London when they realised he was entering overland and intended using surface transport.  This clearly affects people's ability to travel overland to India through Pakistan.  I have not had any confirmation of this, and do not know if it is still in force in 2012.  If you have any more feedback, please please let me know!  It was later reported by the same correspondent (in early October 2009) that the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham also refused a visa on those grounds, but that the Bradford Pakistani consulate had no problem issuing a visa for overland travel, and he can now travel(!).  Also, you MUST get the Pakistan visa in your home country, before you leave, you cannot get it en route.

• I'd suggest planning the trip out carefully before you start to book anything, using a simple spreadsheet, so you can see which days you'll be in which place.  For advice on planning in this way, see  How to plan an itinerary & budget.

• The Istanbul-Tehran train only runs once a week, and together with the twice-monthly train (which will perhaps run more frequently when the Bam-Zahedan line is completed) this will probably determine the rest of your timetable.

• Each leg is ticketed separately, even on the London-Istanbul section, so you can stop off wherever you like for as long as you like, be it Paris or Vienna or Budapest or Istanbul or Tehran.  Where, how often, and for how long you stop off on the way is entirely your decision.

• If you want to research this trip further, buy a copy of the Lonely Planet Istanbul to Kathmandu guide, which covers Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal.

• Security situation in Southeast Iran & in Quetta in Pakistan:  A key issue when considering whether to make this trip is the security situation in Southeast Iran & Pakistan.  Check the Foreign Office advice on Iran and Pakistan at www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice, although this errs on the paranoid side.  Traveller Noelle Virtue reports travelled from India to Europe in March 2009:  "Although we didn't have any problems in Quetta itself, we were told by a member of the police and several others that it wasn't a safe place for foreigners to be.  We left Quetta on an overnight bus to Taftan with no problems and no escort. However, once we crossed to border into Iran we were told that we needed an escort to Zahedan and that we would have to pay for a taxi to take us and the escort there as buses wouldn't take foreigners. Once we got to Zahedan we were taken to the police station where we awaited a squad car to take us to the bus station for onward travel to Kerman. This involved changing into 3 different squad cars and showing our passports again to each police officer. The whole process from the border to Zahedan should take 1.5 hours but took us about six.  We heard from fellow travellers that the train is still in operation between Zahedan and Quetta but that it's not a great experience and they had difficulty finding a hotel in Zahedan that would take foreigners. They also had to be escorted everywhere in Zahedan during their stay there."  If you make this trip and have any more information that might help fellow travellers, please let me know!

Booking

• It's not so much a question of 'buying a ticket to India' as an exercise in project management, arranging all the various tickets from a variety of sources and being prepared to buy some on the way as you go.

• The critical administrative issue is getting an Iranian visa.  See the Iran page for advice on agencies in Iran to contact for this.

• You'll also need to arrange visas for Pakistan and India.  For Pakistan visa arrangements, see www.pakmission-uk.gov.pk.  Turkish tourist visas can be bought when the train reaches the Turkish frontier, so this isn't a problem.

• London-Istanbul train tickets can be arranged as shown on the London to Turkey page.

• Istanbul-Ankara & Ankara-Tehran train tickets can be arranged through an Istanbul travel agency such as Tur-Ista, see the Iran page.

• The agency you use to obtain support for your Iranian visa may be able to organise the Tehran-Kerman-Bam trains, and perhaps the Kerman/Bam to Zahedan bus and train ticket from Zahedan to Quetta.  If they can't do the train out of Iran, you can book this at the station in Zahedan, but check that you can still get a visa without onward tickets.

• Trains within Pakistan and India are most easily left until your arrival in those countries, and booked at the ticket office.

Request for more information

If anyone has any more information, an account of this journey, photos or travel reports that would be useful for this page, please e-mail me!

Traveller's reports

Traveller Frank Sprenger rang Zahedan station to get confirmation of the train situation in August 2009: 

The Zahedan-Quetta train usually runs twice a month, it departed yesterday [August 3rd 2009] and will do so again on the (28th Iranian Calendar) this should be in 15 days from now.  We where told that departure days vary a little depending on demand. But as I said, usually every two weeks. dep time is (again "usually") late morning or early afternoon. The journey time is "usually" around 30 hours. Best to phone, or have someone calling the station, a few days in advance to confirm the departure day and time. Be careful as Hotels often get a commission from bus companies!  Space should be no real problem as there are not many passengers using this train for cross border traffic, mostly Pakistani.  Accommodation for the international portion is bench seating only. Open window coaches with roof fans for Rial 30.000.  But may be sleepers will be attached after Taftan. So no confirmation on this. The departure from Quetta is usually 3 days before the departure from Zahedan. I was told that the train always ran and was never suspended, albeit not as frequent as it did before 2005. There where never any bombings on this train as is written in some books."

Traveller Danny Allen comments on the train/bus from Zahedan to Quetta (March 2009): 

"I can't add anything useful about the train, as when I was there it was officially running, but pretty erratic and I couldn't be bothered to wait 6 days on the off chance. I took a local share taxi (there is also a local bus) from Zahedan bus station to the Pakistani border at Taftan. Once inside Pakistan there is a bus that leaves Taftan for Quetta each evening, although it's awful. I believe there are also 'coaches' which are better. But there is another alternative, which is a taxi. Although this sounds an extravagant way to travel 600km, the cost is relatively low at around 30 Euros per person. There are a couple of these vehicles, running daily depending on demand. They are actually pick-up trucks, but they're modern and have 4 free seats and plenty of space for luggage. The journey takes 10-12 hours and is a great way to get a feel for the extraordinary landscape between the two cities. I found this through the manager of the PTDC (Pakistani Tourism Development Council) motel in Taftan, where I stayed for a night before moving on to Quetta."

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