Stations & Others of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

The upper terminus on the hill side, serving as the arrival and turnback point for through services from New Jalpaiguri and Kurseong. Today it is also the starting point for the tourist “Joyride” round trips between Darjeeling and Ghum.

As of 1978 there were two round trips per day between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, and one round trip between Kurseong and Darjeeling.

Freight services still existed then, though freight wagons were rarely seen. Owing to repeated suspensions, freight moved to road haulage and was completely discontinued in 1993. At Kurseong we saw what appeared to be a departmental track trolley coupled to a passenger train, and later watched a trolley coast downhill under its own momentum—at quite a speed.

Darjeeling has a population of about 120,000. Development as a hill station and military post began after the Chogyal of Sikkim ceded the area to the British in 1835, and tea cultivation followed. Hill Cart Road opened in the 1860s and the DHR in 1881, after which the town prospered as a British summer resort with schools and monasteries. After Indian independence it continued to grow as the home of “Darjeeling” tea and as a tourist destination. In 1999 the DHR was inscribed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Mountain Railways of India.”

We also did a little sightseeing. Tiger Hill is a viewpoint about 11 km from central Darjeeling at roughly 2,590 m elevation. We went up by jeep before sunrise. Far across the sea of clouds you can see the Kangchenjunga Range: the sharp triangular peak slightly right of center is Kumbhakarna / Jannu (7,710 m), and to its right the great bulk is Kangchenjunga (8,586 m) with its Central and South peaks. With fewer clouds to the left, the summit area of Everest is said to be visible—but not on this occasion.

We bought tickets and platform tickets at Kurseong and Darjeeling. They are Edmondson A-type, printed in English, Hindi, and Bengali. Despite stations being open from multiple entrances, platform tickets were issued—50 paisa (1 rupee = 100 paisa; about ¥13 at the time), valid for two hours, with the time clipped at the barrier. The lower-left ticket is a child’s ticket from Darjeeling to Sealdah (Kolkata). The rated “route-kilometers” for fare calculation (not necessarily the actual distance) are 885 km, with a fare of 18 rupees.