The Konkan Railway is one of the great engineering achievements of independent India, and one of the most quietly beautiful journeys you can take anywhere in the world.
It runs 741 kilometres down the western coast from Roha (south of Mumbai) to Thokur (near Mangalore), completing the coastal rail link that British engineers deemed impossible and that independent India spent three decades planning before finally beginning construction in 1990. The line crosses 2,000 bridges and passes through 92 tunnels. It hugs the edge of the Western Ghats, drops through river valleys, crosses estuaries, and for long stretches runs close enough to the Arabian Sea that you can smell the coast through the window.
The chai on the Konkan Railway is, in the Indian Railways tradition, served by hawkers at every major stop, in small clay kulhads or paper cups, at prices that have not changed dramatically in twenty years.
The Journey
The flagship service is the Konkan Kanya Express, running Mumbai Central to Madgaon (Goa) and extended services continuing to Mangalore. The overnight trains are the practical choice for those who want to wake up in Goa, but the day services offer the scenery that makes this journey famous.
Leave Mumbai in the morning. By mid-afternoon you are moving through the Sahyadri foothills, the vegetation suddenly lush and green in a way that the Deccan plateau is not. The tunnels are frequent and the darkness between them heightens the impact of each emergence into light.
Konkan stations, many of which were purpose-built with the railway, are small and neat, often with platform gardens. The hawkers know the train schedule; they appear precisely as the train slows and disappear just as reliably.
The Chai Stops
Chiplun, in Ratnagiri district, is the chai stop that regular Konkan travellers know. The platform is long enough to stretch legs, the chai is strong and gingery, and there is typically homemade food available alongside: batata vadas, freshly made chakli, sometimes a savoury that is specific to the coastal Konkan kitchen.
Ratnagiri itself, if you stop rather than pass through, is the capital of Alphonso mango country and a place worth spending a day in March or April when the mangoes are on the trees and the morning is cool enough for a cup on the hotel terrace.
In Goa, the train enters at Thivim or continues to Madgaon, and the chai from the Madgaon platform stalls has a slightly different quality, influenced by the Goan kitchen tradition that blends Indian and Portuguese influences in ways that extend to the spice ratios in everything.
Practical Notes
Book Second AC or First AC for the journey. The windows open wider in Second AC, which matters for photographs and for the temperature management that the coastal air requires. Window seats on the right (west) side of the train offer sea views on certain sections if travelling southbound.
Take the day train for scenery. Take the overnight if you are pressed for time.
Bring your own water for the longer sections. The station chai is the experience; the in-carriage options are variable.
The Konkan Railway runs through some of the most photographed geography in India, and the light in the late afternoon, falling on the green coastal hills, is exceptional. Take the day train at least once.
The chai stops are part of the journey. Budget time for them.