Dr John Stubbs, a UK-based senior lecturer, had undertaken the journey from London to Mumbai in 2005. The journey was split into three parts
How about taking the rail route to London from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus?
You can actually use the railroad for a 24-day travel between the two global cities, though it will involve a changeover of trains at international borders, small boat journeys ferrying the train coaches and a lot of determination.
Dr John Stubbs, a UK-based senior lecturer, who had undertaken the journey in 2005 to examine the problematic nature of international travel and future prospects for such international rail travel in the 21st century, is now willing to give the route a second shot.
“I would dearly love to make a second trip, though as a UK passport holder, I am rather concerned about security issues in Pakistan,” he said.
Stubbs, a 59-year-old senior lecturer from the Department of Geography at the University of Derby, whose research interests in transportation studies include rail transport development related to the Middle East and Central Asia.
“The railway route to India goes through Europe, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. The entire journey from London to Mumbai took me 24 days. I actually travelled from my hometown of Derby, so I took 25 days. But the journey could potentially, at least, be done in slightly less time depending on train operating timetables,” Stubbs told DNA.
There was a gap between Bam and Zahedan in southern Iran, and Stubbs had undertaken a four-hour bus journey in 2005. But today, the missing rail link has been completed and freight trains are running, albeit irregularly between Istanbul and Islamabad.
“So, in principle, it is now possible to do the journey entirely by train, providing you exclude the ferry crossing of the Bosporus in Istanbul and the train-ferry across Lake Van in Eastern Turkey,” explained an excited Stubbs.
“Since 2005, train times in Europe have changed and the overnight Paris-Vienna (Orient Express) no longer operates. But you can still do the London-Istanbul journey today by taking a slightly different route.”
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