Every year, me and my family travel to Peshawar to attend an annual event at our community place which takes place on the fourth day of Eid. The crucial part is I have to search and decide the most economical way of transport which should be suitable for the family, specially for the kids. I take this responsibility very seriously. This year, my family travelled to Peshawar via Islamabad, by air and then by road whereas I joined them by travelling by bus to Peshawar.
For return route, I booked the tickets in train “Rehman Baba Express” whereas my Parents returned by air. This was the first time I booked direct train from Peshawar to Karachi and there were reasons for it. In previous tours, we adopted different routes via Faisalabad, to Faisalabad by bus and then taking train to Karachi from there. in 2022, we took via Islamabad route. The reason of changing the route was lack of good trains. There are four classes in train 1. Economy class which is without A/C 2. A/C standard which is same as economy but with A/C 3. Business class which has cabins of 6 people 4. Sleeper which is the best option
Sleeper is the best way to travel in Train, it has attached toilet/bathroom in the cabin of four people and the space is quite good plus the size of the berth is larger than all other classes. You can see in the above pictures, we travelled in Sleeper class in 2019 and 2022 and for this Sleeper class, we can travel via Faisalabad or Islamabad but unfortunately, many of the trains are discontinued and were not working this year which forced me to book a direct train from Peshawar to Karachi.
Now let me tell you guys about train options from Peshawar to Karachi, not much option as there are only two trains running on this route. One of them taking 36 hours whereas the one which we booked takes almost 30 hours. We booked Business Class which costs PKR 45000/- 3 adults and 2 children. Yes, it is taking a lot of time but being in the single cabin would be much easier for me from origin till destination rather than taking bus and then moving Kids along with the luggage is not easy, keeping these points in my mind, I took the decision. I thought of travelling by road which takes around 20 hours but then, kids will not get enough space to sleep and they will get tired a lot by sitting for such a long time.
On 17th of April, we boarded the train at 11 am. I hired a porter who helped us to move our luggage from parking to the exact location where our coach takes place when the train arrived and stopped. They are so trained and experienced, they know each and everything about the trains. Luckily, the cabin was in good condition, not bad. just thinking about 30 long hours was giving me a pain but when the journey started, all of us forgets about the long hours and enjoyed the trip with our kids.
Berth plays an important role to lie down and relax which a person didn’t get in a bus. Also there is no privacy in Bus. Having a separate cabin which can be locked gives a peace of mind. We had lunch from train canteen, it was not bad as most of the people think of it. it was satisfactory and I think, a person should eat less as much as he/she can while travelling in train. Better to avoid toilets hehehe. The common toilets were clean in the start but once the train starts moving and people start using it, they never clean it and it smells so bad plus the shortage of water spoil it completely. Luckily, our coach was the in the start just behind the engine so not many people were using our toilets so they were not in that bad condition and mainly, our kids used them without any tension. This is an art, to use toilet in a moving train.
Most of the time, our kids were sleeping so they passed the time very easily. We, the adults, also slept, I took the upper berth for myself and the other one, I make my son to sleep in there. Other kids with their mothers slept in the lower berth. We didn’t opened the middle berth as it is always risky and one can not rely on the smoothness of this berth. Also we cannot use it for kids, risky as when the train stops, it gives a hard push and kids can easily fall from the berth. Precautions should be taken while travelling and I usually do it very well. Honestly speaking, 30 hours passed very nicely and we enjoyed our journey. A journey from the North to South of Pakistan. We had a good experience of Rehman Baba Express.