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Two new services
Enjoy a glass-roofed train ride through the scenic Dooars or the North Cachar Hills. The Northeast Frontier Railway is from Saturday introducing vistadome tourist special train services in two popular routes — Jalpaiguri-Alipurduar Junction in West Bengal and Guwahati-New Haflong in Assam.
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Book your dates
The New Jalpaiguri- Alipurduar Junction Vistadome train, covering 169 kms in more than 6 hours, will initially run three days a week — Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The service between Guwahati and New Haflong, covering 269 kms in five and half hours, will initially run two days a week — on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
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How green is this valley
Vistadome trains, introduced in India four years ago, have coaches with large glass windows and glass roofs. They give you an almost 360 degree view of the skies and the scenery as the train chugs through hills and forests and plains. The coaches have rotating seats, in case the grass looks greener through the other window.
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In India from 2017
Trains with glass-roofed coaches — you may have seen YouTube videos from the Swiss Alps or the Canadian Rockies — connect different tourist destinations. Initially, a coach was introduced on the Jan Shatabdi express on the Mumbai-Goa route in 2017 for travellers to have a better view of the Western Ghats.
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Tourism potential
Then on, these coaches were added on the Mumbai-Pune, Yesvantpur-Mangaluru, Shimla-Kalka and other routes. The railway looks to tap more such sectors with tourism potential. This helps to generate additional revenue for the railway and also for local people of these areas.
