Transport in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

consists of the intra-city transport and the communication between the city and other locations in Darjeeling district. Darjeeling () is a

hill station A hill station is a touristic town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The English term was originally used mostly in Western imperialism in Asia, colonial Asia, but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

and it is the headquarters of Darjeeling district situated in the

Mahabharat Range The Lower Himalayan Range, also called the Lesser Himalayas and Mahabharat Lekh or Himachal, is one of the four parallel sub-ranges of the Himalayas. It has the Great Himalayas to the north and the Sivalik Hills to the south. It extends from th ...

(or

Lesser Himalaya The Lower Himalayan Range, also called the Lesser Himalayas and Mahabharat Lekh or Himachal, is one of the four parallel sub-ranges of the Himalayas. It has the Great Himalayas to the north and the Sivalik Hills to the south. It extends from ...

) at an average elevation of 2,134 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

The town of Darjeeling can be reached by the 80-kilometre long

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the DHR or the Toy Train, is a narrow-gauge, gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal. Built between 1879 and 1881, it is about long. It c ...

, nicknamed the "Toy Train", from

Siliguri Siliguri (, ; ), also known as Shiliguri, is a major Tier ii cities in india, tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms the twin cities, Twin Cities with the neighbouring city of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeel ...

. It is a 60-centimetre (2-foot)

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

railway run by the

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

. Established in 1881, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was declared a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in 1999, only the second railway after the Semmering Railway in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

to have this honour. The toy train leaves from Siliguri, a station located a few kilometres from

New Jalpaiguri New Jalpaiguri Junction railway station (station code NJP) established in 1960, is an A1 category broad-gauge and narrow-gauge railway station under Katihar railway division of Northeast Frontier Railway zone. It is the largest and the busiest ...

, and takes about 8 hours to reach Darjeeling through the meandering mountain railway line. The elevation level is from about 100 m in Siliguri to about 2200 m in Darjeeling. It is to this day powered by a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

. A modern diesel engine is used for Darjeeling's mail. The railway has long been viewed with affection and enthusiasm by travellers to the region, and the Earl of Ronaldshay gave the following description of a journey in the early 1920s:

"Siliguri is palpably a place of meeting. ....The discovery that here the metre gauge system ends and the two foot gauge of the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway begins, confirms what all these things hint at. ...ne steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput. With a noisy fuss out of all proportion to its size the engine gives a jerk - and starts. ...No special mechanical device such as a rack is employed - unless, indeed, one can so describe the squat and stolid hill-man who sits perched over the forward buffers of the engine and scatters sand on the rails when the wheels of the engine lose their grip of the metals and race, with the noise of a giant spring running down when the control has been removed. Sometimes we cross our own track after completing the circuit of a cone, at others we zigzag backwards and forwards; but always we climb at a steady gradient - so steady that if one embarks in a trolley at Ghum, the highest point on the line, the initial push supplies all the energy necessary to carry one to the bottom."

The trip up to Darjeeling on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has changed little since that time, and continues to delight travellers and rail enthusiasts, so much so that it has its own preservation and support group, th
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society
The Operation of Darjeeling Himalayan Railways between

and

Kurseong Kurseong (, ) is a town and a municipality in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Kurseong subdivision. Located at an altitude of , Kurseong is from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throu ...

was temporarily suspended following a Landslide at Tindharia between 2010 and 2015.

Road transport

The Hill Cart Road ( National Highway 110) connects Darjeeling with Siliguri. There is another road connecting the two towns via

Mirik Mirik is a small town and a Notified Area of Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Mirik subdivision. The name ''Mirik'' comes from the Lepcha words ''Mir-Yok'' meaning "place burnt by fire". ...

. There are two different shortcut routes off the Hill Cart Road that go through Pankhabari and Rohini, respectively.

Four wheel drive The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, more often known as Four Wheel Drive (FWD), was a pioneering American company that developed and produced all-wheel drive vehicles. It was founded in 1909 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, as the Badger Four-Wheel Dr ...

s are the most popular means of transport, as they can easily navigate the steep slopes in the region. Many vintage

Land Rover Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...

s ply in the route. Also

Maruti Omni The is a kei truck produced by the Japanese automaker Suzuki. The microvan version was originally called the Carry van until 1982 when the passenger van versions were renamed as the . In Japan, the Carry and Every are ''kei cars'' but the Suzu ...

and several

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definition ...

s are common. The road and toy train communication often get disrupted during the monsoons season due to

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus The Tenzing Norgay Central Bus Terminus is one of the largest and most important bus terminals in North Bengal. It is located on Hill Cart Road, Siliguri, District Darjeeling, adjacent to the Siliguri Junction railway station, about 6 kilomete ...

in Siliguri is the most important bus terminus in the region.

Airway

Darjeeling does not have an airstrip. The nearest airport is

Bagdogra airport Bagdogra Airport () is a customs airport serving the city of Siliguri in West Bengal, India. It is located in Bagdogra, south-west from the city centre. It is operated as a civil enclave at the Bagdogra Air Force Station of the Indian A ...

(IXB), near Siliguri, which is a 3-hour (approx. 90 km) drive from Darjeeling.

Air India Air India is the flag carrier of India with its main hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, and secondary hubs at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, alo ...

GoAir Go First, founded as GoAir, was an Indian low-cost airline based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Owned by the Indian business conglomerate Wadia Group, it commenced operations on 4 November 2005 and operated a fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft in an al ...

IndiGo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

and

SpiceJet SpiceJet is an Indian low-cost airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. , it is the fourth largest airline in India by number of domestic passengers carried, with a market share of 4% and connects 73 destinations, including 60 Indi ...

fly to Bagdogra.

Railway

, serving the town of

, is the nearest major railway station. New Jalpaiguri is well connected to major Indian cities, especially

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Intra-city transport

Intra-city transport is mostly by hired taxis. However, walking remains the most widely used method for travelling in this hilly town. Two-wheelers are also popularly used by the residents.

Ropeway

The long

Darjeeling Ropeway The Darjeeling Ropeway is a Aerial tramway, ropeway in the town of Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal. The 5 km long ropeway( i.e. 2.5 km each wais a tourist destination in the town. It consists of sixteen cars and plies between the ...

connecting Darjeeling's North Point with Singla, which was started in 1968, was closed after an accident in 2003. It reopened in February 2012.

Notes

{{Darjeeling Gorkhaland