And though it is not yet winter time the breeze gets chilled as it scrapes ice off the majestic Dhauladars and swoops down into the foothills and the plains of the Punjab. The everfriendly chai walla at the platform extends welcome glasses of hot tea. The first train to Jogindernagar up into the Kangra valley is at 4.00 am. It runs on a two and half feet gauge and is 165 km in length crossing as many as 971 bridges. The KVR is the lifeline of the Valley.
Several people depend on it for transport.
And a lot of supplies and goods move on it. Trains are so much cheaper that hordes of locals like to travel by it. While a bus ticket from Pathankot to Jogindernagar costs about Rs. The heavy subsidy offered by the railways to the Himachalis on this line, however, reflects in the poor state of the carriages. The journey up the KVR is a much more rustic and earthy experience than the Kalka-Simla and Darjeeling mountain rails.