Istanbul to Delhi by train

Hola a todos, I friend of mine (Turkish by the way) told me about the existence of a train, that goes from Istanbul or Ankara, thru Iran and Pakistan and arrives in Delhi. I plannig on doing that next January, I´ve heard it´s ralley cheap as well, about 100€. Has anyone of you guys have heard or done that trip?gracias

A friend of mine took a train from Haydepasha station to Iran. It was fairly cheap. You're going to want a better class sleeper for a voyage of that length for its a few days by train from Istanbul-Ankara-Iran. Sleeper cars are REALLY cheap from Istanbul. I got my own room from Istanbul to Konya for about 40 dollars. International trains tend to be more expensive.

Iran has trains, and so does Pakistan. Both are probably cheap.

Have you tried Seat61? I tried, a voyage that long isn't included. But, theres a potential problem. YOu may not get allowed through the Pakistani border into India, if border tensions increase again. Even now, land movement between the two was very restricted a year ago.

Maybe try posting this question in the Middle East section, maybe some peeps there might know. (even though Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan aren't technically the Middle East.)As far as Pakistan->India, you should be able to do this. I haven't tried myself, but I have talked to people who have. I think you would go by bus though, not train.

Ok, looks like both me and Tortuga were wrong.
There is a train from Pakistan to India, and seat61 does have info on it.

Here's what I got from that site:

Turkey--->Iran:
"There is a safe and comfortable weekly train from Istanbul to Tehran, reintroduced in March 2001, called the Trans-Asia Express. The train is actually two trains, a Turkish one from Istanbul to Tatvan pier, then a ferry across Lake Van, then an Iranian train from Van pier to Tehran. Only one baggage van actually goes all the way, being ferried across Lake Van on a train ferry..! Both Turkish and Iranian trains have modern air-conditioned 1st class 4-berth couchettes and an elegant modern restaurant car. The total distance from Istanbul to Tehran is 2,968km excluding the 90km length of Lake Van."

Iran--->Pakistan:
"Trains run Quetta - Zahedan (Iran) twice a month. Please check locally. You should check the security situation in this part of Iran at http://www.fco.gov.uk before travelling."
Well, they show the other way around, but theoretically the reverse journey should be possible... Since its only twice a month tho, maybe bussing it would be easier?

Pakistan--->India:
"A twice-weekly train runs at 08:00 on Mondays & Thursdays Lahore-Wagah (on the Indian frontier), with connections from Atari (on the Indian side) for Delhi, arriving 03:35 next morning (please double-check locally). However, you can also take a bus or taxi Lahore-Wagah daily, cross the frontier, then take a bus or taxi to Amritsar for daily trains to New Delhi."

So, looks like we stand corrected, huh?

Anyway, sounds like a cool trip doesn't it? I'm actually interested in doing this myself! When were you planning on doing this Simon?

Hola Supraintendent , man thanks a million!! Wow that is what I call information! Really thank you, Tortuga you as well =)!

I´m planning on doing it in February or so. I´ll be working in Barcelona untill the 15th of January, then heading to Athens and Kreta and then going to Turkey. May be a week in Istambul and another in Ankara, where I have a friend. So yeah probably middle or end of FEbruary.
Are you plannig on going as well? If so we could meet somewhere and take the train togheter. we´ll see.
thanks again for all the info

Hey, no problem, glad I could help. As I said, I'm glad I looked in to this because now I am seriously thinking of doing something like this too. Not sure exactly when yet, but it's I was thinking possibly end of jan or february, so maybe our trips will coincide! We'll have to keep in touch on this.

I was thinking perhaps of adding Armenia and Azerbaijan to the itinerary just for the heck of it, and possibly Afghanistan. (And hey, then I can say I've been to all the countries that start with A beside Algeria... hehe)

Right now I am trying to figure out the details on getting in to Iran. Unfortunately, since I am still in the process of getting my Canadian citizenship officially recognized, I dont have a Canadian passport yet.
So that means I'll have to go there on my American one, which has an Israeli visa on it. So I'm thinking about getting a new passport. Then I'll have to go up to Ottawa to the embassy there to get a visa (we don't have Iranian embassies here in the US...)
So it's a bit of a pain, but I've always wanted to go to Iran!

well you should do it , I mean Visas are a pain in the a$$, belive me I know, I´m colombian and I need a visa for almost every country I visit, but that hasn´t stop me from travelling.
changing the pasport is a good idea, though.
so I think we´ll be seeing uns around BnA, so we can keep in touch.
chao