With over 18 million daily passengers, 1.4 million employees and 17,000 trains operating on 64,000 kilometres of track, it's a locomotive display of sizes, speeds, shapes and colours. When you are planning your next train journey keep in mind some of these exciting train routes you can explore. However, it is essential to check the train times, to plan the trip efficiently.

1. Goa Express

Route: Vasco da Gama (Goa) to Londa (Karnataka)

On a Sunday afternoon, this train runs along the Goan beaches as families play in the water, friends chat in groups and the smoke from late afternoon cooking sinks into the carriages. Bright pink flowers hang so near you can reach out and touch them as the train enters the heart of Goan village life. As the train zooms into the Western Ghats, it speeds up through thick jungle, hugging the curves of the mountainside. Be ready to get amazed by the numerous waterfalls, which increases as the trees thin out, and the view turns to deep valleys and peaks. On reaching the destination, Londa the sun should just be setting, and sky bleeds red.

Journey time: 3 hours 30 mins.

2. Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express

Route: New Jalpaiguri (West Bengal), Tinsukia, Ledo (Assam)

Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express, India Technically, this involves two trains, but you can't take the second without the first as the Tinsukia to Ledo segment is the easternmost tip of the railway. The journey starts in West Bengal, on board the super-fast Rajdhani which reaches Assam very quickly. One can see vast stretches of emerald green paddy and tea plantations on either side. Unlike South India's rolling greenery, this expanse is entirely flat. As night falls, the train runs past the Brahmaputra River on the approach to Guwahati and crawls through the city's slums. If you jump off from the door, you'll land in someone's cooking area. From Tinsukia, the morning passenger train zips past awe-inspiring landscape before arriving at the end of the track having squeezed along people's houses so tightly that you can see what they're having for breakfast.

Journey time: 16 hours 30 minutes followed by 1 hr 30 to Ledo.

3. Nizamuddin Duronto Express

Route: Pune (Maharashtra) to New Delhi

Duronto Express, India

One of the few non-stop express trains connecting major cities, the Duronto Express runs from Pune to Delhi in just 20 hours in comparison with the usual 26 hours. It covers a vivid route with hugely varied topography and excellent on-board service. From 11 am until sunset, the train zooms past rivers, deserts, mountains and villages and alongside pyramid-like salt mounds drying in the sunlight. The word 'Duronto' means 'quick' in Bengali. The trains are known for their cleanliness, new interiors and sleeker design. One of the primary safety features is that the trains are derailment-proof.

Journey time: 20 hours.

4. Mandovi Express

Route: Madgaon (Goa) to Mumbai Mandovi Express, India

Running between the Sahyadri hills on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west, the Konkan Railway is the most scenic route up to Mumbai. The British considered its construction but abandoned the difficult task. The Indians completed this engineering marvel which was achieved by digging through mountains with 92 tunnels and building 2000 bridges to cross hundreds of rivers. This breathtaking journey takes you through sun- issed paddy fields lined with coconut and mango trees, small villages bursting with wildflowers and over endless stretches of water leading out to sea.

Journey time: 12 hours 15 mins.

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