Toy trains continue to attract tourists to West Bengal
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Darjeeling, April 19 (ANI): A joy ride on a Toy Train is a major tourist attraction for those visiting Darjeeling, a hill resort nestled in the Himalayas in West Bengal and a gateway to spectacular views of the world's third highest peak. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, making it the second railway to have this honor. The World Heritage railway, opened in 1881, is a tourist magnet for a leisurely ride on narrow gauge tracks, offering splendid views of cloud-capped hillsides and people going about their daily routines. The train is a reminder of India's colonial past running on a narrow-gauge railway which makes a tourist run into the hills under power of a steam locomotive. The minimum fare for travelling in the train is Rs 1,165. Taxis ferrying tourists often jam the narrow lanes, and cabs sometimes dash across the rail tracks that run alongside, causing drivers of the slow-moving "Toy Train" to sound a warning hoot.
