1013 Coimbatore Express

Many are the options if you are travelling to Bangalore from Mumbai.

Most flexible and cost effective is to take a bus, if not direct, just keeping moving in your direction . But your bones should be able to take it. A few blessings have come our way of late: better roads, divided ones at that, which make travel much safer, and high end Volvo/Mrecedes buses with air suspension that slash 4-5 hours off the transit time, Can set you back by approx Rs 1200.

If your time is precious, you can take a cheap flight from Rs2200 onwards, provided you can plan at least 15 days in advance. Urgent travel can rip you off.

Cheapest and comfortable mode is to take a train. AC travel again needs advance planning, 3 tier being the most popular. If the weather is okay, you can also take a non AC sleeper. Choices include Udyan Express, which gets filled up earliest, Chalukya Express ( goes via interesting towns like Belgaum, Hubli and Davangere ) or the least preferred Coimbatore express.

This train chugs out of LTT around 2230 hrs.You can catch goodish sleep on this train upto Solapur till early morning. Later on, the journey and terrain gets drab. It passes through dry Karnataka cities like Gulbarga, Raichur ( thermal plant with impressive cooling towers ), Yadgir ( very rugged fort on a rocky hill ) and crosses over to Andhra Pradesh. Guntakal, Mantralayam Rd, Anantpur ( neat city ) are some interesting AP towns on the way. The journey can get very boring due to innumerable stoppages for "crossing". This is a single track, you see!

The real irritating thing with this train is the delay as it approaches Bangalore. You could be in Yelahanka at roughly 8pm. From here, heart of Bangalore is approx. 45 mins by bus. But this train takes upto 2 1/2 hrs to make this journey. We got stranded at Chikkasandra for 75 mins.
By the time you get off at Bangalore around 2230, you are absolutely ready to grab a quick bite and plonk into bed. Pity the guys wanting to continue further overnight to Coimbatore!