Rules and Charges of Bike transportation

[sterintjose]

Today I went to Railway luggage office to inquire about bike transportation from Bangalore to Delhi. He told me that it will cost around 2000 + loading charges Will it cost this much ? Can somebody please tell me about the bike transportation charges and its calculation ?

I got this pdf from railways site.

Also he told me that Passenger should be the owner of the bike to take it with him. Is this required ? I have a problem because currently my bike is registered with my Uncle's name. Will this cause an issue ?

(An agent told me that he can resolve my problem if I give some bribe to him)

Expecting guidance from guys who have similar experiences

(Any issues on this will spoil our entire plan of bike transportation for our Leh trip during July 09)

Thanks is advance ..

[sterintjose]

One correction in the above post....The pdf that I had attached is talking about freight charges per tonne. sorry for providing wrong / confusing info here. I will remove that.

Here I am attaching the luggage rates from Railways site. Is there any specific calculation rules for bikes ?

As per this chart if distance is 3415 km and vehicle weight is 140 kg

Then calculation is 77.45 x 14 = 1084/-

Is this right ??

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Should be, there would a few more charges and taxes, which would probably take it up to 1200-1500 bucks. As for the bike being in someone else's name, better option would be to ask the railway clerk as it might cause some confusion though should be allowed. Alternatively, you can use Gati and other courier companies for transportation, though it would take slight more time and might cost more as well.

[prem.arora]

I have also used the railway luggage van many times for bike transport. The earliest one 13 yrs ago and the latest one last year.
The best thing I have seen is, least damage to the bike, whenever transported via train.
And the other is, cheap way to transport. Recently I saw another way, which helped me lower the transport cost. If there are many trains running from Bangalore to Delhi, if you can find one which is not super fast and may be takes a longer route or so, may be takes a day more or so for the transit, the transportation cost reduces drastically. May be you can ask the railway babu giving him different train numbers, about how much it will cost for different trains.
I saved money when I last transported, although it was for a small distance, 600+ kms, only.

[sandeep9868]

Hi Sterin, I had booked my bike from Bangalore to Delhi some 2.5 yrs back, and they charged me Rs1500 + Rs200 (packaging cost given to coolie) for that. Don't be afraid, I was even asked couple of Movers & Packers and they estimated the cost to whooping 3K to 4K, so railway was the only option left for me at that time. I found railway service pretty reliable (at least in my case).
I don’t know about how they calculate the charges, but sure of that, they provide you the slip for whatever they are charging. There were some problem with Bangalore station; I remembered even in my case I had hot argument with them about the charges.
No problem at all, if the bike is registered on ur uncle’s name, even in my case the bike was registered on my Nana Ji name’s. All you have to provide them a Xerox copy of RC & Insurance, that’s it. Make sure to empty the fuel tank (u can leave 300ml around in that for ur future use, its illegal although, so u can carry ur bike from Delhi station to nearest petrol pump without any hassle).

Please let me know if I miss something.

[sterintjose]

Originally Posted by sandeep9868

No problem at all, if the bike is registered on ur uncle’s name, even in my case the bike was registered on my Nana Ji name’s. All you have to provide them a Xerox copy of RC & Insurance

Thanks Sandeep for your valuable info. This registration part was bothering me so much than the cost issue and right now I am enjoying a relief.

@Yogesh & Prem: We are looking for the most cost effective way of Transporting our bike. So only option left is Train. I was checking the calculation part because as per our latest plan we need to take 5 bikes from Trivandrum (starting point of the train), then from one from Mangalore (intermediate station) to Chandigarh (Ending point of the train) ie 3415 kms from Trivandrum to Chandigarh

I hope that there will not be any issue if I take my bike as luggage from an intermediate stop.... rt ??

Thanks again

[Yogesh Sarkar]

As long as the train is stopping for enough time for you to load the motorcycle and there is enough space in the luggage compartment, there shouldn't be any issue.

[sandeep9868]

Yeah rite..once you will reach delhi..u have two options:

1) Load your bikes for further travel up to Chandigarh in train
2) Ride to Chandigarh on ur bikes..this can provide you a hands on exp. before going to hills.

If you will come along with the bikes in same train, then there will absolutely no problem at all. All you have to done is, keep your bike well packaged, and also carry a Swiss Knife, so you can tear off the packaging later on.

PS: While filling up the form, please provide your name in the recipient as well as in sender column.

[sandeep9868]

Ohhh....I am sorry, there exist a train directly from Chd to Trivendrum...thats good...actually I was not aware of that...then you can carry your bikes till Chd, no problem.

[sterintjose]

@ Yogesh: So is it risky if the train stops only for 10 mins ?? Luggage space in the van is a risk factor which I missed out!!!. Also this is one of the longest railway route and now I think there will be more luggage than expected. Then it will be better to board from the starting station..... Thanks Yogesh for this important info

@ Sandeep: Yeah, fortunately this train goes till Chandigarh. That way we can avoid riding @ plains, also the July rain @ Delhi - Chandigarh.