Matheran Hill Railway

The Matheran Hill Railway climbs 21 kilometres on two-foot gauge from Neral, on the main line out of Mumbai, to Matheran, a hill station 800 metres up on a plateau of the Western Ghats. It takes two hours and forty minutes, at no more than 12 km/h, round curves so tight that only short diesels can work them.

It was a family's railway. Abdul Hussain Peerbhoy, son of the Bombay merchant Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy, was a regular visitor to Matheran, and in 1900, with his father's reluctant consent, he camped at Neral to plan a line up the hill. The company that built it was wholly owned by the Peerbhoys, and the trains reached Matheran in 1907.

The town at the top still bans motor cars. Beyond Aman Lodge, the last station below it, Matheran is walked, ridden on horseback or crossed by rickshaw, and the train runs on into the middle of it.

The narrow-gauge trains leave from their own platforms at Neral Junction, 39 metres above the sea, on the suburban line between Mumbai and Karjat. Six coaches make a train, behind one of the line's NDM-1 or NDM-1A diesels: short-wheelbase engines, the NDM-1s articulated in two halves, because nothing longer will take the curves. Steam worked the line until 1982, and two of its four Orenstein & Koppel tank engines stand on plinths, one at each end.

Into the hills

For the first stretch the little line runs beside the broad gauge, west of Hardal Hill, then turns east and starts to climb. Road and railway meet near Jumapatti, part, and meet again at Bhekra Khud. After a short level stretch the ascent sharpens below Mount Barry. Rather than build a reversing station here, the engineers swung the line about a mile north round a great horseshoe embankment and brought it back through the embankment in the One Kiss tunnel.

Water Pipe, 11 kilometres from Neral, is where the steam engines took on water. Above it the train works along ledges cut into the mountainside, at a ruling grade of one in 20, with the plains opening out below and the cliffs of the Western Ghats across the valley. Two more deep cuttings lead on past Panorama Point, and the line bends back to Simpson's Tank.

The last stretch

The last station before the town is Aman Lodge, where the road from Neral ends: no car may go further, and passengers who came up by road walk on, ride a horse or take the shuttle train. The final three kilometres run through the forest on red laterite into Matheran station, where the plinthed steam engine No. 741 stands by the platform.

Two trains a day run each way between Neral and Matheran, every day of the week, outside the monsoon. A shuttle between Aman Lodge and Matheran runs all year.

Neral to Matheran

Matheran to Neral

The Aman Lodge shuttle

Six shuttles a day each way take 18 minutes between Aman Lodge and Matheran. From Aman Lodge they leave at 08:45, 09:35, 12:00, 14:25, 15:40 and 17:45; from Matheran at 08:20, 09:10, 11:35, 14:00, 15:15 and 17:20. On Saturdays and Sundays two extra pairs run, at 10:30 and 13:35 from Aman Lodge and 10:05 and 13:10 from Matheran.

The monsoon

Central Railway closes the line between Neral and Aman Lodge every monsoon for fear of landslides; the shuttle keeps running. In 2026 the closure ran from 15 June to 15 October. The date the through trains return is announced nearer the time: in 2025 they came back on 6 November, and no restart date for 2026 had been published by mid-October.

Times are from the station tables of ConfirmTkt, an IRCTC partner, checked against the timetable Central Railway gave for the restart in November 2025 and its monsoon notice of June 2026 — as of October 2026. Check the day's train on ConfirmTkt (opens in a new tab) or at Neral station before travelling.

Tickets are sold only at the station counters, at Neral for the through trains and at Aman Lodge for the shuttle; there is no online booking. Each train carries second-class coaches and one better coach: first class on 52105 and 52106, a Vistadome coach on 52103 and 52104.

Fares are small. In November 2025 the trip from Neral was reported at about ₹75 in second class and ₹300 in first. Second-class seats often sell out, so arrive at the Neral counter well before the train; first class is usually the easier ticket to get.

No rail pass covers the Matheran Hill Railway. Interrail and Eurail are European schemes, and India is not among the countries in Interrail's list of covered railway companies. Indian Railways' own pass for foreign visitors, the Indrail Pass, was withdrawn by Railway Board order on 19 September 2017.

A pass would be no use here anyway. Tickets are sold only at the station counter and cost a few hundred rupees at most, so buy each one on the day.

Checked October 2026 against Interrail's list of railway companies (opens in a new tab) and the Indrail Pass (opens in a new tab).

Matheran is a town of lookouts, each a walk or a horse ride along red laterite paths from the station. Allow a full day for a handful, and wear shoes for the dust.

The last train down leaves Matheran at four in the afternoon, so a night on the hill gives time for the points and the morning light. Hotels are reached from the station on foot, by horse or by rickshaw.

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