The ticket costs less than a meal in either town. The train moves slower than a determined cyclist. And yet both the Matheran Light Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway have outlasted the empires that built them, survived proposals to shut them down, and accumulated a waiting list of people who have never been on a train quite like either one. The comparison is worth making honestly, because they are not interchangeable experiences dressed in the same heritage branding.
