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express.  This the fastest train in India & averages 50 miles an hour.  The line is standard guage & the cars ran so easily I had no idea we were travelling so fast until I asked fellow passengers.  The country we travelled thru was the dead level of the Ganges delta the road being bordered by flooded rice fields, the transplanting of the rice being just in progress.  A short time after dark we crossed the newly completed bridge over the Ganges River which is more than a mile wide at this point.  The landscape was sodden paddy fields relieved by occasional fields of jute & groves of date palms & an occasional village.  The train carried a diner where we had dinner at 7:30.  My fellow passengers were quite friendly & talkative.