Loading bike on train from Taftan to Lahore
 

After receiving hair-raising info from Gert84 about escorts from Bam (Iran) all the way to Lahore (Pakistan), which amounted to 6 days under police "custody" (a prospect I'm not at all happy about), I am trying to figure out if it's possible to load the bike on a train in Taftan (Pakistani side of Iran/Pakistan border) and take it with the train all the way to Lahore.

Much safer than playing road racing games with the police for days and days.

So I asked Omar (of Pakistan Bikers Club) about information on this and he told me that there is a train from Taftan to Quetta, but it runs only on a couple of days each week... Train from Quetta to Lahore should then be no problem, there are more options etc.

As I wouldn't like to have to wait in Taftan for the train for (say) 3 days to leave, has anyone tried this recently enough to know which days the train leaves from Taftan to Quetta?

Thanks

Alexandros

There's also a train between Quetta and Islamabad that I looked into but rode it in the end as it was going to cost about the same and I really didn't fancy spending 28hrs on a grotty train. If you are going that way, avoid Derra Ismail Khan, pretty horrible place and no one wanted to give a foreigner a room as I was considered a security risk. The cops are generally pretty friendly and will take the choice of route away from you in any case.

The escorts in Iran from Bam to the border are fine, just leave v early as it can be slow as they keep changing your escort every few miles. I had no escort from Quetta to the Iran border last year however it may be different going the other direction.