Train Travel in India
The best way to travel in India is by trains. Travelling on Indian trains and negotiating packed Indian railway stations is an essential part of the India experience..! Train travel is safe, cheap and (in AC classes) comfortable. With 63,000 km of rail routes and 6,800 stations, the railway network in India is the biggest in the world in terms of passenger kilometres. Indian Railways are also the world's biggest employer, with over 1.5 million staff.
The trains link almost every town and city - for an online Indian railways route map see www.indianrail.gov.in/testmap.html The main Indian Railways website (with train times, fares and other information for all of India) is www.indianrail.gov.in with online booking at www.irctc.co.in.
Indian Railways have been divided into various divisons :
Northern RailwaySouth-Eastern Railway
Western Railway
Southern Railway
South Central Railway
Central Railway
Konkan Railway
Train times:
You can check train times and fares for any train journey in India at the Indian Railways website, www.indianrail.gov.in. This is an amazing site, but a little bewildering for the first time user - it's a good training course for your travels in India... Here is some advice for using the Indian Railways website:
Start with the 'trains between important stations' page. This will give you train times if there is a direct train, but if there isn't a direct train you will need to guess at a likely interchange station and make separate enquiries for both sections of the journey. For example, for Varanasi to Jaisalmer, try asking for Varanasi to Delhi and then Delhi to Jaisalmer, or Varanasi to Jaipur then Jaipur to Jaisalmer. For journeys to Simla the interchange station is Kalka, for trips to Darjeeling it is New Jalpaiguri.
Bombay now appears as Mumbai, Madras as Chennai, Calcutta as Kolkata. Delhi is still Delhi, at least for the time being - forgive me if I stick to the familiar English names..!
The main station in Delhi is New Delhi, so look for 'New Delhi' as well as 'Delhi'. The main station for Calcutta is across the river in Howrah, so it is often shown as Calcutta Howrah or even just Howrah. Trains from Calcutta to New Jalpaiguri (the railhead for Darjeeling) use Calcutta Sealdah station, which is sometimes shown as just 'Sealdah'. If you are going to Agra, the main station is Agra Cantonment ('AGRA CANTT').
There are several stations in Bombay, but the most important is the magnificent Victoria Terminus, now renamed 'CST'. So start by looking for trains from 'Mumbai CST'. If you don't see any suitable trains, try Bombay Central ('Mumbai BCT') then Dadar.
If the system shows a train running overnight, make sure it isn't actually two or more nights. The journey from Bombay to Calcutta or from Delhi to Madras is about 36 hours, i.e. typically two nights. On the other hand, travelling on a fast train, Bombay to Delhi or Calcutta to Delhi takes just one night.
There are eight different classes of accommodation on Indian Railways, but only a few are usually available on any given train. There is an illustrated guide to what each class is like further down this page. For overnight journeys, most visitors choose AC2 (2nd class 2-tier air-conditioned, also shown as '2A') or if they can afford it, AC1 (1st class air-conditioned, shown as '1A'), although more adventurous backpackers might choose sleeper class ('SL'). For daytime journeys, air-conditioned chair car ('CC') is a good bet if it's available.
'Rajdhani Express' trains are extra-fast air-conditioned long-distance trains linking Delhi with regional centres such as Bombay, Calcutta, etc. These are good trains to take if you can: The Delhi to Bombay and Delhi to Calcutta Rajdhani Expresses leave in the early evening and arrive in the morning, so actually save time compared to flying. Meals are included in the fare. The Delhi-Bombay Rajdhani uses brand-new German-designed coaches - see this link for photos.
'Shatabdi Express' trains are fast air-conditioned daytime trains running on routes such as Delhi - Agra and Delhi - Jaipur with air-con chair class and executive air-con chair class. Refreshments are included in the fare. Again, good trains to take if you can.
Fares :
You can check Indian train fares at www.indianrail.gov.in This will give you an idea of how much Indian train travel costs, and how the fares for the different classes compare. Children aged 0 to 4 travel free, children aged 5 to 11 travel at half fare, children aged 12 and over pay full fare. Shatabdi Express = Premier daytime train, higher fares payable, meals included. Rajdhani Express = Premier overnight train, higher fares payable, meals included.
How to book - when in India:
You need a seat or berth reservation for all long-distance journeys on Indian trains - you cannot simply turn up and hop on. Bookings open 60 days in advance, less than this for some shorter-distance inter-city trains. Reservations are now completely computerised - according to an Indian professor with whom I shared a compartment, computerisation saved him 50% of his travel costs, as he had always had to pay the equivalent of the fare in bribes to get a reservation..! Indian trains are usually very busy, and they often get booked out days or even weeks ahead. You should make reservations as far in advance as possible - you may see TV screens in the reservation offices in major cities showing berth availability on the main trains from that city over the next few weeks.Indian Railways have a unique system: After a train becomes fully booked, a set number of places in each class are sold as 'Reservation Against Cancellation' or 'RAC'. After all RAC places have been allocated, further prospective passengers are waitlisted. When passengers cancel, people on the RAC list are promoted to places on the train, and waitlisted passengers are promoted to RAC.
Tourist reservation bureaux:
The main stations in big cities and tourist centres such as Agra, Jaipur and Varanasi have an International Tourist Bureau where foreign travellers can book trains away from all the crowds and queues at the normal booking office - there is also a 24-hour rail booking office at Delhi International Airport. For a list of stations with an International Tourist Bureau, and opening times, visit www.indianrail.gov.in and select 'information' then 'international tourist'.Tourist quota:
Many important trains have a special quota of seats / berths available for tourists and IndRail passholders. A train which is fully booked for Indian travellers may still have a few 'tourist quota' berths left for foreign travellers - however, even using this special quota you may have to wait a day or two before there is a berth available to your chosen destination. Tickets issued against the tourist quota must be paid for in US Dollars, pounds sterling, or rupees backed by an exchange certificate proving they have been obtained from a bank or bureau de change in exchange for foreign currency.As Indian trains often get booked up way in advance, it's worthwhile booking before you get to India if you have limited time or if you need to be on a particular train soon after your arrival.
Book online at www.irctc.co.in:
You can book Indian train tickets online using the government-sponsored
service at www.irctc.co.in, but only if the delivery arrangements fit
with your plans, which they may not. Here are some tips for using this
service:
Tickets are sent by courier to any address you specify (for example, the hotel where you will be staying) in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and other major Indian cities. However, as of November 2004, you can no longer choose to pick up your tickets at the reservation office at New Delhi station (although double-check this because there may be an option to pick them up at the irctc offices). If you ask for them to be delivered to your hotel, the courier will need to see a letter authorising delivery if you are not there to sign for the tickets, so you will have to arrange this with the hotel. An email or fax to the hotel authorising them to take delivery is sufficient.
To see which postcodes in which cities are covered by the courier service, select 'PIN codes covered' from the www.irctc.co.in home page. Tickets CANNOT be posted overseas or picked up at railway stations, so you will need to know the full address and postcode (which Indians call a PIN code) for your hotel. If these collection and delivery arrangements don't suit you, it may be better to book through an IndRail pass agency using an IndRail pass as explained below. You can book a maximum of four rail tickets in a month using irctc.co.in, so complex itineraries might also be better booked using an IndRail pass...
You have to register before you can use the service. The address you use to register doesn't really matter because the system will ask you for a ticket delivery address when you book. The registration form allows you to select 'United Kingdom' as your country of residence so you can register with a UK address, but it will not allow UK alpha-numeric postcodes or UK-length phone numbers so use dummy numbers such as '123456'. Just do whatever it takes for the system to accept your registration..! Once registered, log on with your chosen user ID and password to start the booking process.
The online booking service is not (at time of writing this) 24 hours, but 08:00-22:00 Indian time, which is 02:30-16:30 UK time. Once your booking is completed, payment can be made by Mastercard or Visa credit card and is secure. After payment, you will receive an email from Indian Railways with your booking details.
So far, feedback from people who have used this service has been positive, but further feedback is always very welcome, especially after the withdrawal of the ability to pick up tickets at the New Delhi reservations centre.
Book via an IndRail agency:
The hassle-free way of booking an Indian train journey in advance from outside India, or indeed booking a complete itinerary by rail around India, is to buy an IndRail Pass from the official IndRail pass agency in your home country, complete with any train reservations you need. Even a single Indian train journey can be arranged using a ½-day pass for any journey lasting less than 12 hours for $26 (£16) in AC2 or $57 (£34) in AC1, or a 1-day pass for any journey lasting less than 24 hours, for $43 (£26) in AC2 or $95 (£56) in AC1. There are IndRail pass agencies in the UK, Australia, Germany, Finland, Malaysia, South Africa and a number of other other countries - see the IndRail Pass section below.Tips for train travel in India:
Checking your reservation:
Your train, coach and berth number will be printed on your ticket. Reservation
lists for each long-distance train are posted on the noticeboard at each
station about two hours before departure, showing the name, age and sex
of each passenger reserved in each berth in each coach - the age and sex
help the ticket inspector identify that the right passenger is in the
right berth. The reservation list for each coach will also be pasted on
the train itself, next to the entrance door. Check to see that your name
is listed. The system is very efficient, and the days of finding your
reserved berth already occupied by several passengers are long gone...