India - buying rail tickets - our experiences so far!!

---

Buying train tickets ... Our experience so far!!

Updated 21/2/11

Buying train tickets is one of the most frustrating and time consuming things we did in this place! Tickets get pre booked and so are difficult to get your hands on especially if you leave booking until the last minute. This is exactly what we and most other travellers do as you want to keep your options open!! Below are our experiences of how to and how we booked trains but there are other ways to do it using the different websites so it is just a guide.

Don't expect train station staff to be helpful by the way! Not even at tourist offices within stations so to save time do some internet research first! Forget about being reserved and polite at stations as well. After a few experiences at stations now we can push and elbow to the front of the queue like the best of them!

The best way to find out about the trains, classes and booking tickets is on the following websites:

Seat61.com - teaches the basics about the trains

Indiarailinfo.com - cost, live update schedule information and advises on available tickets 

Indianrail.gov.in - to find out about tourist quota availability

Cleartrip.com - to book tickets but charges a commission and tickets are basically non refundable! However is easy to use to find train availability and train number and times.

www.irctc.co.in - to book tickets online without the commission.

Tourists can book on the following quotas:

'General tickets'
'Tatkal*' tickets *last minute / within 48hrs of the day of departure with a fee - opens at 08:30 at stations and 09:00 on the web and 
'Tourist Quota' tickets. 

You cannot book Tourist quota tickets online - you have to go to any station (for any destination). Trains only have a small quota of Foreign tourist quota tickets and you have to show your passport. Check availability on indiantrains.gov.in first by clicking 'Find Available berths' in left hand column.

We have found that the general quota tickets get booked up quite far in advance and we suspect they are bought, subsequently 'cancelled' and then re- bought under the right name and sold on by agents and then subagents at an increased price! Under this system at least you have more of a chance to find a ticket if you have to get a particular train but you have to pay the commission. This is not a fact just my take on it!

The trains seem to be busier from Delhi - West, especially to and from Mumbai so these should be booked in advance if possible!

Step by step

1. We suggest looking at Cleartrip (the easiest way) and becoming familiar with the train names and times for a particular route. Decide which ones you would prefer to go on based on time departing / arriving and duration of travel so you can go to the station or electronic booking offices or agencies armed with background info. If you are going for a TatKal ticket (48hours before) and you are definitely not going to cancel you may as well book it on here. See below for onlinebookings.

2. Look on Indiarail.gov.in to see if there are tourist quota tickets available (using the train info on Cleartrip). If so, head straight to the station. Make sure you already have the train details written down just incase things get lost in translation. Otherwise you either get sent away from the booking office to find the number or you may get palmed off with the wrong or a crap train in all the commotion. 

3. If trains on a general or tatkal quota are available you can book a eticket on cleartrip (with their commission) or on www.irctc.co.in.

4. If the trains are booked up - you can see up to date availability on Cleartrip, consider joining the waiting list (see below) or go to a travel agent. They can put you on the WL but only when they are confident in getting you a confirmed seat. You can also get an idea about how much the ticket should cost from indiarailinfo.com and therefore how much commission is being added on.

5. Once you have booked your train keep an eye on it's progress on indiarailinfo.com live updates. There's no point turning up on time for a train that's 4 hours late but then sometimes they seem to be able to make up time!

The waiting lists

If you book on a waiting list (WL), ensure that you are not too far up the list (there are 4 RAC tickets in front of WL1). We managed to get a train in AC2 being WL7 (meaning there were 10 people in front of us in the queue) to start off with but you don't find out until the final list is compiled a few hours before departure. Our ticket was still on WL 6 until the final list was made. You have to check your PNR number (found on you ticket) with the website indianrail.gov.in or wait until you get to the station and read the dot-matrix print out.
This is a good article about understanding waiting lists as it's soooo complicated:

http://www.indiamike.com/india-articles/indian-railways-rac-and-indian-railways-waitlists/

Classes

You can find info on indiarailinfo or seat61.com about the different tiers of carriages (AC1,2,3, sleeper class and 2nd class). So far we have travelled 2AC and 3AC (how the middle class travel apparently), which has been fine and they provide cleanish linen, blankets and pillows (mostly).

We bought a chain and a padlock each from the station platform so we could lock our big bags to a metal ring below the bottom bunk. Our smaller bags became extra pillows.

Also essential items include:
 1. Earplugs - the biggest and the best snorers will be sleeping all around you!! So annoying!
2. An eye mask - lights go on and off all night long as people enter and exit the train!
3. Patience - many of the trains run late 
4. Toilet paper, hand sanitizer and a nose plug (joke). The toilets are revolting!!
5. Sleeping bag if in sleeper class / 2nd class or if you don't want to use their linen.

Also people board the trains at all times during the night. When it is dark and being one of the last people to board the train there may not be much room left for more bags. I got a bit annoyed once with people who kept turning lights on and off and talking loudly in the middle of the night. But then I was in the same situation myself another time and got scowls from people (foreigners) myself especially when I accidentally moved someones shoes when there was no room for our bags. It's not very nice being blamed for a poor nights sleep!!

I hope this helps!! These are our experiences:

Kolkata to Darjeeling
We organised train tickets to Darjeeling (Siliguri) through an agent in 'Shudder' street after trying to do it ourselves after much stress. We spent a long time researching on the internet, found the electronic reservation office (where you can purchase general / tatkal* tickets if you know the exact train and times) and there being advised that 'tourist Quota' tickets can only be bought from the train station (in this case Seldah station). Having got to the station in a taxi (which took about 1 hour to go 4km) and being told we had to buy them at the authorised agency in BBD Bagd area (Fairlee Place Reservation, 17 Nataji Subhas Rd) we were exhausted and gave up so we just paid the commission to the travel agent!

NJP to Varanasi

We ended up going to a travel agent again as the trains were really booked up because of the frequent Darjeeling Bandhs.

Varanasi to Delhi

This time we found out using the internet that there was 2 available tourist quota tickets so we nabbed them quickly at the station!! Making sure we had written down the train details before we left. At Varanasi station however there is a very helpful man in the tourist information office for once who will provide you with the train numbers if necessary (not the man who books the tickets though - he is far too busy and important!!) 

Delhi to Agra

At Varanasi we decided to book a few trains ahead so did this one as well. 

Agra to Jodhpur

We also booked this one in Varanasi too. However this time there was only 1 foreign tourist quota ticket. For the other we had to join a waiting list as mentioned above. We were told that you should get on the train if you book on the waiting list as long as you are below WL 10. This does however depend on the size of the train and your particular carriage.

Jodhpur to Jaisalmer

Managed to get a tatkal ticket 48hrs before just because we happened to be up early that morning!

Jodhpur to Mumbai

Checked for the tourist quota on the Internet then rushed to Jodhpur station to get the 2 that were available. Could only get 3AC but it was fine!

Goa to Kerala

(Mumbai to Goa - flight)
Tatkal ticket in 3AC again. Could have booked online but forgot our credit card so ended up booking with a travel agent in Palolem.

Varkala to Alleppey 

We were too late to book tickets online (the list had already been made) so we were advised to just turn up and buy the ticket at the station. This did worry me as the queues are always long and slow and what if we didn't get a seat? However the bigger (long distance, ie to and from Mumbai) trains are not busy in the southern part of Kerala so you will get an AC berth. The ticket counters at Varkala were also quite orderly and efficient so it took only 5 minutes to get the ticket we wanted. They just don't give you a seat number but you can basically sit anywhere. If you don't want to tie yourself down you could do this in S Kerala.

---

Comments

[Ravi]

comment
Meechy !!! i have go through your comment.. it is very usefull for all who are treveling.. thanks for sharing...