When traveling in India there are several options to travel through the country. Buses, taxis, and hiring a private driver are some of the options, but traveling by train is definitely a big part of the adventure.

My experience traveling on trains has been good, safe and almost pleasant and I’m sharing it here so you can do it easily too.

The railway network of India is one of the largest in the world, with connections between almost all areas of the country, and in cities where there is no rail network you can connect with it through government or private buses.

 

How to buy my train tickets?

There are websites where you can buy your train ticket, the official website is the IRCTC but also buy them in Cleartrip or MakeMyTrip. You will need to open an account and to have an Indian local number to be able to do it.

I personally could never open it, so what I do is the following or I just go to a travel agency where they can issue the tickets for you for a small fee.

To buy tickets, many foreigners have trouble within the official website, then the easiest or the only option is to go directly to an office. In the biggest cities in the train station there is a special office for tourists, where you can also wait for your train depart, often having air conditioning and those who work there are usually very friendly.

 

Another option in some cities is going to the “Foreign Tourist Office” where they sell tickets especially to tourists and there are almost always available tickets.

 

There is a system for purchasing tickets with a number of available seats for Indians and for tourists. Since normally there are lots of people that try to buy tickets, they are often sold.

For tourists there is a special “quota”, you pay some extra rupees depending on the route, and you can usually find available seats with that, which for Indians often means to buy his tickets with months of anticipation (normally tickets starting to sale for almost all the destinations with 60 days of anticipation). For foreigners, it is easier to buy last minute tickets as with the special Tourist Quota almost always you will find a ticket in the date you need, except if you want to travel on air conditioning classes in which the seats get sell quickly.

There’s also a Ladies quota, which purchases a special sector for women, but being a foreigner you usually get seats close to other foreign or families, so you should have no problems with that.

To be able to obtain a ticket on the desired date, there are waiting lists in every train for available quotas and often you can see some people travel without a secured seat, and because of it, you see people occupying your place or the soil so often.

When buying a ticket at the train station you need to fill in this form with all the details of your trip and some personal data, this is especially required when buying at a regular office, so you must know in advance the train number or at least the route. Better if you already did your research on about which train you want to take so you have the change to get a ticket on the one who fits more into your schedule.

You can only buy it as a non-Indian directly at the train station the day before your trip and they usually say they only have access to their system until 2 pm.

On each route there are different trains and most of the times there are big differences between each others schedule, then my recommendation is to check the route and available options on the website before going to the office, so you know which train you want to travel with, because sometimes there are up to 8 hours between a train and another.

 

 

 

There are 8 different kinds of seats:

• Air-conditioned first class (AC1-1A), H
• Air-conditioned 2-tier (AC2-2A) car A.
• Air-conditioned 3-tier (AC3-3A) car B.
• First class (FC)
• AC Executive chair class (EC)
• AC Chair class (CC) car C.
• Sleeper Class (SL) car S.
• 2nd class seats (2S = reserved or unreserved II

On my first trip, I traveled mostly in Sleeper class, just because I had no previous plans so it was the only tickets I could find.

TIP: Get ready to get a bit dusty!!! This area of the train is one of the cheapest and above all I found it to be very comfortable. I mean, for the price you pay for it.

You will get a seat that later will be your bed, no sheets or pillow, but also no AC and the windows are open, at least it is ventilated, you can walk around and lay down at night. If you’re traveling by night is usually fresh, but many routes may be somewhat tortuous during the daytime near the summer months.

In the Sleeper Class as well in the 3AC, you find 6 seats in each compartment on one side (3 side benches on each side in front of each other), plus two on the other side.
You can choose to seat at a Lower, Middle or Upper bank or at the bank side called Side.

Under the low seats, there is a place to tie your suitcase or backpack, or to put a chain with a lock if you want. My backpack was big enough to not to be a temptation to extract it under the seat. While safety on trains is good overall, it is never a bad idea to have precautions and anywhere you are my suggestion is to take basic steps and have always close to you your valuable belongings and not in the backpack that you will leave under the seat. 

They always advise women choose an Upper bank to avoid starings or someone to take your seat. For day trips for me was more comfortable ride the Upper bank, you can sleep throughout the journey with no one to interrupt or bother trying to sit next to you.

When I traveled by night I always took a Lower bank because it was near my backpack and also have access to the window to see the station in which you are, so fewer chances to miss the one you want to go off as they don’t announce the stations.

Trains don’t announce the stations in which they do stops, for what you must be attentive to the station that corresponds to you and the hour of arrival not to be wrong of stop! You can check the itinerary of every route knowing the Number of the train on the website www.indianrail.gov.in

I recommend not to use very provocative clothes to travel by train (as well as in the whole country), I had my ” train dress” that was very wide and I was wearing with wider pants, leaving everything for the imagination, which helped me to avoid several looks of the amicable Indian friends.

There is no restaurant car in most of the trains in India, but the company offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner served in your seat. They will start selling it as soon as it’s time to eat. I recommend if you choose this option always order the vegetarian, more likely to be in good condition, especially with high temperatures.

At the train stations, there are usually stalls near the train where you can find water, other beverages, fruits and other snacks.

At the train station: How to know where my train will be?

When taking the train begins the adventure, to not lose your train or taking the wrong one you have to look at two things: the number and name of your train, destination and estimated time of departure.

Normally stations have an electronic display showing the route of the trains, it’s not surprising to find some last minute changes (time of departure or platform) that are normally announced by loudspeaker, so watch out for announcements they will be made near the departure time of your train. After you know which platform your train is going to depart next step it’s to find the car class and number. You usually find the signs on the platform indicating the location of each class, and you can also check in this website it’s not official information but it’s really accurate.

Depending on the station, trains stop in small towns only a few minutes then you will have to rush to find your car, but in main cities, they stand for several minutes then you will not have trouble finding your seat.

Although the seats in almost all the classes are numbered, often there are some people who occupy any free seat, for what it is not rare if you get in the middle of the route of a train to find yours occupied for someone else. Be firm and required to occupy the seat that corresponds to you however much they smile and move the head like Indians do so beautifully.

Undoubtedly, India travel by train is an unforgettable experience if you travel in India, innumerable anecdotes, faces, smells and an experience that will make you a more experienced traveler. I think after traveling in India you can travel almost anywhere in the world without major problems.

Traveling India by train It’s a good way to see the country and share with the locals, it will definitely be in your travel memories forever!

 

Have you ever travel through India by train? How was your experience?

 

Updated March 2018, first published Jun 7, 2014