Sleeper trains India
 

I am planning a trip in Oct/Nov to include a visit to Khajuraho 1 night/Varanasi 2 nights/Pushkar for the fair 2 nights, and back from Jodhpur to Delhi. I would like to take an overnight train Varanasi/Delhi and again Jodhpur/Delhi and would like to know what I can expect in the best category of travel.

"Best category" is 1AC, pix & lots of info on seat61.com. Not all trains have 1AC, and only 2 4-people and 1 2-person compartments are usually available. Travelling solo I actually preferred 2AC, more interesting people. 1AC seemed to be mostly middle-aged business/government men in white salwar suits. Have a good trip!

I think from your name that you are a woman. The best category is first a.c but as a woman you should only travel first a/c on segments where they have ladies only compartments. First a/c is very comfortable, clean, adequate linen provided, bathrooms decent. Second a/c will be smaller sleeper berths and significantly more people. The biggest difference between first a/c and second a/c will be in level fo cleanliness of bathrooms - simply correlated to # provided vis-a-vis number of passengers first a/c is used by less people. Trains also have a category called 1st non a/c but as train travel in India can be very dusty this is generally avoidable in the desert.

http://waynehazle.com/india/Day2/nikon.htm
Go to the bottom of this page and look at the two pictures for India train.

My train experience was one of the most unforgettable parts of my India trip. I was told by my tour company that I would be put on the first class train from Delhi to Varanasi. I think because I had been reading about the Orient Express and the Palace on Wheels, I was expecting a sumptous car all to myself. I was just put on a car with local people... actually I will post a section from my trip report, my travel journal that I wrote in a seperate post.

Overall the train was fine, it was great to mix in with regular locals, obviously I was with locals wealthy enough to pay for first class. I still slept with all my bags locked around my legs. It was a little warm at one point, but fans came on.

When I needed to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I had to unchain myself. I looked to see if everyone else was sleeping and then dashed to the bathroom.

I would go on the Indian train again in a second.

(some of the formatting will be a bit funky, it is too long to explain why)

excerpt from the Hazle Journal 2002:

OFF TO VARANASI (OR HOW I LEARNED TO
LOVE THE INDIAN TRAIN SYSTEM AND STOP
WORRYING.)

Sonny and the driver came to pick me up
and in the evening we went to the train station.

What pandemonium! It was a menagerie
of all kinds of people. Whole families
slept on the dusty concrete. Sonny led me by
the masses of people as we looked for my car. I would be riding the luxury sleeper class
train. Funny thing is I mentioned this to
someone on the Internet
who had been to India
and he asked me where
I was getting the word
“luxury” from. It would
be a train that I could
sleep on, but that was it.
He tried to temper my
delusions by telling me
that luxury in India and
America isn’t the same
thing.

Despite this warning I must say my expectations
were a tad high. I thought of the legendary
Orient Express. I expected pretty
much my own car, with the walls and floors
lined with silk. Veiled maidens bathing my
feet in the juice from pomegranates. The
smell of frankincense and myrrh would permeate
the entire car. Tender bite sized morsels
of curry chicken would be spoon-fed to
me. Sonny and I went from car to car, he
would look at a paper taped to the outside,
realize this wasn’t the right one, and then go
to the next one. Finally we arrived at a car.
He looked
and saw my
name on a
list with like
one hundred
other
names.
“Hmmm
they’re going
to need
a lot of
pomegranates!”,
I
thought as I
stepped in.

And then
I was inside. There was no silk, no frankincense,
poor air conditioning, and teaming
masses struggling to find their bunk. The
“beds” folded out from the wall, eight in each
tiny section. On each side there were three
bunks up to the top and then against the
other wall there was an upper and lower
bunk. I plopped myself down on a lower one
as I struggled to lift my jaw. “Can this be
happening?” You could have hit me in the
head with a bat and I wouldn’t have noticed. I
just sat there staring off into space. A guy
came up next to me with his ticket. He had
the lower bunk and I had the upper one.

I didn’t move. No sense in going up to the
top, any second now the door would open
and they would say, “Just kidding Mr. Hazle,
your private car awaits.” Half an hour later
the veiled maidens hadn’t arrived.
“Well I wanted the real India, and so
here it is.” I sighed and threw all my suitcases
onto the top bunk and climbed up. I
took out all the bicycle cables and locks I was
instructed to bring and chained and connected
all my pieces of luggage together.
Nothing was going to disappear in the night!
A porter came by and brought fresh sheets
for everyone. I put one sheet under me.
Then I looped one leg through the mass of
chains and cables threw the other sheet over
the suitcases and myself and leaned back. A
strange maniacal grin crept onto my face.
Delirium had set
in.

The truth is, it
probably wasn’t
quite that bad.
It’s just that the
chasm between
expectation and
reality was
sooooo vast. I
watched all my
new Indian
friends prepare
themselves to
sleep. I was a
stranger in a
strange land. I pulled my trusty black fedora
over my head and closed my eyes.

But here was my second train experience going from Varanasi to Agra:


In time the driver came to take me to
the train station. I was much more aware
of my surroundings this time. I was
ready for round two with the train system.
The director guided me to the correct
train. I found my bunk and settled
in. It was like being back home again. I
chatted with my bunk mates freely as the
train pulled away from the station. This
time I was on a lower bunk. I tucked my
suitcases underneath, chaining them together.
I took a big swig from my bottled
water. Confidence pulsed through
my veins. It would be smooth sailing
from…

A man burst into our section, “Is there
a doctor here? We have a man not
breathing!”
I looked further down the car and
could see a crowd gathered around something.
I got closer and could see people
pumping a man’s chest. His wife wailed.
The rest of us stood around not knowing
what to do. A
woman doctor was
on the train. She
fought her way
through the crowd.
It was pandemonium
in the car.

The stereotype of
India is that it is so
crowded that you
could drop dead in
the streets and people
just step right
over you. But you
should have seen how the men on the
train took care of that wife, comforting
her, giving her water, putting cold towels
on her face. Meanwhile our ER team
struggled to save her husband’s life. Her
frantic cries broke down to moans and
whimpers. (Not to be a self-centered
American, but does anyone care I am
going to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow?)
Each second moved like an hour. It
became clear that things were not going
well. Groups of men gathered in corners
away from the scene and talked in
hushed voices. A lot of people of India
speak in an interesting combination of
Hindi and English, jokingly called
“Hinglish”. Basically it is Hindi with
English words thrown in once in a while.
So the voices I heard sounded like,
“Biddy biddy biddy not breathing.
Biddy biddy hospital soon. Biddy biddy,
death certificate.”

Soon the pumping of the man’s chest
stopped, the moaning stopped, people
made their way back to their bunks. It
seemed to take forever to get to the next
stop. Some men took up a small collection
for her. I gave some rupees. As we
slowed down for our stop, the silence of
death was overwhelming. After several
“official” type people came in and out of
the car, several men scooped up the
man’s body in a sheet. I watched as they
walked right by me. He was a pudgy man
probably in his sixties. His eyes were
closed. Two men helped his wife, his
widow, off the train.

The fact is, this could have happened
anywhere at anytime. People die every
second of every day, from Beverly Hills,
to Palestine to Paris and yes even on a
train in India. I would never know who
this woman and man were, or what their
lives had been. They never knew my
friend Sam. There are six and a half
billion people on this planet, how many
of them mean anything to us?
I curled under my sheets. This was a
bit too much reality for me in one day.

and finally this was what happened when I got to the Agra station:

I awoke early in the morning,
the sun was just starting to come
up. Between cars I opened the
exit door and look out on the
landscape. We passed beautiful
open farmland. The intense,
emotion draining events of yesterday
seemed like a distant
memory. I went back to my bunk
and got more sleep.
Eventually, we pulled into
Tundla Station. I met Anurag
Sharma of Colleague Tours. He
originally saw my Internet post
about traveling to India on a
newsgroup. He contacted me,
arranged the itinerary, and continually
updated it until we got it
right. It is strange to communicate
with someone via mail or
email and then finally see them. I
had no clue what to expect, I was
just glad to be here.

The train station had the usual
crowd of people. An older guy, at
least fifties, offered to carry my
bags. Anurag nodded to me that
this was OK.

The man took
two of my
heaviest suitcases
and
stacked them
on his head.
The other he
carried by
hand. As
Anurag and I
walked the 800
miles to the car,
I couldn’t help
peeking out the
corner of one
eye at the guy behind us. He
struggled under the weight of all
my junk, but he stared proudly
ahead as he walked forward. He
might have been of the impoverished
low class, but he didn’t
need my pity, he just needed to
be able to do something to make
money.

I was happy for him as we approached
the car. Anurag indicated
he would take care of the
tip. I saw him slip a coin (as in
one!) to the guy. I felt guilty and
quickly slipped some paper rupees
to him. For the whole trip I
was never sure if I was giving the
right amount as a tip. Most people
would take whatever you put
in their hand and thank you, without
looking at it in your presence.
This is polite, but what happened
when they were out of my sight?
Either I greatly offended someone,
or I gave them a down payment
on a house!

Well, I'm female, and I traveled solo on quite a few Indian trains in 1AC, 2AC and 3AC and didn't ever feel threatened. I didn't ever encounter a women-only 1AC compartment, either. I did lock my padlocked backpack to the strap under the bottom bunk (not to myself, lol).

Great read Wayne, I look forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

Was your trip booked at the very last minute?

The main overnight trains from Delhi to Varanasi have first class air con (US$54 per person), 2-tier air con ($28.7), and 3-tier air con ($18.6), you had 3-tier air con.

Also, there are overnight trains from Varanasi to Agra, so don't know why you needed to get off at Tundla.

I think I booked my trip around a month ahead of time.

This si the first time I heard that there was a train station in Agra! I wonder why I went to Tundla too ...

Wayne - that's really strange - did you book through an agency? There are two train stations in Agra - Agra Cantt and Agra Fort (for Rajasthan).

No I used a tour company... a local company in Agra.

I met up with people from the company. You would think it would be easier for them too to get me on the train to Agra. There must be some reason.

It is hard for me to believe tht April will make it fours years since my trip.

Wayne, you're getting me into trouble at work......I spent too much time reading about your trip last night, a great read.

Most of the trains on the (very busy) Calcutta - Delhi stretch don't go through Agra, and Tundla is the closest station they get to Agra, I can only imagine the Agra train was booked out.

Lucy, I wish you'd supplied more info.......

I hope your flying Delhi - Khajuraho - Varanasi.....


Varanasi to Delhi

Train 2559 departs Varanasi daily at 18:45 and gets to New Delhi at 07:45 (1A, 2A.)

Train 2381 departs Varanasi (W, Th, Su.) at 19:50 and gets to New Delhi at 08:10(1A, 2A)

Mughal Sarrai is 17 Kms from Varanasi.

Train 2303 departs Mughal Sarrai (M, Tu, F, Sa.) at 20:40 and gets to New Delhi at 08:10. (1A, 2A)

Train 2393 departs Mughal Sarrai daily at 21:35 and gets to New Delhi at 08:50. (1A, 2A.)

Train 2401 departs Mughal Sarrai daily at 22:40 and gets to New Delhi at 11:45. (1A, 2A.)

First class air con (1A) = Rs 2395
2-tier air con (2A) = Rs 1272
--------------------------

Ajmer (Pushkar) to Jodhpur

Train 2JA departs Ajmer daily at 14:25 and gets to Jodhpur at 19:50.
(Scheduled to stop at Marwar Jn at 16:45 then depart at 17:20)

CC = Rs 279

There are 2 seats (CC) reserved for foreign tourists.
--------------------------

Jodhpur - Delhi

Train 2462 departs Jodhpur daily at 19:30 and gets to (Old) Delhi at 06:30 (1A, 2A.)

Train 2464 departs Jodhpur (Tu, Th, Sa.) at 20:10 and gets to Delhi Sarai Rohilla at 07:15 (1A, 2A.)

Train 4060 departs Jodhpur daily at 22:30 and gets to (Old) Delhi at 11:30 (2A)

1A = Rs 2089
2A = Rs 1115
-------------------------------

You may want to consider other options.......

There is an overnight train from Varanasi to Agra, there is also an overnight train from Jodhpur to Agra, or an overnight train (or very fast daytime train) from Ajmer to Delhi.

The times of all those trains can be found on the following link.

http://www.indiamike.com/india/showthread.php?t=1750

Check out the following website for photos of the different classes on Indian Trains.

http://www.seat61.com/India.htm

Thanks for all the info. Yes, I am flying Delhi/Khahuraho and then flying Kha/Varanasi. It was the Var/Del sector that I could either take the train or fly. I am then trying to link it up to arriving in Jaipur without overniting in Delhi.

What day of the week would this be?

(Many trains only run weekly)

Train 4863 departs Varanasi (Tu, Th, F, & Su.) at 18:15 and gets to Jaipur at 11:40.

Train 4853 departs Varanasi (M, W, & Sa.) at 17:20 and gets to Jaipur at 11:40.

You'll have to do this journey in 2-tier air con.

It may seem like a long journey, but train travel in India is a great experience, my last trip started with a 44 hour train journey from Delhi to Assam.

I read all about your trip Wayne, it sounds like you had a great time, but I'm not sure the travel agent done you too many favours.

It's amazing that they didn't put you on a train from Delhi to Varanasi, there are plenty of trains and their mostly very well timed.

Then to put you on a train to Tundla instead of Agra (I hope this was from Varanasi and not Mughal Sarai).

Also, the money you must have paid, and you did 2 safaris in cantors???? I'm on a much smaller budget, but I did 3 safaris in jeeps (saw a mother and cubs on 1st. nothing on 2nd. then a big male stopped right in front of our jeep and took a long look at us, a bit scary)

Anyway, you enjoyed your trip, thats all that counts.

You write well, I've now passed your writings to a friend who's also enjoying the read.

I did take a train from Delhi to Varanasi. That was the first trip. The funny part is that I was expecting some Orient Express/Palace on Wheels thing. Though what I got ended up being fine.

The Mughal Sarai was in Varanasi. Then yes I rode from their to Tundla. They picked me up in Tundla in a car and drove me to the Mughal Sheraton in Agra.

So maybe there was a closer station for me when going to Agra. Thank goodness I enjoyed the drive.

I highly recommend taking a train. We went from Shekawati to Delhi on an overnight train a four cabin with couchettes, I think it was 2AC. It was a great opportunity to meet Indian travellers and one of the highlights of our trip.

The couchettes were fine and the cabin and linens were clean. WE met two brother from a merchant family who were travelling into Delhi to visit a family member in hospital.

We arrived at a rather obscure train station at 5am -our friend in Delhi had never heard of it! The crowd outside the station was rather overwhelming but I recommend just pushing through and picking a taxi driver asap without worring whether you've overpaid by a dollar ot two.

On our next trip to India I'm sure we'll pick more route by train, it's a very Indian way to travel.

welltraveledbrit - if it was a cabin with a door you were in 1AC. 2AC is an open compartment with curtains (see the pix. at http://seat61.com/India.htm). In general I found the people in 2AC more friendly than those in 1AC, but you can always get lucky!

Mughal Sarrai is about 18 Kms outside of Varanasi, I'm not sure why your travel agent never booked a train to Varanasi station (and from Varanasi station to Agra Fort station), but as long as you enjoyed the journey from the stations, thats OK. it's all part of the India experience.

I will be taking several trains, one overnight. Is not a lock sufficient for luggage, and, if not, can you be specific about how you secured your bag(s)? Thanks.

There are straps ending in a metal loop hanging from the bottom bunks/seats. I took a cable and padlock and used them to secure my backpack to the strap. I kept my day pack beside me. I wore a money belt.

Thanks for the response. I guess I should get one of those cables and locks. I will be traveling with one suitcase, a daypack and a waistpack.

linhelen - how big a suitcase? And the general advice is that waistpacks are not secure. Don't use one instead of a money belt.

Re suitcase size..Haven't decided between approx. 21"x14" or 23x17.I usually take the smaller one but I will be gone for a longer time on this trip (17 days).The waist pack doubles as a shoulder bag. It can easily slip under a shirt when used as a waist pack, esp. when on a train.

linhelen - I'd vote for the smaller case and doing some laundry. That way you can handle it yourself and not hassle with porters. I'd also vote for a money belt - in addition to your waist pack - when your valuables are next to your skin you don't need to worry about them.

My preference is the smaller case. However I will be traveling for 18 days and there doesn't seem to be time or opportunity for any laundering. Even though I don't mind wearing things until they fall off :-),I don't know if I will have enough space.

If you take things you can handwash and dripdry it takes very little time. Places like travelsmith.com sell clothes specifically designed for that.

Any Indian hotel will have a same-day laundry service that does a good job at negligible cost.