Trains in India! Those who are at least a little in the know immediately see a shocking picture: passengers are stuck around the carriage on all sides, falling out of the doors and hanging in clusters from the roof... And God forbid traveling in this way! Is the devil as scary as he is painted, and what can one really expect from Indian trains? Let’s share our personal experience :)

One of the advantages of traveling by train in India is that it is cheap; you can travel across the entire country and pay ridiculous amounts of money by our standards. Thanks to this, railways in India are in great favor with local population, which moves in huge crowds in all directions (at least that is the impression). Because of this, tickets for many trains are sold out long before the departure date.

Yes, this doesn’t happen in India!

In India, trains, or rather carriages, have different levels of comfort. The main difference is the presence of air conditioning, or AC. Read more about different classes of trains in the following posts. And today I will talk about the class that is most popular both among the local population and among numerous travelers.

So, meet the Sleeper class in all its glory!

Sleepers differ from the well-known reserved seat berth by the presence of additional shelves in the middle, i.e. The shelves are located not in 2 rows, but in 3. There are 2 side shelves. During the day, the middle shelves are folded so that those sitting on the lower ones do not rest their heads on them. Train tickets are sold at the rate of 1 shelf per person, but thrifty Indians, having bought 1 ticket, often manage to huddle on a shelf with an entire family, including children. So most often the sleepers are crowded.

But don't worry, the toilets in these carriages are quite decent. As elsewhere in India, there are two options: a Western style toilet, the familiar toilet, and an Indian style toilet, a hole in the floor. As they say, complete freedom of choice :)

But in the slippers in each car there are sockets

Another feature is the lack of glass in the windows. When it's hot outside, the cool breeze blowing as the train moves is just great! During the day you can while away a long drive by looking out the window. Landscapes slowly glide past. Hills, rivers, small villages and rice fields are replaced by busy cities... At night, the windows are closed with special shutters. But the problem is that the shutters do not close tightly, and at night there are drafts throughout the carriage. We, seasoned travelers, do not travel in a sleeper without a sleeping bag, which is what we advise you to do :)

Driving from Varanasi to Agra

There are no air conditioners in the sleeper class! And, in my opinion, this is more a plus than a minus. If there is an air conditioner in a carriage in India, rest assured, it will be turned up to full blast. Because of this, it is literally arctic cold in the air-conditioned carriages. So the chances of catching a cold both in sleeper cars, with their lack of glass in the windows, and in AC cars are approximately the same.

In addition to windows, there is another ventilation system in the car. These are huge, dusty, rattling fans attached to the ceiling. However, they cope with their task and help passengers not die from stuffiness at stations and during long stops.

The audience in the slipper will at first cautiously peer at you, white monkeys, craning their necks and smiling shyly. After the traditional dating procedure in the style of “Your name? Which country?" locals will question you, trying to explain themselves in broken English, treat you to various delicacies and take photographs as a souvenir. If you travel long enough, you can get to know half the carriage, have fun and make new friends. Agree, this is great!

The doors to the carriage are always open, and at every station there is a crowd of peddlers of all kinds of food. All you hear are shouts of “Tea, tea!!!”, “Pani oooooter” (in other words, water), “Tomato suuup, chicken biriaaaaani!” The wheels tap rhythmically, the carriage creaks, you lean out the window into the wind and smile...

On the way to Mumbai we met some cool guys :)

We rode sleepers many times, both ourselves and with our tourists. The guys prepared for the worst (that is, we prepared them, just in case), and in the end they were pleasantly surprised that everything was not so scary. There was, however, one case... Due to an error in the tickets, our group of 9 people had to travel from Varanasi to Agra on only 4 shelves! Brrrrr... But this incident really brought everyone together; they arrived, although tired, but happy :)

What do you need to take with you for a trip in a sleeper carriage?

  • Sleeping bag

There are no linens, pillows or mattresses in the sleeper, so a sleeping bag is a must-have, because sleeping on bare shelves is not very pleasant. Again, during the cold season, a sleeping bag is vital for warmth. Locals wrap themselves tightly and cover their heads with sheets, reminiscent of a mummy rookery, but, in my opinion, a sleeping bag is still preferable :)

  • Luggage lock

You need it to securely fasten your backpack under the bottom shelf. It is difficult to judge how relevant this measure is. During the entire time we became acquainted with Indian railways, no one made an attempt to take anything away from us. But the locals diligently secure their belongings, and we follow their example (although maybe they are afraid of us? :)) And, of course, you shouldn’t leave your camera, laptop and other gadgets unattended.

If you are not particularly squeamish and want to fully taste the Indian flavor, meet the locals and have fun, be sure to ride a sleeper class train in India. Unlike more expensive carriages, in which the public looks at you with a touch of superiority, the sleeper has a very democratic atmosphere, and you understand how many truly extraordinary open and friendly people there are among Indians!

Three years ago I told you about the expedition of Sergei Bolashenko, and in the middle of summer he gave me his new book - this time about the expedition to India, which took place at the beginning of the year 2016.

[...] India is a separate world, to some extent living separately from ours. A country of enormous proportions, not only and not so much in territory, but in population. And at the same time, the civilizational gap with us is smaller than with “hieroglyphic” China. Advantages of traveling in India: first of all, the spirit of discovery. Not the most visited country by foreigners, if we ignore the rare “ostentatious” places. A gigantic and not the most famous railway network. Even about the railways of civilizationally distant China, many times more has been written in Russian than about the railways of India.

To be honest, I personally am not as interested in Indian railways as Chinese or American ones. And India itself also causes a certain wariness: I don’t like hot countries. But it was still interesting to hear first-hand about this phenomenon. Below I have prepared a small selection of photographs from his trip and collected some of the author’s comments (highlighted in the text brown).

Indian railways are some of the most sloppy in the world, and yet carry the highest number of passengers on the planet.

[...] The railway preserves the spirit of freedom and even some anarchy, which remains almost nowhere else in the world. The fare level is perhaps the lowest on the planet. Almost all over India all year round warm. English has an official status; a significant part of the population speaks it to one degree or another.

Flaws. They exist, and there are many of them. India is an extremely bureaucratic country, and also quite a “police” country. It is prohibited to photograph the railway, metro and administrative buildings here. Any photography of anything other than typical sights is not encouraged here. “Terrorophobia” is developed everywhere. Indian bureaucracy will create many problems. Inability to use cheap hotels - they won’t let you in with a foreign passport. No amount of persuasion will help. It will take half an hour for basic operations - exchanging currency at the bank, arranging for an overnight stay in the rest room at the station. Difficulty in purchasing a telephone SIM card.

The situation with the cleanliness of cities and train stations is not the best. To put it simply, in some places everything is drowning in garbage. Cheap food, but you have to eat exactly that way, it’s prepared and served with dirty hands, which are used to take money. An unaccustomed traveler is almost guaranteed to have stomach problems to a greater or lesser extent. However, the likelihood of contracting serious diseases like malaria or dysentery in India is much lower than in “black” Africa.

The railway is cheap and developed, but traffic on it is almost chaotic. It's hard to leave for in the right direction. Unpredictable arrival time. Trains are “clogged” half the time, and you will have to spend many hours standing. However, even the above problems can be positioned as a plus, not a minus! Everything is real here, here you are a true traveler! This is not a banal “walk” through a civilized, orderly, predictable and “watched over” Europe!

As far as I understood from reading the book, Sergei was unable to fully implement the original plan, and he did not travel around the south of the country - he had to be content with the middle part: Delhi - Varanasi - Calcutta - a section of the ocean coast - the middle part with diesel locomotive lines - Bhopal - return to Delhi. Also missing is Bombay. During the trip, he had three (or more) confrontations with the police regarding filming. However, let's look at the selection:

2. Delhi Station is the starting point of the trip.

3. Delhi Railway Station tracks. The trains and tracks look very unpresentable.

4. The locomotives are also not well maintained. Please also note that the glass is protected by bars.

[...] The main method of coupling cars on Indian railways is the Janney automatic coupler. The same method of coupling cars is adopted on the railways of China and the USA. The outdated method of coupling - a screw coupler - has not completely disappeared. Passenger carriages are predominantly screw-tied. The locomotives have coupling devices in the form of a Janney automatic coupler and a screw coupler at the same time.

Sleepers are almost universally reinforced concrete, including in areas with little activity. Steel sleepers from a century ago can be found on narrow gauge lines, but even on them they are rather the exception. As in Russia - high landing platforms at large stations and in the suburban area largest cities, low landing platforms in other places. The speed of trains is generally comparable to ours. "Prestigious" fast trains move much faster than others.

5. The beginning of a showdown with the police. In the center of the frame is a policeman (in a protective jacket) who noticed the filming and will now take Sergei to find out.

6. The author traveled only in carriages of lower categories. They are almost all overcrowded: hundreds of millions travel on trains.

[...] I used General Class carriages everywhere. In commuter trains and in the trains of the narrow gauge railways studied, all cars are “simple” and belong to the same category. General Class cars are usually located at the head and tail of each train, except for fast express trains. The layout, as a rule, corresponds to Second Class Sleeper cars. They may be tightly packed - people stand in the aisles and sit (rather than lie) on the upper shelves. But those who managed to lie down on the top bunk are not forced to rise. The side overhead shelves are occupied by luggage.

There are no conductors on “people’s” trains - and not only in General Class carriages, but also in some higher categories. Maintaining cleanliness and order in the carriage, closing the doors if it gets cold is the task of the passengers themselves. “People’s” trains and carriages are so crowded in about half the cases that you can stand in them for hours. The "population" of trains is unpredictable. If it becomes unbearable to travel for many hours in a “barrel of herring”, you can get off, take the next train, and there, surprisingly, the “general” carriages will be almost empty.

High-speed highways parallel to conventional lines, like in China and Western Europe, do not exist in India. In my opinion, it’s very good that they don’t exist! I don’t like this, I think it’s inappropriate and I have a sharply negative attitude towards plans to build similar lines in Russia.

The cost of travel in the lowest class cars: for example, 22 rupees per 100 kilometers, if it is a slow train of the “Ordinary” category and if the trip length is 200 kilometers. On a Mail/Express category train, 30-35 rupees per 100 kilometers, on a Superfast category train, 40-50. Depends on the distance of the trip - the further, the lower the per-kilometer tariff. 10 rupees is approximately 11 Russian rubles. For 1 US dollar you can travel 250-300 kilometers.

There are no turnstiles anywhere on the “regular” railway - there are only in the metro. There are almost no manual platform controls at train stations. Checking tickets inside carriages, at least of low class, is a very rare occurrence. You can probably drive for years and still not see any inspectors. But there are few free riders - Indians are not allowed to be deceived by their mentality, their worldview.

I won’t say that everyone buys tickets. Of course this is not true. But the percentage of free riders is not as high as it would be logical to initially assume, seeing the lack of control and the chaotic situation. Even those who ride on rooftops often have tickets! They ride on rooftops only on a narrow track in rare remote provincial places. Soon there will be no narrow gauge railways in India, except for isolated “attraction” lines, and no riders on rooftops.

7. Timetables outside major centers are often in Hindi and other regional languages ​​without dubbing into English.

9. One of the few stations that looks clean and decent is Moradabad.

10. Water towers in India are completely different from ours.

11. Another specific local problem is monkeys on the tracks. They mostly hang out where there is a lot of garbage (Indians throw it out easily, without ceremony). They are probably "cut" by trains from time to time.

12. The interior of a General Class carriage without the crowd.

13. Sergei’s fellow traveler on this train.

[...] The best way to travel railways In India, in my opinion, in my opinion, ask for a “common ticket” everywhere. At the box office we say: Please, the cheapest ticket to ..., in general class. You must make sure that the cashier took exactly the amount written on the ticket. Only cash is accepted at the station ticket offices. I didn’t see any machines for buying tickets. There are queues, but not very long.

A high-category ticket for a specific train can be bought online - both on the official website of the railway, which is very often unavailable, and on numerous agent sites, with a surcharge. After paying on the website, you can print the form yourself electronic ticket, you can get a paper ticket at the station ticket office using the code.

On some trains this is not required - travel occurs without a ticket, only with an ID card plus a written down digital code that the site will send. The conductor will have a list of passengers. This possibility is indicated as legal, but contradicts the requirement to enter the platform only with a ticket, at least a “platform” ticket. I doubt the usefulness of all this. In all these cases we are talking about buying a ticket for a specific train. Which one will have to wait and which will need to be found.

The cost of a “General Class” ticket will differ depending on the category of trains specified on the ticket for which it is valid: “Mail/Express” or “Ordinary”. Trains of the “Ordinary” category are the slowest, moving with all stops, most often an analogue of ours commuter trains over a short distance. By default, long-distance tickets are issued via Mail/Express. But the price is low anyway.

“General class” tickets are unnamed and do not indicate a specific train, only the departure and arrival stations. Is there a limit on the distance, is it possible to take such a ticket, for example, from Delhi to Kanyakumari, the farthest point, has not been clarified. The time limit for validity is indicated on the ticket and is small. I would not recommend taking one ticket for thousands of kilometers. The task of the traveler is to move slowly, with many stops and transfers. The ticket will soon be considered invalid.

The advantage of a “general” ticket over tickets of high categories is not only in price, but also in the fact that there is no connection to the train, carriage and place. It is most important! Any train that has the appropriate carriages is accessible - and there are a lot of them on main lines. Given the almost chaotic movement, as well as the huge scale of the stations in big cities and difficult orientation - getting on a particular train is not easy.

Tickets for carriages of a higher category than “general class” are often not available before departure. It is customary to take them in advance. Foreign tourists who are not familiar with local realities may be lied to at the ticket office (especially at a specialized one for foreigners - there are such at the largest train stations) that there are no tickets for today or even for the next few days. Supposedly, you won’t be able to travel from Delhi to Bombay by train, so go by plane or bus. They may remain silent about the existence of a “general class” - the cashiers are either convinced that a foreign tourist will not withstand such conditions, or there are instructions from above to, if possible, keep foreigners away from the carriages of the most “popular” category.

There are long-term "Rail Passes" for foreign tourists, allowing unlimited movement for a certain time in cars of different classes, depending on the price. In my opinion, there is no point in them. Purchase individual tickets it will be cheaper to go to the “general class”, and inspectors in provincial areas may not know about the existence of “passes”.

There are luxury tourist trains for foreign rich people: "Maharajas" Express, "Palace on Wheels" and others. The fare is tens of thousands of dollars. They have no significance for the traveler.

14. Fell along the paths for burning vegetation.

15. Locality in Central India.

16. Electric train.

17. Car with a route sign. The windows in the carriages are always covered with protection to prevent them from climbing in.

18. Bridge over the Ganges River.

19. Kanpur. Monkeys also come to the stations - there is always a lot of food waste there.

20. Kanpur railway station.

21. Kanpur. At night the station is also very busy, trains run around the clock.

22. There are also locomotives-monuments there, just like ours. Art. Allahabad.

23. Again the railway bridge across the great Ganges. This is already in the Varanasi area - where corpses are burned on the shore.

24. Sergei reached Calcutta, passed the legendary Calcutta tram - there are many photographs about it in the book. Now it is called Kolkata.

25. And this is the famous “secret” Howrah bridge, where all travelers who take the bridge are tyrannized. I don't remember exactly, but it seems puerrtto scouted this bridge and had some kind of conflict with the police at the bridge. Or maybe I just got confused, he took it off without any problems.

26. Kolkata main station.

27. Cow on the platform, art. Kharagpur. You can't touch a cow - she's a sacred animal there.

28. Another showdown with the police. A lot of spectators gather at the attraction - they are watching how the white Mr. will now be interrogated.

29. Regarding the legendary ride on rooftops. Sergei found this only in a remote area with diesel locomotive traffic.

Here's what he writes about this:

[...] The last country with railway anarchy, in my opinion, remains India (plus its separatist piece Bengal-Bangladesh). But the situation is changing there too. “Roof Riders” remained only on remote lines. The famous pictures with a train surrounded on all sides by a crowd are from Bangladesh, not India. But even for Bangladesh, this is not their everyday life. This only happens during the peak days of Islamic holidays and only in a small area.

30. More photos with passengers on the roofs.

31. And one more thing. Sabalgarh station.

[...] In terms of traffic safety, the railways are not at the best level. Often, compared to developed countries, crashes and disasters occur with a large number of victims. Reports of another train accident in India, with dozens of deaths, are commonplace. However, the railway is much safer than road transport.

Relations between “central” India and its breakaway regions of Pakistan and Bangladesh are unfriendly. Most of the railway lines across the “inter-Indian” borders have been dismantled. The borders are surrounded by barbed wire and mined. But minimal passenger traffic from India to Pakistan and Bangladesh exists.

32. The train travels through a mountainous region in the depths of Hindustan.

33. Sergei Bolashenko in the vestibule of an Indian train.

34. This is how a two-week train trip took place - from January 21 to February 5, 2016.

* * *
Well, a couple of months ago we met in St. Petersburg and talked about railway topics.

35. Author of the blog and Sergey Bolashenko July 29, 2017 Station "Yuny" of the Malaya Oktyabrskaya railway.

36. Sergei’s book about the Indian expedition.

Indian notes of S. Bolashenko are available in full size and online.

Are you scolding Russian Railways?! Welcome to the general carriage of the Indian train! To visit India and not ride a train and, in particular, in a general carriage means missing out on an incredibly interesting experience, both from the point of view of communication and visual images, and the opportunity to fully engage your sense of smell, sensation, and touch!

Having visited India for the first time in 2007, I tried sleeping cars “without” and “with” air conditioning (Sleeper AC & non-AC), and on this trip I finally got to the General Class of the night train. This is incredibly cool! And the train stations... That's where you'll see such a small train station provincial town late at night, if not in India?!


In fact, nothing special, because probably everyone traveled in a common carriage on our trains... the only difference is that in India you will meet open and friendly fellow travelers. Someone from independent travelers gets into a general carriage by accident, without bothering with a ticket in advance, and in India tens of thousands of people travel by train every day and the fact that there are no tickets for sleeper classes is a common practice.

Judging by the films and what I have seen, general carriages can also be filled in different ways, and it also happens that passengers hang out of the doors. So, one might say, I was lucky; I could move around the carriage relatively calmly, although all the seats, upper shelves, vestibules and... toilets (!) were occupied.

But it all starts with buying tickets. I will write a separate article about trains in India, today I will show photos:

A “second class” carriage, also known as “general class”, is written on the carriages this way and that. It's hot on the train, there are bars instead of windows, and there are non-working fans in the ceiling. While driving through forest belts, all sorts of tropical butterflies and dragonflies fly into the car, which are also quickly blown away by the wind.

Having arrived at the boarding point 40 minutes before departure, my friends and I were unable to board the same carriage, so we rode in the neighboring ones. As it turned out later, we were lucky that we were sitting at all.

Dim artificial light, high ISO, terrifying white balance... but I deliberately did not make the series black and white, after all, India is, first of all, COLOR!

The guys are having dinner in the vestibule. With great difficulty I was able to refuse the offer to sit next to him. Almost every fellow traveler is friendly, trying to talk, show something, treat me with something... They even smeared paint on me in the carriage on the eve of Holi. Unfortunately, there were only a few people in the carriage who spoke English.

The guy on the top shelf took too much on the occasion of Holi and kept trying to fall down:

On average, 5-6 Indians sit on the bottom shelf, although the shelf is the same size as in our reserved seat (for 3 seats). Someone goes to sleep on the floor, and this happens in almost every coupe:

The train station is a different story. A huge number of people spend the night here, there are times when you just need to step over sleeping bodies in order to move forward:

Chief Conductor's Office:

What did you see in the photographs?!
Unsanitary conditions, dirt, smelled an unpleasant smell?!

Most likely, you will be right, but I saw a piece of real India, met pleasant interlocutors and even sent photographs to my fellow travelers. Throw away stereotypes and complexes, try to feel the country from different sides.

To be continued...

Find cheap tickets to India

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Trains in India have one constant feature - they are always late. This must be taken into account. Especially if you have a plane connection, allow an extra few hours for it.
It’s also a good idea to take these points into account. Indians love to turn on air conditioners and fans at full blast, always and everywhere - in train cars, buses, hotels. This craving for cold sometimes goes beyond all reasonable limits - they sit wrapped in scarves, cough, sneeze, but the power does not decrease. They like it that way 🙂 That’s why our people often take tape with them on the train - ordinary wide tape to cover the air conditioner, especially if you got a ticket to the top bunk. And don’t forget a woolen hat, even if you are traveling to the south of India, but there are air-conditioned carriages waiting for you along the route. And if you plan to travel in a sleeper car (SL), then a sleeping bag will not hurt, because... there will either be no glass (and no real refrigerator at night), or the fans will work at full power. And during the day you can go out to the stations to warm up :)

Read also:

Background information about car classes and other features of the Indian Railways

About the old English narrow gauge railway in northern India

The doors of the carriages are not locked while moving, and you can stand in the vestibule in front of the open door the whole way.

How we ran after the train

At the Hospet railway station everything is very simple: everything passenger trains they arrive on the first track, and goods stand on the others. Along the entire platform there are electronic boards on which the train number and the car number light up. Our waiting chairs are right here on the platform. And they announce a hundred times which train is arriving. It couldn’t be simpler, it’s impossible to miss your train.
Ours is No. 7603, from Calcutta. SL car No. 10. We listen to what trains are announced and look at the board. Ours isn't here, he's late. We are waiting further. He's already two hours late. Some express arrived, but not from Calcutta at all, and - most importantly - the number was completely different. Not ours again. We are waiting further. We still have to ask when ours will be. But I must say that there are no conductors in each car, like we have. Here stands some respectable guy, and dull-witted passengers poke their tickets at him, and he waves his hand - showing where their carriage is. We approach it with our ticket (we have one ticket for 2 people). He looked and waved his hand somewhere back, to where the trains come from.
- What, our train will be next?
- This train. This is your train, the 10th car at the end of the train.
We show him the ticket again. The number is different!
- This train.

Not understanding anything, we ran to the tail of the train, where he waved his hand. They passed one carriage, another, a third... Nadyukha shouted: “We can’t be there! These are general, and then luggage.” And suddenly he started moving.
- Nadyushka, jump!
- This is not our carriage!
- Jump faster! Who cares!
She jumped, I followed her, grabbed the inside handrail with my hand, it picked up speed, I almost dislocated my arm. Thank God we jumped at least somewhere in time! It turned out to be a general carriage for ladies. Consists of only two compartments with a vestibule. Some women and two boys looked at us, smiled, and saw us jumping up and down as we walked. We stand with our backpacks like fools, we don’t know what to do next. But I must say that there is no communication between the carriages here; you cannot get to your carriage by train. Just in case, I pulled some kind of door, it turned out to be a toilet. That's it, there are no more doors. Well, then, let's go here to the nearest station.
The women are so pleasant, in bright, beautiful saris, with many bright bracelets, they smile at us, move over, and free up space. I was even glad that we were brought here. I started taking pictures of everyone. They, as always, laugh joyfully when they see the result on the screen. Middle-aged Indian women are a miracle, always so friendly, smiling, in their colorful saris. Your mouth naturally blurs when you communicate with them.
We smiled at each other, took pictures: earrings, bracelets, mehendi - patterns on the hands.

I really enjoyed traveling with them, I would have continued traveling here, but I bought a ticket for a sleeper car with the expectation that I would be able to lie down. So, at the next station we’ll run to look for our carriage. We arranged a meeting: we showed these kind women our ticket and asked where our 10 SL might be. They consulted and decided that he couldn’t be at the back of the train, he had to run to the head. Nadyushka was delighted: “Yes, we rushed to the wrong place. The guy on the platform told us wrong.” Well, the guy was too personable, and he waved his hand too confidently. Maybe our car is some kind of trailer? After all, the train is not from Calcutta. And the train number is not ours at all...
Okay, let's go to the head. I didn’t really care where to go, I would have looked at all the carriages with pleasure, after all, it was my first acquaintance with an Indian train. And it’s generally great with these women.
— How many minutes does the train wait at the next station?
- Three minutes.
Wow! You'll have to run very quickly.
In 3 minutes we managed to reach the 5th SL car. They jumped on the move again, and it was already clear that the 10th was not in their heads.
The next station was a large one - the city of Hubli, parking for 15 minutes. Well, in 15 minutes we managed to reach our 10 SL. He ended up at the back of the train, just as that respectable guy in Hospet told us. Our seats turned out to be occupied; two student girls from Hyderabad were traveling in them. We went on vacation to Goa by the sea. There was a dispute with tickets. The woman on the top shelf also became worried when we began to put our backpacks down: “This place is occupied, my husband is coming here.” We had to show our ticket to this woman, then to my husband, then to the ticket inspector.
In general, more tickets were sold than actual seats. So we still didn’t manage to lie down, but we managed to run with our backpacks behind the train, jump on the move and sit in different cars. 🙂 But I even had fun with this story. Especially in the very first one - a cheap women's carriage. There are slightly different women in the sleeper car. They don't wear bright saris made from cheap artificial fabrics, they don't wear 20 shiny bangles on each hand, their jewelry is more stylish, they wear Punjabi, and the girls - their daughters - wear shorts and T-shirts. Their husbands are riding next to them. But their smiles are just as joyful and white-toothed.

Much later, it became clear why the train had the wrong number and the wrong departure station. It turns out that in India there are such mysterious trains - with two numbers. More precisely, these are two different trains that depart from two different stations A and B, each with its own number, and at some mythical station C they are combined into one. One of the numbers (in this case, ours) is discarded. So we could sit and wait for a long time for the non-existent train No. 7603 from Kolkata :)

About the general class of the Indian train

From Gwalior we had to get to Datia. The road is not long, so it didn’t matter to us which car we were going in – a seated car, a lying-down car, or something else. We came to the ticket office at the train station.
-There are no tickets.
-What, not at all?
-No tickets. There is only general class. Will you take it?
- Of course we will, what's the difference!
We, naive ones, didn’t know yet what a general class was :)
We bought tickets and, while waiting for the train, sat down on some large soft bales piled on the platform exactly opposite armed men in uniform.

If you are afraid of missing your train, or don’t know which platform it will go to, or if you just want to practice your English, or if you have a high level of anxiety, or some other problem, then the surest way is to come with your ticket either to such a person in uniform, or to fall into the office of some station worker with a wide smile, where they will patiently explain everything to you - how late your train is, when it is expected, on which track it is arriving, and where your car will stop.

That’s what we did - we turned with our tickets to these armed men in uniform.
“Wait here,” they said, and we happily relaxed on these bales.

...Time passed, trains came and went, armed people went about their business and seemed to have forgotten about us. We approached them again.
- Don't worry, ma'am, your train is late. We'll tell you.

We sat on these bales for a long time...
But finally they waved their hands at us, we jumped up, grabbed our things, and,
accompanied by a man in uniform, we reached the place where our general-class carriage was supposed to stop.
There were a suspiciously large number of people there and a lot of all sorts of bales, bags, baskets... We suspected something was wrong.
But in the depths of my soul there was still a glimmer of hope that maybe these people were not all in our carriage... maybe they would somehow dissolve... maybe they needed some other train... in the end, maybe they were just here for a walk came...

And then he appeared. And all these people (all!) moved, stirred, picked up their bales, bags, baskets and rushed to our general class carriage. At first we also rushed to him. But when he came closer... we were horrified to see that it was already full!!
-I won’t go there with things! – my friend shouts.
-I won’t go there even without things! - I shout.
We are at a loss - what to do? The next train is not soon...
And suddenly a painfully familiar man in uniform appeared in this crowd. He looked at us, understood everything, with a gesture he pulled us out of the crowd, with a gesture he ordered us to follow him. We, dumbfounded, obediently followed him with our things along the train. He took us to the SL carriage and led us into the carriage. And there were quite a few people here too, there were no empty seats, people were even sitting on the floor in the aisles. In the nearest compartment, he motioned for the people sitting on the bunk to move, and we somehow miraculously fit in – sitting! - in this compartment, they squeezed their things between someone’s trunks, and before they had time to thank their savior, he disappeared and the train started moving...

Thanks to the increased last years flow of available information about India, you can learn more about its history, cities and resort areas. Get information on how to get to this country and where to relax. How to travel along it?

Traditionally, the most convenient mode of transport for traveling around a large country is considered to be the railway. It is much cheaper than faster aviation, but much more comfortable than traveling by bus. In India, the system in this sense is similar to the Russian one, only certain features of the country’s railways must be taken into account.

general information

Indian Railways is an absolute monopoly of the state. Total length railway tracks is approaching 70 thousand km, second only to three countries - the USA, Russia and China. Every day 30 million people travel by rail. The number of workers employed in the railway industry is 2 million people. The country's largest train stations serve millions of passengers every day. For example, Mumbai Railway Station provides services to 3 million people every day.

Train schedule

Plan your trip to India by rail quite conveniently, using the official website of Indian Railways: indianrail.gov.in. In addition to the general train schedule, there is a interactive map local railways. The search program allows you not only to plan fairly convenient transfers, but even takes into account possible transfers.

However, you need to take note that the specified schedule is not used clearly. Because of this, trains are not only late in arriving at the station, but even depart out of schedule. It follows from this that this service can only be used as preparation for the upcoming trip.

The most accurate information is available from agencies that sell tickets, websites that book them, station ticket offices and free information desks located under the “MAY I HELP YOU” signs.

How to buy a train ticket in India

There are different ways to purchase travel tickets. They are offered by special offices, station ticket offices. They also booked on websites and are ordered in hotels. When purchasing them, a mandatory registration procedure is carried out, where the personal data of each passenger, the number and name of the required train, and the class of the required carriage are indicated in a special form. In agencies, employees will fill out this form themselves; in all other cases, the future passenger does this personally. When purchasing an electronic version, the required data is sent to the website of the corresponding service.

It is possible to purchase a ticket through an intermediary, but then you need to agree with him on the amount of the commission, which will then be reflected on the ticket. But you need to be careful with them. Taking advantage of the poor awareness of foreigners, Indians can sell a ticket for many times more than its face value.

Ticket booking option via the website indianrail.gov.in is not relevant for foreign tourists, because you can do this if you have Indian bank card. But there is an alternative - these are intermediaries. For example, sites makemytrip.com or cleartrip.com. They are the most convenient, reliable and inexpensive among the mass of similar assistants.

It is advisable to book a ticket using the General quota. On the official website of the railways, it is possible to check the availability of a reservation using an electronic copy with the PNR number indicated there.

Top: most cheap ticket General Class carriage, below - the most expensive First class Air-Conditioned ticket

In the worst case scenario, you can use "wait list" service, under which travel tickets are sold without seat and carriage numbers. However, thanks to them, the passenger can board the train he needs in the appropriate class. Already in the carriage, the passenger can contact the conductor and with his help get a suitable seat.

By the way, it is advisable to quickly exchange a ticket purchased through the World Wide Web at the station ticket office for a regular paper one, otherwise you risk being left without a seat at all, even after paying for it. This is the reality of Indian Railways.

The help of “voluntary assistants” should be categorically rejected from among the individuals wandering near the station. All conversations can only be conducted with official station employees in uniform and with a badge, or with police officers. All the rest are most likely scammers who want to make extra money.

You should also know that at the train stations of large cities there are special offices serving foreign citizens - foreign traveler office. It is clean, calm and you can always buy tickets in the right direction.

The task of these International Tourist Bureaus is to provide foreigners with tickets, however, if you are friendly, open and smiling, you can get additional privileges: leave your things for a while, relax on a sofa, get advice, find out the cost of a taxi.

Such bureaus operate only at train stations in the country's 15 largest cities. You should only find out about their whereabouts from official station employees or police officers.

Cars

With all the diversity of the Indian railways' wagon fleet, two types more or less fit the usual standards: SLIPPER CLASS And AC 3.

An Indian family settled in the vestibule of the carriage.

Cars below level type Second Class General Compartment correspond common carriages. Tickets for them are extremely cheap, but there are practically no amenities. The Internet is replete with videos of cars of this class. It is enough to see this once to refuse to save money. The only plus is that with a ticket General Class it is possible to climb into any carriage and, after talking with the conductor and paying extra accordingly, move to a more comfortable carriage. Approximate cost of the trip: 1 dollar - 500 km.

Second Class Sleeper assumes carriages approaching the comfort of the usual reserved seat cars, however, with some reservations. One compartment has 8 beds (2 beds on three shelves). You can't sleep on the lower bunks, as you have to share them with other passengers. It is advisable not to take tickets at the beginning and end of the carriage due to the proximity of the toilets, of which there are 4. There are no conductors here, and no one provides bed linen. Approximate cost of the trip: $5 - 1000 km.

AC 3 Tier It is structurally close to the car of the previous class, but there are also differences. The windows don't open, the air conditioning doesn't work, the conductor gives out bed linen for free. Most often there are free places. Approximate cost of the trip: 10 dollars - 1000 km.

AC 2 Tier is as close as possible to a reserved seat in terms of comfort, but is much more expensive than previous classes. The four-seater compartment is separated from the passage by a regular curtain. Approximate cost of the trip: 20 dollars - 1000 km.

First class Air-Conditioned is a 1st class carriage, approaching the comfort of a compartment carriage. Due to the high cost of tickets, they are included only in long-distance trains. Approximate cost of the trip: 30 dollars - 1000 km.

The main supervisor on the train is the conductor or TTI. He checks tickets, considers complaints and requests from passengers, speaks decent English language. For a small reward, he will “resolve” a difficult situation in the right direction. At your request, he officially will change a General Class ticket for a certain surcharge to a seat in a more comfortable carriage.

There are more than 20. From Russia they most often fly to Delhi and Dabolim.

Read about the tourist's first journey, how he got to Goa. The review is located.

This may sound strange, but traveling by rail in India is easy and convenient, despite the difficult Indian realities. Try not to immediately reject the familiar ones. local residents standards, try to understand them, and your journey through India will be filled with joy and knowledge of the unusual. In addition, you need to be sociable, friendly, smile more often, and then you can avoid problems and unpleasant surprises along the way, find the most convenient option travel and save money.

Short Video, Sleeper Class carriage