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Booking trains in India

Booking trains in India

Old Nov 28, 2010, 3:08 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by painintheuk
Hi all,

Is this information still up to date? It sounds like the best way to book the train is an e-ticket through www.irctc.co.in. As mentioned they definitely want a lot of personal information! I don't know how accurate it has to be, though.

As a followup, what class should I choose? How different are they? AC 1? 2? 3? Sleeper? What is the most comfortable, most private, safest? I will be traveling alone with minimal (but not 0) luggage, and will likely be exhausted from my flight from home. The train is in the afternoon and takes about 4 hours I think. I would actually prefer an earlier train, but not all classes are available.

Finally, with an e-ticket, how early should I arrive? I will be at the Courtyard Gurgaon the night before.

Thanks

Dr. PITUK
i've taken train journeys between delhi- chandigarh a number of times....mostly i book in the executive chair car & its extremely comfortable....

depending on what time your train is, it will take you close to an hour to get to the station from gurgaon....just make sure you are at the station 20 minutes before departure time & you will be fine....
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Old Dec 7, 2010, 9:24 am
  #17  
 
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Train in India

Thanks for the response. In the end, I could not buy a ticket with my Canadian credit cards. In fact after my Amex was rejected I was calling them to tell them I would be in India. It took less than 2 minutes and I was automatically transferred to the fraud section because of that transaction.

I ended up flying. It was a SHORT flight, though long because of the delay and my leaving for the airport WAY too early! 30 minutes from leaving the Courtyard I had arrived at the airport, checked in my bag, cleared security and already done a fully tour of all the shops! I wish Western airports could be so efficient.

I am still hoping to take the train back to Delhi next week.

Thanks

Dr. PITUK
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Old Dec 8, 2010, 3:05 am
  #18  
 
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Just finished booking two trips a little while ago for tomorrow (up and down Ernakulam to Trivandrum for same day December 9). I booked the return first from Trivandrum to Ernakulam for the 2:30 PM Chennai Mail using my US issued AMEX and it went through with no problems. Done this numerous times. I'm a registered user on their web site.

The reason I did the return first was that the web site did not show the trains for the outbound with a highlight stating that the train list was not available. Thus the reason for doing the return first. Then I realized that the Indian railway web site does not allow internet booking for trips within 24 hours. So for the outbound I used the Cleartrip web site and purchased the ticket charging it to my US issued Visa card for a trip commencing in less that 24 hours that the Indian railway web site does not allow.

The problem I now have is that I'm traveling and the confirmation and eticket are emailed to me and the railways require a printed sheet. Where will I find a printer I'll try to talk the TTR into accepting the PNR on my iPhone. Yes Painintheuk this is a pain in the behind
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Old Dec 8, 2010, 9:55 am
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by ROW2Aisle
The problem I now have is that I'm traveling and the confirmation and eticket are emailed to me and the railways require a printed sheet. Where will I find a printer I'll try to talk the TTR into accepting the PNR on my iPhone. Yes Painintheuk this is a pain in the behind
U will find many cyber cafes in most cities.. and most hv printing facility charging anythng from Rs 5 - 15 for a printout..Some Ta's around the station will also do it for a minor charge..
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Old Dec 10, 2010, 11:54 pm
  #20  
 
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Originally Posted by saad
i've taken train journeys between delhi- chandigarh a number of times....mostly i book in the executive chair car & its extremely comfortable....
Hi again,

How much difference is there in 1AC between the Shtbdi and Kerla S Kranti from Chandigarh back to Delhi? I gather that the Shtbdi is nicer, but it also leaves before 7am - I'd kind of like the extra hour+ sleep .

I'm still looking for a nice hotel within walking distance of the train station when I arrive in Delhi if anyone has suggestions.

Thanks,

Dr. PITUK
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Old Dec 11, 2010, 6:11 am
  #21  
 
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Shatabdi for short haul is going to be chair cars - 2x2 pushback seats.

The sampark kranti - if its coming all the way from kerala in south india will have sleeper coaches, and in 1A (1st class aircon) will have coupes.

I'd still advise you to take the shatabdi - if a trains' coming from over a thousand kilometers away, from south india all the way up north (a distance of > 30 hours), there's every chance it'll run late by an hour or two, even several hours if there's irrops of some sort.

The shatabdi on the other hand is point to point shorthaul - far better chance of running on time.

Originally Posted by painintheuk
Hi again,

How much difference is there in 1AC between the Shtbdi and Kerla S Kranti from Chandigarh back to Delhi? I gather that the Shtbdi is nicer, but it also leaves before 7am - I'd kind of like the extra hour+ sleep .

I'm still looking for a nice hotel within walking distance of the train station when I arrive in Delhi if anyone has suggestions.

Thanks,

Dr. PITUK
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Old Dec 11, 2010, 8:26 am
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by hserus
I'd still advise you to take the shatabdi - if a trains' coming from over a thousand kilometers away, from south india all the way up north (a distance of > 30 hours), there's every chance it'll run late by an hour or two, even several hours if there's irrops of some sort.

The shatabdi on the other hand is point to point shorthaul - far better chance of running on time.
+1..
not to speak of the high probability of the relatively dirty state of the loos even in 1st class if the train has already travelled 30 approx hrs..
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Old Dec 11, 2010, 9:21 pm
  #23  
 
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Remember for Shatabdi only the Executive Class is 2x2 otherwise the normal class is 2x3. Also just watch out there is also a thing called the Jan Shatabdi, I'm not sure whats the difference having never traveled on it, but I do believe it lacks AC but I could be horribly wrong.

Shatabdi/Rajdhani in general are the way to go, unless you are looking for a typical Indian experience
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Old Dec 12, 2010, 12:47 am
  #24  
 
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Waitlist? (last train question this trip!)

Hi all,

Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately it looks like I waited too long because my work schedule was uncertain. All the trains are waitlisted.

Do waitlists usually clear? There are lots of places in 'AC Chair car', but 8 on the 1st class waitlist. The hotel won't book it for me until tomorrow (which seems strange), so it may get a bit longer. For some reason I thought that there was a 'tourist' bucket, but can't seem to see that online.

If it won't clear then I may book a plane, but I'm kind of keen now to stay at the Lalit, so the train would be perfect .

Thanks

Dr. PITUK
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Old Dec 12, 2010, 6:31 am
  #25  
 
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Originally Posted by painintheuk
Hi all,

Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately it looks like I waited too long because my work schedule was uncertain. All the trains are waitlisted.

Do waitlists usually clear? There are lots of places in 'AC Chair car', but 8 on the 1st class waitlist. The hotel won't book it for me until tomorrow (which seems strange), so it may get a bit longer. For some reason I thought that there was a 'tourist' bucket, but can't seem to see that online.

If it won't clear then I may book a plane, but I'm kind of keen now to stay at the Lalit, so the train would be perfect .

Thanks

Dr. PITUK
Waitlists clear but depends on many days till train dep.. for a trip from Chandigarh to delhi, AC chair car is pretty decent .. I would go ahead and book that and if u really wanna try 1st Ac then book that in waitlist also..
If the waitlist clears , then u may lose a big portion (50-75%) of ur chair car ticket if u cancel it on last moment.. if it does not clear then u get full refund for ur 1st Ac ticket and u can travel in Ac chair car..
Btw, ask the hotel to try for tatkal tickets also ( there are fixed no of seats for last minute travel though u need to pay a premium of 200-500 INR for this depending on the sector)..
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Old Dec 18, 2010, 8:57 am
  #26  
 
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Get AC chair car - that's the 2x3 seating on the shatabdi.

Why do you need the hotel to book for you? IRCTC takes foreign cards just fine, else book on www.cleartrip.com (click the "trains" tab)

Originally Posted by painintheuk
Hi all,

Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately it looks like I waited too long because my work schedule was uncertain. All the trains are waitlisted.

Do waitlists usually clear? There are lots of places in 'AC Chair car', but 8 on the 1st class waitlist. The hotel won't book it for me until tomorrow (which seems strange), so it may get a bit longer. For some reason I thought that there was a 'tourist' bucket, but can't seem to see that online.

If it won't clear then I may book a plane, but I'm kind of keen now to stay at the Lalit, so the train would be perfect .

Thanks

Dr. PITUK
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Old Dec 18, 2010, 12:31 pm
  #27  
 
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[QUOTE=hserus;15475036]Get AC chair car - that's the 2x3 seating on the shatabdi.

Why do you need the hotel to book for you? IRCTC takes foreign cards just fine, else book on www.cleartrip.com (click the "trains" tab)[/QUOTE]

+1..
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Old Dec 21, 2010, 8:42 pm
  #28  
 
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Originally Posted by hserus
Get AC chair car - that's the 2x3 seating on the shatabdi.

Why do you need the hotel to book for you? IRCTC takes foreign cards just fine, else book on www.cleartrip.com (click the "trains" tab)
As I said above, not only could I not book on IRCTC, it put a security freeze on my Amex and wouldn't accept my Mastercard.

I could have used Cleartrip, but was hoping that there was a 'tourist' bucket of seats in 1AC reserved that my hotel could get for me. I was wrong. They just fleeced me for an extra couple of hundred Rs.

I got the CC and it was fine - better than most UK trains. I was really amazed at the service. Although the train was a bit late (90 minutes), we were given regular information, newspapers and food! I had this image in my mind of a very different experience .

Thanks for all the help,

Dr. PITUK
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Old Dec 21, 2010, 8:53 pm
  #29  
 
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Right. So they billed you something like 40% the cost of the ticket

There IS a tourist bucket but you have to produce your passport & buy the ticket at an indian railways ticket office, you can't do it online. And you have to pay a rather higher rate in foreign currency.

The hotel probably went to a scalper and paid him about a hundred bucks more for your ticket, billed you about the same more to cover their expenses in stepping across the street to buy from the scalper.

Originally Posted by painintheuk
I could have used Cleartrip, but was hoping that there was a 'tourist' bucket of seats in 1AC reserved that my hotel could get for me. I was wrong. They just fleeced me for an extra couple of hundred Rs.

I got the CC and it was fine - better than most UK trains. I was really amazed at the service. Although the train was a bit late (90 minutes), we were given regular information, newspapers and food! I had this image in my mind of a very different experience .
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Old Dec 22, 2010, 2:09 am
  #30  
 
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Originally Posted by painintheuk
As I said above, not only could I not book on IRCTC, it put a security freeze on my Amex and wouldn't accept my Mastercard.

I could have used Cleartrip, but was hoping that there was a 'tourist' bucket of seats in 1AC reserved that my hotel could get for me. I was wrong. They just fleeced me for an extra couple of hundred Rs.

I got the CC and it was fine - better than most UK trains. I was really amazed at the service. Although the train was a bit late (90 minutes), we were given regular information, newspapers and food! I had this image in my mind of a very different experience .

Thanks for all the help,

Dr. PITUK
hmmm.. never tried with Amex so no experience there..
As hserus has said, there is a tourist bucket, but problem is that u need to go to one of the main railway offices to book it and stand in queue .. its not a pleasant experience IME and not worth it for most folks..

Yup and the train service in AC coaches are much better than those experienced in UK and Europe compared to the amount paid for the tickets ^
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