Indian Railway

With 1,6 million employees Indian Railway is the world's biggest employer! The trains are always full, 11 million people use them every day and 8000 locomotives are on a network of more than 66000 km. These are the main facts, another one is, that the trains are always late!

To get the timetables of the trains, we bought already in Delhi a book with everything inside, it has a lot of pages and at first look it's quite difficult to understand it, it's full of numbers and times. If the correct page with the desired route is found, then starts the search for a train which runs from the places you wanna go. To make it more complicated it's very important to check the days, because many trains doesn't run every day...

Trains doesn't have only one class, 2nd and 1st class are divided in subclasses which makes everything more complicated. Except the basic (general) 2nd class, which is the cheapest one and so the most people use it, it's complicated to get a ticket. Apart of the 1st class, the 2nd class is divided into 2 AC, 3 AC, AC chair class, Sleeper and finally the cheapest gereral class.

Once found the train you'd like to take, it's necessary to fill in a paper with all information about the train and passengers. Afterwards it's possible to queue up in front of a counter in the railway station. If you're unlucky, but it can be quite common, you have to wait for 1 hour in this queue for your turn. A problem can also be, that Indian people doesn't know how to make a queue, so all are around the counter and try to get the ticket first, a real chaos and for a tourists hard to find a way through it.

Well, once you arrive, you can handle the paper to the employee which tries to book the train if possible, that means if it isn't already full. There are also waiting lists available for the trains, the problem in this case is that you never know for sure if you get a seat on the train or not...

By the way, it's possible to fill in more than 1 form and so book more than 1 train, quite a good investment to avoid again the same procedure as described before.

Well, once in possession of a ticket with reservation, it's possible to board this train. First however has to arrive the train and normally it's late than published on the timetable. If the waiting room isn't full, it's a good place to sit down quietly. When the train finally arrives, it's just necessary to find the correct wagon and take the seat or berth. If it's already occupied, which can easily happen in the trains which are often quite full, then the other person moves normally without problems to another free place.

During the train trip it's easy to get in touch with people and enjoy the landscape through the open doors, doors which are never closed. Often the train has to stop on the way, sometimes people get out to walk around, normally the trains hoots before continuing, so passengers can get on it again.
Night trains are usually good to save money and time, but Indian people are very noisy, trains stop often and people enter and go out, so it might be hard to find sleep. It's possible fix the luggage below the seats witha locker, so at least you don't have to worry about it. If the train gets full, people from the normal general class look for space in the upper classes, so it might be possible that it's necessary to fight for the berth, especially if it's the lower one you're occupying.

By the way, it's now possible to book tickets online, but they don't accept all credit cards and you have to register first. The website is however useful to get information about available trains and seats before going to the station to book it and also check the status for a reservation which is on a waiting list. It's also possible to check the running status of the trains, means if it has delay or not... Well, could be quite a good tool, but as for the information on the waiting list and also in general, never trust it.

Due to the stops and an average speed which is rarely higher than 40 km/h, the trains usually are delayed. Our worst case so far has been 8 hours... quite annoying waiting for hours in the station for the reserved train, especially if they always change the delay, for example first it had had only 3 hours, but afterwards they always increased it.

The big advantage of the trains is that it's normally more comfortable than buses. Those old carriages have only one goal, put as much people as possible inside and a bus never can be too full! In case the interior is really too crowded you can climb up to the roof and take a seat there. Inside the bus are often 3 + 2 people sitting in a row + additional one's if necessary (children doesn't count). As Indian people mainly aren't tall, there isn't normally a lot of space between 2 rows, for tall people it can be a real problem to take a seat.
Well, buses are old and roads often too, means that it can be a bumpy experience, the seats in front of the bus are better than at the back where you can get a free rollercoaster... Stops of sometimes more than 30 minutes at bus stations + bad roads slow down the average speed to maybe around 30 to 40 km/h... so it can take ages to get from one place to another one, India is a big country so distances as well.

Indian trains stopping at a station, sleeper class wagon (quite comfortable, at night you get your own berth, but during the day it can get overcrowded).


A nearly empty reservation room at a station, the cows know already better how to get a ticket than Indian people, this one is qeueing up correctly in front of the desk!

By the way, cows are everywhere, inside the stations, on the railway tracks, in the middle of streets in the countryside but also in small and big cities. As a holy animal, the traffic flow goes around the cows, even if they take a rest in the middle of a busy street or wanna cross it! The cows are like a quiet, small island in the middle of the Indian traffic chaos, and this one can really be horrible. Every driver thinks that he has to be the first one passing a junction, so they drive from all sides in meet each one in the middle, where nobody wanna give way to another one... Except honking the horns (of course all together at the same time, something horrible they do anyway always) they aren't able to get an order. It's possible to wait for minutes on the same position without moving a meter... Rikschas are smaller than cars and trucks, so they find easier a way through the chaos.

About the rikschas, as everywhere in India entrance fees are always 10, 15 times more expensive for foreigners than for local people (for the Taj Mahal the difference is nearly 40 times more), they think that also rikschas have to be much more expensive for tourists... Sometimes it can get really annoying to find a driver who offers a reasonable price. For an Indian fare they normally does't want to carry a foreigner, it always has to be a bit more otherwise they prefer to drive alone and let you standing in the rain!

In this case it's just possible to repeat the slogan of India tourism: INCREDIBLE INDIA
This one is really true, in positive and negative ways!!!