Train Travel In India

My first experience of travelling on an Indian train was to be a short journey between Amritsar and Pathankot. We arrived relatively early this was our first big travel, the final destination was Dharamsala however after Pathankot we were required to catch a bus. Amritsar is a small station so there wasn't much rush, the first priority was to work out which platform our train was going to come on. After asking 5 different people and getting 5 different answers we decided on a compromise to wait on the footbridge above the platforms so it would be easy to scoot down and grab the train on whatever platform it came.

We grabbed a seat just below a nice old gentleman who happened to be catching the same train as us. He informed us that our train was 2 hours late. It seems that long distance trains in India are almost always late, of all the trains I caught in India there wasn't even 1 that left on time. They varied from 15 minutes late to sometimes up to 4 hours or so, averaging about 1/2 to 1 hour late - not too bad I suppose considering some trains travel for 60 hours or more. After waiting about 3 hours, our train finally arrived and we helped the old man with some bags and in return he pointed us towards our carriage. Indian trains are LONG, they are so long that you could spend 20 minutes and die from dehydration walking from one end to the other and back. To board one you must know well in advance approximately where your carriage will be when the train stops. A very elegant system is set up where you can read the position of each carriage from the engine on sheets or electronic boards. Once you know this you can position yourself on the platform and slip onto the train when it stops.

Long distance trains are nothing like the images of Mumbai locals shown around the world, there are no mad crushes to get on or off , no people on the roof and no need to risk life and limb getting on the train. Air conditioned carriages are very orderly to get on or off and inside being relatively clean (and cool), sleeper class is not too bad either though more people do tend to get in to this class without tickets causing it to be more crowded than it ought to. Unservered can get quite busy so don't take this unless you want a full body massage. 2 tier or 3 tier Air conditioned is the best class for foreigners to travel, in 2nd AC there are 3 sets of double bunks in each cubicle of the train meaning 6 people sleep and sit there. During the day everyone sits on the lower bunks and at night half the people climb up and enjoy a welcome nights sleep. Beware though the AC vents are at the top of the train and it can get freezing there, you may not need any warm clothes in India but pack some for sleeping in AC trains! In 3rd tier AC there are 2 sets of 3 bunks and a set of 2 bunks meaning 8 people sleep in each cubicle. This can sometimes be a little uncomfortable during the day as sometimes people's baggage won't fit under the seats forcing everyone to accomodate it somewhere. On the whole though train is a very comfortable way to travel India, it's cheap, comfortable and you get to see the countryside as you flit by.

After the initial struggle of finding our platform and boarding the right carriage the journey was very comfortable. We enjoyed the scenery and managed to get off at the right station Pathankot.