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Rail Travel Tips

These rail travel tips will help you make the most of your train journeys in India and trains really are the way to see the country.

Rail Travel Tips #1 – Sleep on the Trains

Taking overnight trains is one way to save time and money when you’re traveling through India. It means you don’t pay for accommodation and you don’t waste the daytime on public transport when you could be out exploring.

I would recommend traveling AC 2 tier wherever possible—or first class wherever it’s available. It usually means you’re still paying less than if you were staying in a hotel and flying to your destination, so you can afford to spend a little more on the ticket. AC (Air Conditioned) 1st Class or AC 2 tier mean that mostly (depending on the train itself) you will get a lockable door and maximum four people in the berth, which means you’ve all got a bit of room to spread out.

Get a sleeper rather than a chair and a good way to find your berth is to let a Coolie help you from the platform to the train.

Rail Travel Tips #2 – Foggy Delays

Fog can delay your train travel in the north during Dec-Jan especially. For instance, last time we traveled from Varanasi to Delhi overnight, instead of taking 8 hours, I think it took about 16 hours. This is part of life, you just have to factor it in as very likely, and think you have a bonus if it doesn’t happen!

We wouldn’t have minded except the other two people in the berth had the flu, and so did we by the time we got out of there!

Rail Travel Tips #3 – Try Not to Look at the Bathroom

Even if you go first class in the train, you probably want to avoid looking too closely or touching too much in the bathroom. Get in and out as quickly as possible and try to keep your clothes from touching the floor. You’ve been warned.

Rail Travel Tips #4 – Enjoy the Chai

I don’t know if it’s still done, it might depend on the particular train route, but if you get the opportunity to drink chai (Indian milk-based tea) from a little pottery cup, do it. It’s one of the little treats of the Indian rail system. They’re often sold by a Chai-wallah wandering up and down the train. The beautiful part is that the pottery is of course biodegradable, so when you’re done, you can just throw the cup out the window without any guilt. Lately I’ve noticed plastic cups being used, hopefully this is not everywhere, because people will probably still throw them out the window without thinking twice!

Rail Travel Tips #5 - Tip the Dinner-wallah

If you’re American, you will probably do this anyway, but you MUST tip the guy who brings dinner for you on the overnight train first class compartment. When he tells you dinner is x rupees, don’t assume his service in obtaining food is included in that price, as my friend Kara and I found out to our horror when we went to Udaipur. We had paid a relatively high price for our private first class compartment, but we hadn’t expected someone to offer to obtain our dinner for us when the train did its scheduled stop. Being Australian, not American, we hadn’t grown up with the custom of tipping, so we thought the ticket price must have included the dinner service. India is not usually a tipping country either, except it’s becoming so I guess from raised expectations from traveling Americans :-)

In any case, we only realized we’d done something wrong when on the way back, no man came to offer us dinner and we went hungry on the 22 hour train journey. Nothing like learning the hard way! I’ve become a bit more of a tipper since then, just in case!

Rail Travel Tips #6 – Secure Your Luggage

Use a chain and padlock to secure your luggage to the leg of the bottom berth when you put it under. I usually sleep with my money belt holding cash/cards and passport, then wrap my handbag with any other valuables (wallet, camera etc), in a pashmina or two and then use that as a pillow.

Rail Travel Tips #7 – You May Get an Eyeful in the Morning

Don’t look out the windows in the early morning after an overnight train journey (or don’t look too close), unless you’re prepared to see more than maybe you bargained for! In rural areas, it seems customary for many men to perform ablutions down by the railway line facing the train. It’s not always what you want to see when you’re having your first morning chai.

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