[tacita]

i've just stumbled into steven_ber's excellent post #2 in the train thread here, and am both shocked and embarrassed that i missed it before now. i guess the title "train information" doesn't really capture the fact that this thread succinctly answers the question "how can i get from __ to __ by train?" sure, you must follow steve's admonishment to confirm the exact timings once you get the train number, but steve's done all the footwork. (and i thought he was amazing before i found this thread!)

we have a host of excellent train threads and stickies, and with some of those having additional embedded links, it's sometimes hard to parse which stickies address which aspects of train travel. (well, for me, at least.)

this thread reigns supreme because, once one has identified the right train--the hardest thing for many of us, it seems--the rest is a veritable cakewalk by comparison (i.e., which class? how do i get an e-ticket?)

i make a motion to award post #2 in this thread super-duper-sticky-thread-extraordinaire status.

[Bex]

I agree - Steven_ber is awesome!

[tasuray]

Hi guys,
For train information you can also try www.erail.in. It is a very good site.

[Percy]

OK - I'll be the first one to admit I actually have that particular post marked as one of my Favourites.

Geeky - yes. Useful - yes. Graditude - yes!

It's strangely satisfying when I could find the train ride that I (where and when) want...Not to boast, but hmmm...I actually got my neighbours (from Gujarat) hooked on this website (esp. the train info tread) when they go back home once a year to plan their holidays!

It was hard to find my way around it first, but when stubborness kicks in, it kicks and it works! Besides, the hard yard has already been done by Steven_ber and many of the usual suspects so you just gotta do your bit.

Once again, many thanks!

[Aishah]

Wow!! This thread is AMAZING - thank you for all the hard work, Steven. It is now in my favourites - it is faster then Trains at a Glance! Thanks Janice for bringing it to our attention, I would never have known.

[Bhaswaran]

Excellent work Steven

[tacita]

and this tool is also a great complement to steve's glorious post#2: http://www.indiagroove.com/trains/train_finder/search

i guess i just got daunted when i saw all those stickies in the railway sub-forum, and i was already biased against "train-finder" links because i'd had so many fruitless attempts to find trains on the indian railways site. it seemed that a certain amount of existing knowledge of the stations and local geography was presumed, and i obviously lack that. of course, this and steve's tool don't cover every city/town, but they cover most, and certainly the most common, and are more user friendly than the "official" site.

maybe my enthusiasm seems unwarranted to those already in the know. but to a first-time-finder of these tools, it's quite exciting!

perhaps these two things (and others that do the same thing) could all be put into one thread, with top-of-the-page sticky status, but closed to reply posts. it tends to get confusing when a sticky thread has 20 or so replies suggesting still other sites that do essentially the same thing, often, not as well.

again, i'm a self-confessed ignoramus about these tools; just my two rupees, for what they're worth.

[jenk]

totally agree, great work by Steve and others.

Having spent many hours last winter working extensively with Trains at a Glance and the Indian railway website when I was trying to work out a complex itinerary, I was extremely grateful this summer for Indiagroove since it handles multitrain journeys so beautifully.

With a decent map (you need to know something about the geography and where the lines run, and a combo of Indiagroove, for planning, and the IRTC online booking website for availability and booking, I was able to totally bypass the creakiness of the other methods, making the planning for my trip literally a breeze. Thanks so much to the Indiagroove creators!

If I were on the ground in India, Id definitely want trains-at-a-glance on hand but as long as I can go online for Indiagroove, its infinitely more helpful (also may cover more of the dinky local trains, is that right??)

[steven_ber]

Thanks for the comments, but remember to double check all info in that thread, I rarely get time to update it.

Other great train search websites.

http://www.erail.in/# is a really wonderful website, it's improved a hell of a lot over the last few months, the owner ir really trying hard with it.

Click on 'Station' in the top left of the page, that allows you to search for individual stations.

http://www.indiagroove.com/ is also a great search option, it allows you to search for train combinations when there is no direct train.

http://www.indianrailconnections.com/ does the same.

I tested all 3 about 6 weeks ago, all have mistakes, though usually small and unlikely cause problems for tourists, I'm convinced the Indian Railways server feeds these websites poor info, the mistakes seemed to be the same on all 3 websites, yet the correct info was on the Indian Railways website. (a quick look earlier showed that eRail.in had corrected a lot of the mistakes that used to exist.

http://www.90di.com/travel/ is an interesting website, it tries to find train & plane combinations, I did a few quick checks and found some errors, only to be expected with a new website, I was more concerned that the owners didn't see the errors as errors when I sent feedback.

The best website for Indian trains, that's really easy, http://www.indianrail.gov.in/inet_srcdest_names.html, no competition.