2 tickets for 1 journey a good idea?

unxposed

Firstly, hello! I'm off to India next month with my girlfriend.

On the 22nd of April we need to travel from Mumbai to Palolem (Goa).

Looking at irctc, both train 6345 from LTT - CAN (near Palolem) and 2619 seem pretty good options, but seem to be quite full.

Train 2619 AC2 we can get WC2 tickets.

Train 6345 AC2 we can get WL7 tickets.

However, on the same train, 6345, we can get tickets from LTT to MAO (most of the way there) with an Available status. From MAO to CAN on the same train we can get WL2. Would it be better to book both of these tickets as opposed to the single WL7 tickets and just move down the train when we get to MAO. Is this even allowed?... Does that make sense What's the best option? Anybody have any good advice about this route?

We have no accommodation booked yet and live in the UK so I'm guessing the best option is to book a hotel in Mumbai before booking WL tickets. Or would it be better to just get it through an agent? Questions, questions...

Thanks

steven_ber

Difficult one, 6345 has a better arrival time (considering that most trains on this route run 60-90 minutes late), the availability status seems worth booking, as long as you contact the Train Ticket guy before you get to Madgaon, he should find you somewhere to sit for the (very) short leg from Madgaon to Canacona, I think this is the option I'd take.

2619 has WL/2 in 2A, forget that, there are only 4 berths to play with, so you'd need a high percentage of cancellations, but train 2619 has WL/1 in 3A, and this from a total of 38 berths for this sector, so a very good chance of getting confirmed berths.



LTT to CNO would cost Rs 1136 in 2-tier air con.

There is a company in Wembley (5 minute walk from Wembley Park station) called S. D. Enterprises, they are the only agent in England allowed to sell Indrail passes, a 12 hour Indrail pass for 2A will cost US$26, S.D. offer a poor rate of exchange, but you should still be able to get a 12 hour pass for about £16-17.

I mention this because train 6345 has 2 berths remaining in the Foreign Tourist quota for the 22nd April, but the only way you can book these from outside India is through an Indrail pass, you buy the pass and S.D. book your tickets.

S.D. are reluctant to sell Indrail passes so close to the train's departure date, they do great business because they can book trains even before the tickets go on sale to the Indian public, so booking trains for April will just be a pain for S.D. (mainly because people who book late often change their plans and it's too late for S.D. to get availability on other trains), so be polite if you call them, explain that the train still has availability on the Foreign Tourist Quota, and hopefully they'll book your tickets.

Good luck, it's a great journey, very scenic, try to wander down to Sleeper Class for great views along the route.

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unxposed

Thanks! That has to rate as the most helpful response I've ever had on a forum.

With you advice on board the plan is to go through SD and get an Indrail pass for the full journey, and also a journey 2 days later down to kerala.

I phoned SD this morning at 9:30 and they told me those dates should be fine and asked me to email the details instead. I emailed but still haven't had a response - any idea how long this should take to - any way I can get them to speed this up without annoying them? I'm slightly nervous the 2 tourist quota seats may go.

A slightly different issue, I'm having a bit of a problem with the second train to kerala on the 24/04/08 CANCONA (CNO) - VARKALA (VAK)6345 NETRAVATI EXPRESS 2AC. The route comes up and next to Varkala it says 'Station deleted' and I can't check availability etc. - any ideas what this means? It's not a major problem, we can just get off at the stop before (QLN - there are also 2 tourist quota seats available on this train - IF SD can sort us out) and get other transport to Varkala - but never the less isn't as easy asit could be.

Thanks again for your help.

steven_ber

No time for a long reply at the moment, look for an alternative train (not 6345, it's too slow) from Karwar to Quilon (Kollam), or Ernakulam (for Cochin) or trivandrum.

more later

unxposed

Okay, so I think I've booked the indrail tickets for the 2 journeys through SD, they've taken my payment and said they'll post them out next week so I ammume they're ours!!!

You're probably right about getting a quicker train further south, but I couldn't really see any obvious/ simple ways ... I think we'd rather just hop on one train all the way that change a couple of times... even if it does take *cough* half a day longer! No turning back now anyway

I am however quite looking forward to being on the train for a long period of time. It's potentially one of the things I'm looking forward to most about the trip, plus we decided we wanted to go to India after watching The Darjeeling Limited so maybe we'll enjoy it after all.

Thanks again for all your help!

unxposed

Okay, so we have now received our Indrail passes. We both have one for each journey (half day and full day respectively) and under journey reservation particulars it states the correct train number, date, from and to destinations on each pass.

What's our next step... do we just need to turn up at the station on the day and expect a seat on the train to be waiting for us? Or do we need to confirm anything prior to the journeys?

Many thanks.