Change boarding station?

I currently have train tickets from Kollam to Madgaon for the Rajdhani Express on 25.Dec. After looking at our itinerary, I am thinking we may want to get on the train a little further down the line in Alleppey or even Kochi.

Looking at this page of the IRCTC site, it looks like I can do this by making a request in writing at a reservation office, but it still has me nervous. I am afraid of ending up written off as a no-show and having my seat filled. Has anyone ever changed boarding stations and had any problem with it?

I have to make some assumptions here..................

You're coming to the Kollam/Alleppey/Kochi region from either Kovalam/Varkala or from the hills, so instead of wasting hours changing the boarding station, spend those hours travelling first to Kochi, then go to Alleppey and take your houseboat to Kollam, then board your train.

Had you booked a train to get to Kollam?

What train?

What date?

If the above isn't viable, tell us the rest of your Itinerary and we'll see what we can suggest.

That Rajdhani ticket is like gold dust at that time of year, so think long and hard before taking any risks.

We did this earlier this year.
I get a scratch of paper from the officer of the reservation desk. On this I make the request. He warns me that he keeps the printout of the ticket, so make sure you have an extra copy. He makes the changes in the reservation system, I did not get any prove of this.

In the train the TEE has these changes on his list.

We are flying into Trivandrum from Kolkata on 21.December and our train is from Kollam on 25.December. We booked the train ticket a bit hastily just wanting to get it booked before we really had a chance to figure out what we wanted to do. Looking at the houseboats, it seems like getting a houseboat in Kollam would be a lot more difficult than finding one in Alleppey, especially on xmas eve.

Going up to Alleppey and then taking a houseboat from Alleppey to Kollam would work - I wasn't really aware that that was a serious option.

I know the ticket is valuble, that's why I'm worried about doing anything to risk it.

We have confirmed 2AC berths on 16041/42, return Chennai <--> Chalakudi for dates in Jan '13

We have decided to split our time between there and Allappey, so will book CC seats Chalakudi -> Alleppey.

This means returning from Alleppey, not Chalakudi.

1. I don't think it is possible to change the point of boarding to a further-away station. Am I right? I also think we should not board the train with no ticket for that section.

2. If so, my idea if to buy any ticket (unreserved?) from Alleppey to Chalakudi, board the 2AC carriage, and pay the TTE the difference. It is most unlikely, I would think, that anyone else would have booked those particularly berths between those two stations, in fact I doubt that they would be available. That train is usually very sparsely occuppied up to Ernakulam, but, in the worst case, we could sit on our bags for two hours.

3. --- or can we just pay the extra on our CKI/MAS ticket?

Is my idea legal and practical? We are middle-aged (in fact I am now on Senior-citizen discount ) and my wife speaks Malayalam.

We did the same last year, of course in another train. Immediately after boarding we went to the TEE and he wrote a ticket, no problem at all

Nick

Both your suggestions are valid, well, sort of.

On my first trip to India we had booked 1A from Thrisur to Chennai on a train that started from Trivandrum, we fell in love with Kovalam and decided not to go to further north, I knew nothing about trains or quotas at the time, but we just went to Trivandrum station for our train and asked the TTE if we could pay the extra for the Trivandrum-Thrisur section of the journey, he said yes, he would get the extra later (we never saw him again).

BUT, you must get permission from the TTE before the train moves or you would be travelling without a valid ticket, the only way this method could prove problematic is if you get a TTE who demands you buy an Alleppey-Chalakudi '2nd class express' unreserved ticket so that he can upgrade it.

The other method....

I've lost count of the number of times I've bought a '2nd class express' or '2nd class superfast' unreserved ticket, then upgraded on the train, especially areas like southern Kerala, where we know many people reserve from Kochi or Thrisur, so their berths remain empty till then, it always works (have to use long distance trains, not local). (the 'express' or 'superfast' is important, an ordinary '2nd unreserved' ticket isn't valid, even for upgrade, on an express or superfast train, also, a '2nd express unreserved' isn't valid on a superfast train (even for upgrade))

Nick, the Allepey-Chennai and Chalakudi-Chennai quotas are the same and use the same berths, and tickets can't be booked on that train from Alleppey to Chalakudi, so your berths will be vacant from Alleppey, unless some 'know-it-all' damn foreign tourist decided to get an 'unreserved 2nd express' ticket to Kochi, and plonks themselves down in your berths, but even if this happened, the TTE would find them alternative seats.

To be safe, send your good lady to get 2 x '2nd express unreserved' tickets from Alleppey to Chalakudi, and upgrade on the train.

So Kovalam is really nice then? We had entertained the thought of going up to Munnar for a night or two then doing the houseboat thing in Alleppey, however maybe we should consider just staying in Kovalam for a few nights. I kinda like that because it would mean a lot less time traveling up to Munnar and back.

That was over 10 years ago at Kovalam, I still enjoy the place, but it's very built up now, and will be at it's worst (crowded) during the Xmas-New Year period.

If you want time on a Kerala beach, choose one near Alleppey.

There are two specifics that OP has which are different. 1) It is Rajdhani 2) It's Christmas time.

Meaning what?

Thank you for all your good advice. And others too.

I'll remember that for next time ... as it happens, between posting last night and getting up this morning, I found the plans had changed and we won't be able to make the side trip. We had forgotten an important family birthday and now will return to Chennai on 15th. On a slower train. 12 hours

Advice never wasted: will be good for others, and I'll remember it for next time.