Do you need train information?

Try www.erail.in. There are three daily passenger trains running between Khandwa and Indore. It is a metre-gauge line and was once an important line linking the mere-gauge systems in North and South India.

Thanks for never thanking anyone for the extensive replies you got just a little above on your Madhya Pradesh queries. (Your post #1897 above and its responses.)

You were told there busing around this region may often be the more practical option, though there are train connections for certain stretches.

Your Jalgaon-Khandwa by train at Erail, http://erail.in?T=JL::KNW:; Khandwa-Indore http://erail.in?T=KNW::INDM:. Study that site that you'd been pointed to before some to get to grips with it so you can use it yourself for further searches, you will find it handy.

New thread on booking with IRCTC (Indian Railways) directly from abroad, note the process of registering with IRCTC this way takes a little while: http://www.indiamike.com/india/india...phone-t154338/

Hi,

I have planned to go Shimla for my honeymoon. I heard about toy train from Kalka to Shimla which departures from Kalka at 6am. I will reach Kalka by Barmer Kalka Express at 5:50am. The question is, will this train reach on time? How often does it get late? should I take risk by booking toy train ticket?

Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks

10 mins gap is too risky!! Try alternatives!!

Guys and friends -
Indian railways online reservation site has got the award for BEST E-GOVERNANCE Site in India.
It handles a peak load of more than 200000 hits at 8 AM, when quotas open.

You can book online anywhere in India and show the E-ticket.
To save Paper, you can even show the mobile mail to the Ticket checker and also reqd - id proof.

Sending you the link - https://www.irctc.co.in
Happy commuting

Anil bhan
DELHI - India

Yes; I also heard recently the Indian Ministry of Tourism was granted some international award

...

--> Hey, disclosing a database as complex as the Indian Railways' one(s) must be no mean task, and I know many countries who seem to a) not be very good at it, and/or b) not succeed to make it very user-friendly.

Either way, one feels there is some room for improvement.

thank you for pointing out my absolute disreguarding for having not thanked anyone - everyone has been very helpfull with my enquiries - I have no excuse but being terrible bussy - I was thanking everyone silently through the universe from within but had not expressed it on the india mike forum - still no excuse
So you are making an assumption that I am ungreatful just because it has not been expressed on the forum in physical writing

some feedback - I found you answer very long winded and not really to the point - I just needed to know the busics ie is there a train

there now i kicking the gift horse in the mouth or something like that !!

hope you dont get too offended - please feel free to abuse me gain thanks

can you book for erail with a credit card from oversseas? or does it all have to be done on clear trips these trains do not come up on clear trips , thanks thanks thanks in advance for all answers provided

You can not book a ticket using erail.in. For booking tickets from outside India as of now cleartrip is the only option. Which train are you looking to book? From where to where?

As pointed out by Aarosh it is not possible to book tickets through erail. At the moment there are only two ways to book from outside India - Cleartrip who do not list all bookable trains or direct with irctc.

The link below tells you how to set up an irctc account. Scroll down to the red box. The first line in the box tells you it can't be done - further down the box it tells you how to work round the problem. It takes time to get through this process. I have seen 2 weeks quoted. It took me one week to revive a dormant account rather than starting from scratch. They will only accept Amex cards.

http://www.seat61.com/India.htm#book...from%20outside

Your only other option is to wait until you get to India to book but the later you leave it the more likely it is that the trains will be fully booked.

So I thought to book both trains one Kalka Shimla Express at 6am and Himachal Queen at 12:10pm. But I just want to know if I want to cancel the first one, when should I do that? I mean how many hours before train departures. And any idea how often it gets late.

I have one option need your help. If I get down at Chandigarh at 5am and from there I can reach Kalka in half an hour(it is only 26 km far) by cab/taxi. would that help?

Thanks

Yes, it could help if you get a cab so early! Yes, cab! don't depend on autos. If there is bus available like shuttle service, you may give a try!

You will have to take the first available one, without discussing about cost of journey, you start your journey to Kalka!

Long-winded, eh? Yes, I had expected so. Still, whether you appreciated it or not, you might have noticed I (and others) took considerable time in answering you. You don't think I or others have all those web links at our fingertips, do you? Nor are all simple questions simply answered, as you may have noticed with your trying to get around the Indian railways.

Here's an anecdote for you, you remind me of that person:

So here I am sitting in Omkareshwar, I've befriended a very nice frequent Indian (foreign) traveler here, we hang around together for some days.

There's a terribly disorganized lady in our guesthouse, wanting to get from there to Gujarat within a day, and the next day, yet never traveling for more than three hours at a time.

That is of course impossible, and as we all know in three hours' time you'll probably just have pulled out of the station. Let alone of course traveling the next day, it took me considerable trouble to even move on from there and out of the state.

As hinted at before, I'd not long before come by way of Bharuch-Dhar, a journey of some 12 hours with several changes of local buses after which I really didn't know how to sit anymore, and meaning to push on straight to Mandu, but I just couldn't stand it any longer and so crashed in Dhar for a few nights. (Nice if not very eventful town, btw. Nice and very cheap hotel for what I got, too.)

Anyway, so he and I pull out all our several guidebooks and maps and Trains At A Glance (the Indian railway timetables) and whatnot. But of course that means nothing to her, and so she mostly just keeps yapping about her own self-obsessedness, not hearing a thing we have to offer or say. Never taking a glance at any of that documentation, for sure. I mean you might as well have presented her with a detailed treatise on astronomy, it just didn't mean anything to her. (Gave he and I another a knowing wink, and sort of dropped the matter.)

Funny thing is btw she'd been traveling around for months, must have gotten around somehow. To each their own, indeed; but then why even ask if you don't wanna hear it anyway, one might wonder.

But so anyways: Bon voyage, and all that. Be sure to take the time later to let us know how you fared, it will be helpful to others.

(Strange thing is, some others thank me for getting as detailed, and allowing them the option to make up their own minds, between various alternatives. It indeed takes all kinds, doesn't it. But of course the latter certainly makes me feel better. And in the end, it's never me wanting to get from A to B, is it. I do know how to figure it out myself, and have often had to.)

(And now reminded of wanting to move on from Bharuch to Madhya Pradesh, indeed. Everyone -- and so asking around on the ground, as one logically should -- keeps teling me I should go over Ahmedabad, but I've connected there so often and don't like the place, besides it seems way out of the way to me. So I don't want that, @%$. In hindsight, maybe it would have been best. But so I'm convinced it must be possible to just travel eastwards from here.

So now landing up at the Vadodara bus station, no one speaks any English. A young local couple who don't speak much English either take me by the hand to help me out. I've already been asking the lady at the counter who however I couldn't communicate with, but so they take me back there. When I get a little agitated, I understand from what she's saying and as indeed they brokenly translate for me, well, if there's no bus, I can't conjure one up for him. Of course that's the right answer.

So well anyway, finally and with their help I find me some local buses going V-W-X-Y-Z, then.)

I realize this has itself been another long-winded post. I'm not apologizing. Those who don't want it can skip it. What do I care how you get from Ajanta to Rajasthan, anyway. It's a bit of a ways, I can tell you. (Savage understatement, of course.)

I've a two-word comment left that would be unwise to utter on this board. You'll have noticed btw that in the meantime I and others have told you precisely how to move around there, and going by your precise wishes?

And I had been complaining about this for ages now, i presume!!