Mumbai to Udupi via Konkan railways

I would like to travel from Mumbai to Udupi in mid-October on Konkan railways. I looked on Cleartrip and there are a bunch of trains and I don't know which one to take. I will be traveling AC 2-Tier and would like daylight for at least the Goa to Udupi portion of the journey. Given these criteria, which train should I take and what is the best departure time from Mumbai?

Mangalore Express (12133) is perfectly timed, starts conveniently from CST station, and has a high quota for the Mumbai-Udupi sector.

The Mumbai-Mangalore sector is probably on the same quota as Mumbai-Udupi (I can't check as the Indian Railway booking system is closed for the next hour, same times every day), but if you can't find availability to Udupi, try searching for availability to Mangalore.

Hi Steven,

Thank you that is very helpful!

What are the quotas and the sectors? Unfortunately I am not too familiar with the terminology.

P

Sector- in this case means a section of the train's full journey.

Quota, again, in this case means the number of tickets allocated to a particular sector of a train's journey.

To understand this better, think of the Trivandrum Rajdhani Express, it runs from Delhi to Trivandrum (southern Kerala), this train goes via Panvel (outskirts of Mumbai), Goa and Udupi.

The majority of this train's tickets are held for passengers travelling from Delhi to Kerala (the general quota), but the railways understand that other people may want to use this train for particular sectors of the trains journey.

In the case of the Trivandrum Rajdhani, some tickets are kept for Delhi-Panvel passengers (and then Panvel-Kerala passengers), also some tickets are held for Delhi-Goa passengers (and Goa-Kerala passengers), and a few tickets are held for passengers wanting to use other sectors.

So, as you can imagine, there will be very few tickets held for Panvel-Udupi passengers.

The train I suggested you take, the Mangalore Express (12133), starts it's journey in Mumbai, and ends it's journey in Mangalore, just south of Udupi, so passengers travelling from Mumbai to Udupi will be on the general quota, and because almost all tickets will be for the general quota, so you have a much better chance of getting a ticket.