Newbie wondering what to expect on a 19 hour AC 2-Tier train ride?

bri6068

I'm planning a trip to India and I will be taking a 19 hour AC 2-Tier (sleeper) train ride. I'm a bit apprehensive and I have some questions:
1 Is there privacy on the train and would I be in a private cabin or out there in the open?
2 Can one move freely across the entire train?
3 Is there a 'common' or dining area that one can congregate or grab a bite to eat whenever one pleases?
4 Does the train provide locks for our luggage? Another words, do I need to babysit my bags at all times?

Thank you very much!!

bigjed

I'm used to long haul travel living in New Zealand - 30 hours on a plane to Europe - so the trains I took in India (Haridwar/Varanasi Varanasi/Kolkutta) were a breeze. If you are not used to it it will be difficult initially. Bring a book, iPod or some other form of entertainment.

We took our own food, but it was pretty hard to eat. We got meals provided on the train but preferred to snack instead of going the whole hog. We were weary of getting ill with 23 hours to go, kind of thing. We found muesli bars etc very handy.

Sleepers weren't private in my experiance, although people kept to themselves but we were treated very well by locals and conversations were struck up very quickly, everybody was interested in our travels, where we were from etc.

We kept our packs on our beds, chained and locked, and one of us was always with them. That may have been overkill but it worked for us. Bring your own lock. The trains we were on provided plenty of metal bars under and around beds to lock packs.

Overall a very enjoyable experiance and are doing it again this October.

Nick-H

In no particular order or completeness:

You can find description of the conditions in many threads on this site: we have heaps of train information.

-- You will be in a curtained compartment with four berths, unless you have a side berth. As an individual, you will have no privacy. Think sleeping in dorm --- but 2AC is quite spacious.

-- You should equip yourself with a light chain and padlock to deter thieves from just walking off with a bag.

-- The carriage will be locked at night at either end, and also the doors, although you can open them if you wish. The lock is to prevent those pickers-up-of-random-bags from entering the carriage at intermediate night stops.

-- I don't think you can move freely about the whole train. If it were the case, then the passengers in unreserveved, who often travel in amazingly overcrowded conditions, might well invade the reserved areas.

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dzibead

Adding to what Nick said, there are no common areas or buffet or dining cars, but on long journeys an attendant comes through the car and you can order food, which will be brought to you. But you can't go somewhere and "grab a bite to eat" whenever you please. In addition to checking out the various threads in the Indian Railways subforum here, check out "The Man in Seat 61", an excellent train travel website, particularly the part about India. It has good photos, descriptions of the various classes, and info on what to expect. http://www.seat61.com/India.htm
And reiterating what has already been said: no privacy at all. There's a cloth curtain that can be pulled across the end of the four-seat/two-tier berth at night, but that's more to shut out the dim light in the passageway and to provide a slight buffer from people who may be walking up and down. It provides no real privacy or security.

Someone here once asked what people wore to sleep on Indian trains, imagining, I suppose, that people had private compartments like in 1930's movies. What you wear to sleep is ... your clothes. You don't change into PJs! The only time you could have real privacy is if you booked an entire lockable first class A/C compartment for yourself - which you wouldn't do unless you have money to burn. If you had a group of people traveling together in 1AC, you could take over an entire compartment and have this kind of privacy, but not in 2AC. Even in 1AC you wouldn't have privacy unless you (and your group) took over an entire compartment; there would be at least 1 other person (in a two-berth compartment), and as many as 3 other people (in a 4-berth compartment), unless you happened to luck out and be traveling when no one else had booked 1AC (and most trains don't even have 1AC class anyway).

Pagal Admi

We took a 3 tier sleeper from Bhubaneshwar to Chennai. The photos and description can be seen here

http://www.tedbeck.net/Indiawebpages/chennai.html

Nick-H

Is that Sleeper Class, or 3AC?

I thought one got a curtain in 3AC, but I'v only done 2AC.

shashank.aggarwal

its a 3 AC, not curtains in it. You can see the sheets, they are not provided in SL and also the sealed windows.

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capt_mahajan

-crossposted with shashank, I thought 3AC had curtains? the window has one in the link-

That looks like 3AC. Never seen one earlier without curtains.

dzibead

I have read that 3AC doesn't have curtains but I've only done 2AC (OK, once I did 1AC) so I can't say from personal experience what 3AC has.

Pagal Admi

No curtains on 3 tier AC but they did offer sheets and a blanket that wasn't long enough. Everyone's feet stuck out into the isle.

capt_mahajan

Travelled by 3AC once, had curtains.

Maybe they put them on to keep me away

Nick-H

3AC has kids. The only time we had 3AC tickets we got an upgrade to get away from the children.

Of course, 2AC has kids too, but the more kids, the more likely it is the family will choose 3AC.

dzibead

Note to the OP: don't be put off by all this "no privacy" stuff. A long train journey is an iconic Indian experience. Waking up after an overnight journey, watching the Indian countryside roll by and watching village and small town India wake up and start the day - kids walking to school, people heading out work in the the fields, people having a morning wash at an outdoor pump, animals being turned out to graze, all bathed in golden morning light - is unforgettable.

capt_mahajan

wow.

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Nicely put.

Aishah

Not all trains have a pantry carriage - sometimes food is brought in from one station as the train goes along.I've never heard of a carriage where you go to dine on trains, unless there is one on the Palace on Wheels. Less berths in 2A hence less people, less noise than 3A. 1A has a locking door to a coupe which may contain 4 berths or 2 at the end of the carriage.

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