Railway minefield

curlyheid

Help! I'm in the minefield that is booking railway journey's in India. Firstly, do I have to book in advance? Can't I just turn up at the railway station, buy a ticket and jump on the train? Secondly, I don't have an address in India yet for them to post out railway tickets and put on my registration. Thirdly, I'm travelling out in 2 weeks time and want to try and get my first tickets out of the way: Delhi-Agra-Varanasi-Jaipur. As you can see, I'm a bit green with all of this and it's putting the fear of God into me! I have read that you can get paperless tickets now. All you need is your code and you'll get on the train. It's almost that I need an ABC of how to do it. I've read the other strands, but am getting more confused. Please help!

steven_ber

Welcome to indiamike.com

No, you don't have to buy a ticket in advance.

However, if you wan't a particular class, a particular train, and any kind of comfort, then yes, you do need to get a ticket in advance, and more importantly, a seat/berth reservation.

Book e-tickets and print them at home, give a hotel's address and pin (postcode), if you don't have a hotel booked, look for a hotel on the Internet and use their address.

First, Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, Jaipur works better, and with a bit of luck, you may still be able to get a reservation for the Delhi-Varanasi train.

Ignore anything about paperless tickets.

You need a ticket (with a reservation) and the ID you used to book it, a passport is the best form of ID.

Low budget would be Sleeper Class (SL) (not air con)
Medium budget would be 2 or 3 tier air con. (2A, 3A)
High budget would be 1st class air con. (1A)

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jennyandernie

We travelled through India by rail for a month in December. We selected our trains from the India Rail website and then booked tickets through S D Enterprises Ltd, http://www.indiarail.co.uk/.
Tickets were delivered to our home address in the UK.

Upon arrival in India we went to New Delhi railway station to the central reservation office which is located on the first floor to confirm our bookings.

Despite intrepidations about how it would go there were no problems. All the trains ran on time and on schedule.

Jenny

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We have posted our photos on our website at
http://www.jennyandernie.co.uk/India/India%2001.htm

ranjan154

Yes you can do that unless you really want a tiring journey, specially overnight train. You should be booking your tickets well in advance. if you have done yet please do so.

Not all trains have e-tickets, so better give address of some hotel where you plan to stay.

I dont think there is direct train from agra to varanasi. so you will to first go to varanasi then come back to delhi then do a golden triangle that's DELHI-AGRA-JAIPUR-DELHI, and this should be done by some comfortable cab.

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Rakesh Ranjan
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steven_ber

All bookable trains can now be booked via E-ticket, this changed about a year ago, the only trains that can't be booked are the 2nd class unreserved trains.

There is now a direct overnight train between Varanasi and Agra in both directions.

TulsaisntFar

Don't book them in advance because you never know if you might want to change where you go next. If you dont care about which class then just show up at the railway station.