Does anyone understand how Indian Railways ticketing works?

[Harlesden]

On a general forum I visit from time to time, there are always people asking about "pnr numbers" and posts clearly imply that making a reservation on the Indian Railways network is definitely not as straightforward as it is here in the UK

 

[Glenmutchkin]

The best place to go to find out about Indian railways is India Mike.

http://www.indiamike.com/india/indian-railways-f10/

Have look, sign up and ask questions. Just like here.

If you have some specific questions in mind you can try me. I know a little bit about it.

 

[LouJ]

The process of getting a reservation is easy - the biggest problem is trains can be booked solid many weeks before departure. You can obtain a position in the waitlist for cancellations.

I use the following website which is the most consumer friendly and you can use UK credit and debit cards which many sites offering Indian reservations don't accept.

http://www.cleartrip.com/trains

By the way the PNR is the unique reservation code for your seat.

Because many trains cover large distances over many hours or days, seats and sleeping berths are allocated to intermediate stations as well as the stations at the start and end of journey. For instance a train going from Calcutta to Madras may stop at up to 40 stations en-route and each station has an allocation of berths. If you cannot get a seat or berth from Calcutta to Madras then try and break the journey at an intermediate station. You may find you can get two separate reservations on the same train to complete your journey.

Hope the above helps.

 

[Glenmutchkin]

Sadly Cleartrip don't list all trains. Some of the omissions are quite important trains for getting about. Not all trains on the Kalka - Shimla are listed by them either.

 

[mickpop]

[s[

On a general forum I visit from time to time, there are always people asking about "pnr numbers" and posts clearly imply that making a reservation on the Indian Railways network is definitely not as straightforward as it is here in the UK

You could just contact SD Enterprises [Shankar Danapandi] of Wembley who are the UK agents for Indian Railways.He is a mine of information and will book for you if you use an Indrail pass.

 

[Glenmutchkin]

[s[

You could just contact SD Enterprises [Shankar Danapandi] of Wembley who are the UK agents for Indian Railways.He is a mine of information and will book for you if you use an Indrail pass.

But that takes all the fun out of it. There's nothing like fighting your way through the endless pop-ups on the Indian Railways site to find your trains, and then getting up at 6 a.m. to try and hit Cleartrip's reliable window.

Seriously given what a huge system they run the ticketing system is pretty good and train travel in India is tremendous value for money.