Help booking tickets with Indian Railways

[pethadine82]

I need to travel from Surat in Gujurat, India to Mumbai (bombay) Maharastra but need to get off at the airport.
This is a one way ticket. Prefer to travel first class AC.
Need to arrive at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Mumbai by 7pm on the 26th Feb 2013 as my flight leaves at midnight.

Can anyone suggest how this may be done, and how long this journey will take.

 

[Squaddie]

There are about a couple of dozen trains a day between Surat and Mumbai, taking about 4 hours. I'm not aware of any that stop at the airport, but it's been a few years since I was there.

However, for such a short journey you're probably better off taking a bus or taxi, as some of these trains are very long-distance and may be many hours late at Surat. You will probably also find that first class AC is completely booked so close to your departure date. Even 2nd class may be unavailable, as the quota for tickets from Surat to Mumbai on most of these trains is probably very small indeed.

Try Indian Railways website for times and fares. You can usually book online, and print the ticket at home (but the site is slow, user-unfriendly and extremely frustrating to use).

 

[Golghar]

Make a post on www.indiamike.com. There are people there who can tell you exactly how to book, which train to take and which station to get off at. They might also have suggestions about other means of transport which might turn out to be more convenient.

 

[LouJ]

I have always found Cleartrip to be the best site. You can use European credit cards on this site too.