Pre-Goa
Trip Start
Oct 27, 2006
1
14
23
Trip End
Dec 25, 2006
Kocin, India
Saturday, December 2, 2006
The third largest network, in terms of total kilometres, it however pales in comparison to the US and Germany when talking about length of steel per square kilometre. The booking system and demand for railway services is astounding. Previously we have been booking our train journeys through small, local tourist operators, with the requisite 'small' fee. However, as we have mastered this art, we have grown in the strides we are willing to take. Our travels in North India (coming soon) resemble a whirlwind -- Calcutta - Darjeeling - Patna - Varanasi - Agra - Dehli -- and all completed by the fabulous rail network. Generally, to book you must line up in a reservation office, for countless minutes and hours, after searching through scribbled timetables written in a few languages; English, too, indecipherable. This however, generally only deals with local trains, not useful for booking trains in West Bengal.
Since then we have taken to booking trains via the World Wide Web. Though before considering this to be an easy task, thrown into the mix are variable dial-up speeds and power outages (a scarily frequent event, doubly so when credit card details are entered). Now, to be considered is the veritable armada of possible trains that are present to serve a nation of over one billion, running at different times (mostly into the next day), different stations and their non-logical codes, and the fact that rail is very popular with many trains, in all classes of travel (eight no less), and may be booked out. Indeed, Indian Railways have a unique system: After a train becomes fully booked, a set number of places in each class are sold as 'Reservation Against Cancellation' or 'RAC'. After all RAC places have been allocated, further prospective passengers are waitlisted. When passengers cancel, people on the RAC list are promoted to places on the train, and waitlisted passengers are promoted to RAC... not the most useful when on a schedule.
As I write this, Dave is hunched over his hired computer, trying desperately to secure a train from Patna to Varanasi. Though, we aren't worried - as the last train we booked on, we gained only the third and second last train ticket available. Close. I wonder if I will manage to get to Dehli in time.
This of course doesn't consider the sheer length of train journey, the conformability, nor when traveling in lower classes the company you mingle with.
