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| 3AC Class Sleeper Trains from New Delhi > Varanasi (22.35>11.10) |
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| Train ride from Agra to new Delhi - Overcrowded ! |
For this great northern Indian trip from 19 Nov to 12 Dec 2018, our group had the opportunities to visit a number of cities by sleeper trains (Varanasi, Lucknow & Amritsar) & day trains (Agra & Patna). The 4 main train tickets (3 sleepers & 1 day train) were bought online in advance via the Travel Desk of our hotel in Pahar Gaj in New Delhi prior to our arrival in New Delhi. A service fee of Rs100 per ticket is charged by our Travel Desk for buying online using the IRCTCs e-Ticketing Service. Upon booking, a PNR No is given and allowed our group to track the progress of any un-confirmed ticket/tickets. The most challenging one was our train ride from Lucknow to Amritsar, two of our members had confirmed tickets but the 3rd ticket was only confirmed 4 hours prior to departure ! What a relief ! Otherwise, our group may have to buy an unreserved seat ticket on the day of travel in order for all our group members to travel together ! Our attempts to book online these train tickets from our home country proved futile and our group eventually gave up after trying a few rounds ! As an alternative, if you have an Indian contact or friends in India, they could buy the tickets online on your behalf and save you all the anxieties you faced prior to your arrival in India !
For our train ride from New Delhi to Agra (visiting Taj Mahal & Agra Fort), our hotel travel desk was able to buy online 3 reserved seat tickets one day in advance - this was a blessing to our group as we were able to visit the 2 UNESCO World Heritage sites on that day !
In one train ride ie from Varanasi to Bodhgaya (210km), one of our group members had a confirmed seat in Class 3AC so the rest of our members bought 3 unreserved seat tickets and went on board the train and we managed to travel together "squatting" & "standing" in the train for 2-3 hrs !
Our train ride experiences in this trip exposed us to travel in the various class of seats & sleepers, ie Class AC1 , AC2 , AC3, reserved & unreserved seats in general cabins etc . What an interesting outcome indeed for our group members who were first timers in India ! A total of 7 train rides in different class were taken by our group members - How I wish one day I could travel on high speed trains to major big cities in India - but in the meantime, it remains as a dream !
1) 24 Nov 2018 - New Delhi > Varanasi (22.35>11.10) Class 3AC ticket (Adults Rs1,128, Seniors Rs721)
2) 28 Nov 2018 - Varanasi (PL. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction) > Gaya (Class 3AC unreserved seat -Rs90)
3) 5 Dec 2018 - Patna > Lucknow (10.30>20.03 delayed by 2hrs) Class 2AC ticket (Adults Rs1,254, Seniors Rs803)
4) 8 Dec 2018 - Lucknow > Amritsar (16.00>08.55 delayed by 15 hrs ! ) Class 1AC (Adults Rs2,813, Seniors Rs1,728)
5) 10 Dec 2018 - Amritsar > H Nizamuddin near New Delhi Class 3AC (Adults Rs890, Seniors Rs580)
6) 22 Nov 2018 - New Delhi > Agra & return - Class 3AC
7) 9 Dec 2018 - H Nizamuddin > New Delhi - unreserved seat Rs20
One funny liner contributed by hotel guests in New Delhi
Agra Railway Station (22 Nov 2018) - morning breakfast at a eatery outlet inside the Agra station upon our arrival from New Delhi; return train ride from Agra to New Delhi station (410km, 18.55>22.25, reserved seat); this train was jam packed with people (due to a religious ceremony in a small town along the way) making our entry to our cabin extremely difficult, inch by inch we squeezed into the cabin but our reserved seats were occupied by locals; we managed to secure our seats after a gentle persuasion to request the occupants to vacate the seats back to us !
PT Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction Railway station, Uttar Pradesh (train ride from Varanasi > Gaya on 24 Nov 2018 - unreserved seat, thanks to Lam who had a reserved train ticket for our group members to travel together for this train ride ! )
Patna Railway station (5 Dec 2018) - Class 2AC 10.30>20.30, 539km, train ride to take 8hrs 15mins but was delayed by 3 hours so by the time our group arrived at Central Hotel, it was well passed mid-night !
Lucknow Railway station (5 & 8 Dec 2018) & 2 train ride experiences from Patna to Lucknow (day train -539km) & Lucknow to Amritsar (14.00>08.55), 992km, a 17 hour train ride & our train was delayed for 15 hrs in Lucknow; train halls & waiting rooms were fully packed & many used plastic sheets to sleep on floor, Class 1AC, own compartment for 4; my longest day sitting in a train station from 13.00 to 08.00 (20hrs) & to endure another 17 hours train ride from 08.00 to the following morning at around 01.00. Hotel check in was at around 01.30 giving our group only a 10 hour short stay in Amritsar but our dream of seeing Golden Temple was fulfilled !
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| Class 1AC - 4 sleeper beds in a compartment |
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| Fried vegetable noodle |
Amritsar Railway station & a train ride from Amritsar to H. Nizamuddin (16.00>04.15); Class 3AC; early dinner (tandoori chicken & vegetable fried rice) in Comesum restaurant inside the train station
H Nizamuddin Railway station & a short trade ride from Nizamuddin station to New Delhi station (05.30 > 06.00); unreserved seats, General class Rs30 ! Standing for 20 minutes all to the way until our arrival in New Delhi station ! A great morning exercise for our group members !
The only long distance bus ride our group took from Bodhgaya to Patna (111km - 5 hours, Rs280) - bought our bus tickets from a local travel agency, G S Travels near our hostel, jointly operated by Bihar & Nepal governments, this is an overnight bus from Bodhgaya > Patna > Kathmandu, airconditioned, comfortable seats, departure time is 8am arriving Patna around 1pm ) - Sunday 2 Dec 2018
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| Patna Bus Terminal |
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