The Hindustan Train_logy

Most of you has been lived within the prolong story, books and movies. Lets say The Lord of the Ring trilogy, Famous story tales written by JRR Tolkien that yeah... got me to know one of the hilarious trilogy ever and introduce me to the fabulous character of Aragorn. But this note is not about something that long, because other than such a "Logy" thing we also have "Logy" as part of the knowledge such as Biology, Dhermatology etc. And so on, lets talk about this kind of thing within the term of railway system in India, or simply i want to share a bit about it along the wrapping notes called the Hindustan Trainlogy. 

As we know, India is one of the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over a route of 65,000 km (40,000 mi) and 7,500 stations. As of December 2012, it transported over 25 million passengers daily (over 9 billion on an annual basis). www.wikipedia.com

And as a huge railway station at the huge population country, India has established a good infrastructure and ticketing system that are user friendly for both local and tourist. The system has consider passenger preference and of course its various from budget traveler up to high level train class.
How do we start?

For foreigners, we can buy the ticket online within the range as the same with locals through specific website such as IRCTC. For guidance how to have the IRCTC account, how to book and etc, seat 61.com has wrote clearly at this link 

After you got your account, do booking process as normal by select your preferred date and destination. Recheck your booking prior the payment to avoid any mistake. And of course, be familiar with your destination. Dont laugh for this, because India has so many route and even sometimes, one city has several station with similar names. For example, you will meet Agra Fort and Agra Cant in Agra, Old Delhi, Delhi and New Delhi when you visit Delhi. Mistaken on these gonna lead you miles away from your destination. 

Once your booking is completed, you'll got your ticket with certain unique numbers called PNR. These series of number has to be used to monitor validity and status of your ticket. PNR and name of passenger will be appeared at the chart prior to departure schedule. 

Inside Syealdah Railway Station, Kolkata

Chart ^^, i got mine

Hunting our name ^^ 

Syealdah Railway Station, Kolkata

And the other important thing when you have completed your booking is to understand the status of your ticket booking. Its not like in another country, in India, they has several ticket status as below: 

• Waitlisted
  PNR having fully waitlisted status will be dropped and names of the passengers will not appear in the chart. They are not allowed to board the train. If waitlisted passengers found travelling, they will treated as without ticket and charged as per extent railway. 
• RAC
  It means that you have the right to board the train, but certain terms applied differently compared to your initial booking. For example in my case, i booked economy sleeper train whereas one bed for one person. With RAC status, i have to shared my bed with others, hence such a bed transformed into sitting seat for 2 persons. 
• Fully Booked
  It means that no train available. Lets think another option then. 
• Confirmed
  This status absolutely OK. You already got your seat including the coach number, seat, and bed position (Upper, Under and Middle) for sleeper class. No need to worry at all. 

For train ticket status other than confirmed, ensure you have double check your latest status prior to departure since its often to be updated up to departure schedule. I have experienced to get confirmed ticket after being RAC and waiting list for one month. Such a condition happened since ticket booking open up to 3 months prior departure. So, save your seat by making an advance booking. 

How's inside the train? 

Most of you maybe have read from some books, blog or travel note about Indian Railways. But i will tell you my point of view. Again, on my point of view. 

A long with the rumors of the dirty, untidy and smelly place - yeah that's most people described this country, i dont think the same way. Why? After experiencing Railways system in my country, i just try to make an apple to apple comparison. Economy to economy, for example. 

Indonesian railways has no sleeper class. So, when i took the sleeper economy class i try to compare it with business class and surprisingly, Indian was much better. in India, the seat in economy class was comfortable and affordable. At least it has a thin bunk bed while business class in Indonesia was a plastic chair. Toilet economy class in Indian are the same quality as business class in Indonesia. 

I cant share about other class because i have no experience on it, but for AC tier 3 class, you can visit Tika's note.  For more details and pictures on Indian railways, you also can see seat61.com 

What i love about Indian Railways? 

1. Cheap, I spent less than INR 500 for each overnight journey
2. There's opportunity to interact and makin friends with local, some notes said it was annoying to see most of the local staring at you as the only foreigners at that place, but please ignore because its gone once you started to make a conversation. People that i met mainly are nice people. 
3. Act as local as you can. What's your travel meant when you avoid to experience such a thing. 
4. Sharing and get information about everything just make our next trip easier. Some people that i met was really helpful, even they woke me up when i fall asleep just a moment before my arrival station. 

And of course, i want to come back and treasure another lane of the Hindustan Trainlogy ^^