All Aboard!

What have foreign tourists, journalists and freedom fighters got in common? They share a counter when queuing for train tickets in Indian stations. Confused? We were.

Despite having the largest rail network in the world and employing more people than any other organization on the planet (1.6 million!), Indian Railways have a reputation for being incredibly inefficient. We have heard from other travellers that they have wasted days waiting for ticket confirmations. Our experience has been very different (touch wood)...providing we buy our ticket alongside the freedom fighters of course.

We have been traveling in 'second class sleeper' where the middle-class Indians tend to travel also and costs only 2GBP for 1000kms. Maybe British Rail can learn from this (although perhaps they could ignore the statistic that also claims Indian Rail as the most dangerous in the world!) Second class sleeper carriage is certainly where everything seems to happen – from the noisy chaye-wallahs and pakora salesmen to beggars sweeping the carriages for donations. This seems to be where we see the Indians at their most relaxed, eating pakora wrapped in newspaper, sipping chaye from clay cups and gazing through the bars on the windows to admire the views of their beautiful country.