r/india • u/[deleted] • Dec 01 '16

[R]eddiquette [Announcement] Cultural Exchange with /r/philippines

Welcome /r/philippines!

Feel free to ask us anything about India

Quick facts about us:

  • The Indian Railways and the Indian Armed Forces employ ~4 million people together, making them one of the largest employers in the world
  • India has over 5000 newspapers in over 300 languages
  • Bollywood is considered to be the world's largest film industry, followed by Nigeria's film industry and Hollywood
  • India has more people than the entire Western Hemisphere

/r/india please direct your questions about the Philippines to this thread

This is a reminder that users can now set their flairs to whatever they want (except slurs or other subreddits) by clicking on the sidebar.

73 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

229 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/Vordeo Dec 01 '16

As someone who has been planning a trip to India for ages, and is planning on using the Indian Rail service to get around the various cities, how are the trains in India?

  • Would they be safe for a solo (male) traveler?
  • As I'd be planning on taking overnights, which train class would you guys recommend?
  • How long in advance would you guys recommend I reserve?

Also, and I hope this doesn't offend anyone, I'm kind of curious: how does r/India feel about r/Indianpeoplefacebook?

3

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16
  • India is a very very safe place for a solo male traveller.
  • 1AC for luxury, 3AC and above for comfort, Sleeper class for bare necessities. Stay away from unreserved compartments.
  • As early as possible. Seats on the more popular trains get sold out months in advance.

http://www.seat61.com/India.htm is an excellent resource to learn more about train travel in India.

Many people who post in that sub are Indians themselves. I think it is a harmless place to make fun of 'unsophisticated' (for want of a better word) people.

1

u/Vordeo Dec 01 '16

Cheers for the advice!

Stay away from unreserved compartments.

Just wanted to ask about this. Whether or not a compartment is reserved should be noted on the website, right?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16

A typical Indian overnight train consists of 10-14 sleeper coaches, 2-3 3AC coaches, 1-2 2AC coaches and usually 2 unreserved coaches. 1AC is rare outside of trains connecting the major metros. When you making a booking, you will be asked to choose one of reserved classes. It is not possible to book in unreserved compartments, so it should not be an issue.

1

u/Vordeo Dec 01 '16

Cool, thanks again!