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Introduction

Sleeper Class train travel - this would be the default mode of transport for most of us in the 80s and 90s and beyond until affordable air travel and deeper pockets spoilt us all with air-conditioned coaches and air travel. This is a brief travel account of my 300km countryside train ride in Sleeper Class a few months ago.

Why Sleeper Class?

Very simple - there was no accommodation on the AC classes on this train and I had to travel that day. While chance of confirmation of AC accommodation was slim given that I was boarding at a remote station, sleeper class berths were available aplenty. So, "Follow the Blue Ocean strategy :D", I said to myself.

Palakkad Jn. - one of the cleanest railway stations I've encountered

Sleeper Class

What I liked

• Pure countryside air to breathe
• Clean coach and reasonably clean washrooms
• Berth comfortable enough for a journey in good weather
• Opportunity to savour local food enroute (vadai, sundal(chhole), superb home made tea served by lady hawkers)

What I didn’t like

• Wind in the face can make one's eyes go itchy and watery; this is especially true if one travels immediately after the monsoon or during dry spells during the monsoon
• Can get nasty if too many unauthorised passengers get in (fortunately I didn't experience that)
• Some fans need a nudge by a comb to start moving

Groundnuts at Unjalur


Home made tea sold by a hawker at Kodumudi - this was the best tea I've ever had anywhere during any travel

The coach

I chose a side upper berth so that I could keep myself away from the wind, and the pollens, as I didn't want itchy eyes, continuous sneezing and a runny nose. I was perched on top for most of the journey except when the train had stopped. There were several unscheduled halts but given the float this train had, it made it to my destination in good time.

Inside the coach - very neat


Washroom - not too bad




Halting at Uthukuli - known for its butter




Closing Comments

1. Never shy away from the common man's class; you will be pleasantly surprised with the comfort it offers, especially in winters/monsoon. Travel rates - beats even ordinary buses hollow
2. This is the class where one can see hawkers and their local fare; something that one rarely gets to see in the Airconditioned coaches

I love travelling by sleeper coaches. This is India and the cost of travel cannot as cheap as SL coaches anywhere. But the encroachment by unreserved/WL passengers especially in north bound trains and unclean lavatories make me rethink again. Nevertheless my best experience in a train was when I had travelled between Vridhachalam to Srirangam by 4pm passenger sometime in 2017 in a window seat. This one was so much fun. Almost at every station that the train stopped some good snacks were sold in platforms and few were munched by me. In fact I had purchased some fresh tender cucumbers from there. I can see so many office goers in between stations and surprised to see that they make Ariyalur/Vridhachalam to Trichy everyday.

So nice. I used to use the Blue Mountain Express / Nilgiris Express overnight from Madras to Mettupalayam throughout my years in College. (along with my various friends who also lived in the Nilgiris).
We only travelled 2nd Sleeper those days with those wooden slats for berths until later they introduced a thin layer of vinyl covered cushioning.
Sometimes it was the Kovai Express second class sitting.
Madras Bangalore was always by the night Bangalore Mail and sometimes the early morning Brindavan Express.

Most enjoyable to do that kind of train travel. Because one gets the authentic local flavour always.
This was all fine up to the early 1990’s. But now I think as one ages a bit one craves more comfort and predictability and squeaky clean toilet facilities.

Sleeper Class is best for short stretch of travel between say Bangalore to Hyderabad or Bangalore to Chennai, or any distance in the vicinity of 450 Kms.

LHB Sleeper class trains on long distance can be an absolute pain to travel in, with the menace of unauthorized passengers, transgenders, constant flow of vendors and the generally pathetic state of the bio toilets. A very sad state of affairs is that Sleeper Class are the new General Unreserved second class, and Third AC is the new Sleeper class. In some some of the trains, typically headed north of the Vindhyas, Sleeper class coaches are packed to the brim, with no control on unauthorized passengers.

Having said that, I still prefer Sleeper class on my trips to Bangalore from Hyderabad. At around Rs 390 or so per berth, the fare is cheaper that OLA CAB fares in metro cities.

This is slightly OT, but its high time IR started to use IRCTC as a full fledged pax service company, and the network infrastructure be managed by an independent company to whom IRCTC and other private operators pay and use. Get private trains going! Vande Bharat has already set the bar. Needs to be extended even further.

Would be great if private players would also build infra like tracks and stations, not just operate the trains and make them more expensive. Not sure if there will be many takers for that though, actually building the infra. Otherwise it's just another instance of a private company leveraging the government infrastructure that we have paid for through taxes and then making profits by charging the same citizens more for that service. Or at least some of the same citizens who can afford it and to exclusion of the other, less privileged ones.

Speaking for myself, I'd rather have trains that run on time more than a fancier coach with an LCD screen and swivel chair. I don't see how a private player can do anything to improve that without improving the actual track infra and signalling.

Can IR be run a lot better and more efficiently, sure! But not sure if blanket privatization is the answer.

My bigger point is, 2S Sleeper/ Gen coach is fine for nostalgia( big part.of my ancestry infact) , but things need to improve. I am not saying Shinkansen bullet trains( another extreme) but fast, efficient comfortable at- a- minimum service for common man. There will be routes where people wont buy a VB like experience, but it need not be cattle class either.

This also holds true around the year on routes with Diesel loco hauled trains (eg. Konkan Railway) especially in the tunnels, where the exhaust fumes build up and cause a lot of irritation.

I follow your posts on public transport in India and I always enjoy them. But this particular one made me nostalgic. When we were kids summer vacations would mostly be spent in our native place which meant 3 day train travel in sleeper class from Mumbai to Bhubaneshwar, and 3 day train travel back. And I loved every moment of that travel. And on every journey we would make friends with the fellow passengers, only to never see them again. Those were the days without mobile or emails :uncontrol
The best part of this journey was that it traversed through various states -Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and finally Odisha. Me, my dad, my brother we love to eat when we travel and the train journey allowed us to sample and savor a wide variety of foods. We would get impatient when the train would halt at Secunderabad for almost half an hour as that would give us the time to go outside the station, grab Alpha Biryani and be back before the train left.

Growing up things changed, habits changed. But even today I try to not let go off the opportunity to travel long distance in a train.

In the South, I still don't mind travelling by Sleeper Class, as long as I can get the Side Upper berth, to indulge my claustrophobia.

As I travel North, First Class is what I prefer - but you hardly find them nowadays. Even in FC or 2-tier AC, I am wary while heading North - have a few unsavoury experiences. But it's been a long time - so probably, things are less unsavoury now... rl:

I prefer Sleeper class though I hardly travel by train. With family, it is AC. In AC compartment, one is confined with no wind or breeze and I find the journey very boring. Moreover, people in sleeper class are friendlier and one does not get bored during the journey. And not to mention the tasty food that you can get at every station or from hawker who gets into the compartment.

If they are able to maintain cleanliness, I would love travel by sleeper class

Can't believe that this is still a thing! Remember my father having to do this when we used to travel way back in the late 80s / early 90s.

Now that i think about it, i think after keeping the luggage under the berth, that was the first thing he would be doing. :)

Guess somethings never change.

Do sleeper coaches have dustbins at the end these days? It was so easy and tempting to just throw empty tea cups and what not outside the window back when i did not know any better.