[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by MX6

Not to boast. But I rarely travel in AC in india. It's always sleeper for me.
I was very surprised and happy once that they gave me a free upgrade from sleeper to 3A. I was travelling home on occasion of my wedding anniversary

This is the first time I'm hearing that a person was upgraded from SL coach to an AC coach. Never heard this from anyone although I travel by train very frequently. I presume this is the reason why a check box is provided on the forms for booking rail tickets?

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Actually I still remember very vividly that we were supposed to arrive 10:23 AM as per the time table and the as the train door opened at the station, the clock at station turned 10:23 AM. Now that is precision.

Wow

Originally Posted by speedsatya

Best train Journeys :

Bhopal -New Delhi Shatabdi express(does 150 kph on some stretches !!)

+1 The best food that I have tasted on an Indian train.

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

The train was so crowded that when I wanted to pee, people around me suggested that I climb on to the window and relieve myself. I refused point blank! Of course not, with all the girls standing around and staring at me

Naughty boy.

Spike

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Best: Mumbai-Trivendrum Netravati express which travels on konkan rail.
Treat to eyes with best scenery all the way along konkan coast.

worst: Ahmadbad-Mumbai mail which starts from a'bad @8am. Too much crowd, smell of chemical factories along the way.

spike arrestor:This is the first time I'm hearing that a person was upgraded from SL coach to an AC coach. Never heard this from anyone although I travel by train very frequently. I presume this is the reason why a check box is provided on the forms for booking rail tickets?

Now a days, it is standard practice. If there is vacancy in upper grade and waiting in lower grade, some lucky passengers get upgrade at no extra cost.

[download2live]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

Now a days, it is standard practice. If there is vacancy in upper grade and waiting in lower grade, some lucky passengers get upgrade at no extra cost.

And we have to thank Lalu for this. He might be rustic but he did change the face of Railways.

[ampere]

Wow so much of activity on this thread!

@pypkmsrikanth Nice to know you are still living in the past . Numbers have changed from 121/122 to 2621/2622! I have travelled both before and after the number changes and every trip was thrilling. The more the train got delayed that much better (If I had none to catch further)

@Ganesan, Well Said. GT used to be the main train before TN was introduced. And these trains used to have the famous Orange Yellow Orange colour, which later were transferred to Rajdhani. After TN was introduced, GT priority on this route got rolled down, and now its a train, not that great any more. In "THOSE" time as you said it was just fantastic.


Delh-South was always fun, because you crossed so many rivers and tunnels. The one at Hoshangabad, where trains crosses a tunnel and lands on to the bridge still gives me goosebumps, when ever I think about it. So is the big one at Vijayawada on Krishna (For a long I could not see this as the trains mostly them at night TN/GT). I got my first view when I travelled on Kerala.


The other equivalent of the Delhi-South bound grandeur is matched by the one and only Coramandel Express. I once travelled (Vijayawada-Howrah) and was thrilled beyod words (that too I AC)!


@VRP, The Bangalore-Goa and the Konkan sector was always fun. As you said Dudhsagar is awesome. So is the full length Mumbai-Madgaon-Karwar-Mangalore sector. I have done this full stretch many a times and enjoyed it to the core!

The best pantry award for me goes to Goa Express. (Again this is decade ago. Not sure how is it today).

Cleanest sector for me goes to Delhi-Bombay with a barrage of classic trains (Frontier, Pashim, Jammu Tawi Super fast, Rajdhani etc). Used to frequent this sector in the 80s.


Rajdhani and Shatabdhi were some thing good, but since windows could not be opened, were always low on EQ (Entertainment Quotient!) compared to Open Windows.

But nevertheless still game for any train. No train journey for me is worst journey!

[aargee]

99% of the time I've used train to travel between TN-KL & on few occasions TN-KA. So most of my train journeys are nothing interesting & I don't enjoy much sitting inside a box nothing to do other than reading, hearing music or work on laptop.

Anyway, if at all I'm going to be happy with train journey, it will be when we make a trip from TN to somewhere in North by 1st A/C which we're looking forward.

[ampere]

When I used to be a kid, the best was NOT the I-AC but the I-Class, as you could peep out of the window and at the same time, you get your space.

Some how the non-AC I class has been discontinued and the III-AC has replaced it, as it makes more sense from a service point of view.

[prince_pervez]

My worst ones by far were in college. I never used to get confirmed tickets and I used to jump into reservation compartments with a General ticket hoping to get the TC to give me a berth. If not then run around the train hiding.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

Best: Journey from Leeds to Aberdeen in UK. Train goes all along the coast and its a treat to watch. Sunshine, greenery and sea. Its lovely.
Worst: Jammu to Delhi. That train was a riot place. There was fist fighting going on everywhere for reasons and even for no reasons!! I was running a temperature and couldnt wait to get to Delhi. Worst. Can forget the best, but not the worst!

Did you try the leeds to carlyle route through Settle? That's an amazing route. I've found the Settle route that dots the lake district and goes through the yorkshire dales better than the leeds to aberdeen on the eastern line along the coast.

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

This is the first time I'm hearing that a person was upgraded from SL coach to an AC coach. Never heard this from anyone although I travel by train very frequently. I presume this is the reason why a check box is provided on the forms for booking rail tickets?

That was the only time I ever got bumped up. I was a lone passenger then, on my way from LTT to UD on the occasion of my wedding anniversary. I missed the train the previous day and was pretty disgruntled. So I booked in Tatkal for the next day and railways made my day by giving me a free upgrade! I caught up with my family on time for my anniversary. I still have preserved that ticket

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

This is the first time I'm hearing that a person was upgraded from SL coach to an AC coach. Never heard this from anyone although I travel by train very frequently. I presume this is the reason why a check box is provided on the forms for booking rail tickets?

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

Now a days, it is standard practice. If there is vacancy in upper grade and waiting in lower grade, some lucky passengers get upgrade at no extra cost.

This happened I think about 4-5years back. Sis was travelling by Karnataka Exress from NDLS to SBC and since hadn't got any ticket was travelling SL. The train starts from NDLS at 9.15 PM and just after boarding placing her luggage in the seat had a verbal squabble with another person who also claimed it to be his seat. But since her ticket stated the seat number she made her bed and went off to sleep. 10.15 PM the TTE came and told her that it wasn't her seat.

Why ?

Because she had been upgraded from SL to 2A. And the person's seat she took in 2A had been upgraded from 2A to 1A

On asking the TTE said the system has quite a few parameters on which it selects people to upgrade so that the system is not abused.

BTW she is a Dr.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

This is the first time I'm hearing that a person was upgraded from SL coach to an AC coach. Never heard this from anyone although I travel by train very frequently. I presume this is the reason why a check box is provided on the forms for booking rail tickets?

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

Now a days, it is standard practice. If there is vacancy in upper grade and waiting in lower grade, some lucky passengers get upgrade at no extra cost.

Originally Posted by download2live

And we have to thank Lalu for this. He might be rustic but he did change the face of Railways.

+1. It sure was a Lalu initiative. As Spike points out, one has to check the box in the form to qualify for this. I have been upgraded to III AC from sleeper class quite a few times during my Tuticorin sojourns by Pearl City Express.

But this will usually be preferred by people traveling alone. If one is traveling with family, it is advisable not to check this box. Else, any one in the group - male or female - may be upgraded and will have to avail the option, as his/her berth will be allotted to a RAC passenger. He/she can't chivalrously send the RAC fellow there and offer to stay back with the group, it simply is not permitted!

BTW is this practice still followed in Didi's regime or discontinued?

[MX6]

Gansan. The system randomly picks PNR number to upgrade. So if there are 2 berths vacant in upper class, the system screens for PNRs which has 2 passengers. Else it choses 2 PNRs of one passenger each.
So if there are 2 people travelling together on a ticket that carries a single PNR and just one vacancy, one person alone doesn't get upgraded.
The practice still continues. But then with trains jam packed, very rarely are there upgrades. Nowadays the first to get full are the 3A tickets.

@MileCruncher. Upgrades are done only across one class. SL to 3A, 3A to 2A and 2A to 1A. So I'm surprised as to how your sister got upgraded from sl to 2a.
If the 2a was vacant, ideally someone from 3a should have got that as per railway rules on free upgradation.

[Joy]

Originally Posted by MX6

........
Nowadays the first to get full are the 3A tickets.
....

+1 to that. I've personally experienced it. SL class is available long after AC class is filled out. May be SL had more coaches or may be, peoples are choosing AC for more comfortable journey. IMHO, 3A is first to get full.

Sorry might be

[lsp]

Best
Aalborg, Denmark - Luxembourg city, Luxembourg
Beautiful journey with a group of friends who were students at the university there. The train traveled through Denmark, Germany and finally Luxembourg. I think we changed twice in between at Odense, Denmark and Dusseldorf, Germany.

The highlight of the trip was the company and the way in which we conducted the whole trip. We moved from Luxembourg to Bruxxels/Brussels and Brugges & finally returned to Aalborg. All on a shoestring budget. Staying in hostels, walking most of the times or traveling in busses and local transport, drinking cheap 1 euro fermented barley drinks in the hostel bar and buying stuff with higher ethanol content from the shops. Buying pasta, frozen pizzas, fruits, bread, butter, jam, biscuits, chips, nuts from grocery stores and cooking in the hostel kitchen. I think the 5 day trip to Luxembourg and Belgium costed us like DKK3500/- (INR25000/- approx) all inclusive.

Close second
Trivandrum - Mumbai Sep 2003
A group of 15 buddies travelling in 3AC, lovely konkan coast lovely company and a hell of a time.

Worst
My first train journey
Delhi - Bangalore Oct 1997
Was visiting bangalore for NDA (Naval Academy). Didn't get confirmed tickets as we were informed merely 2 weeks in advance. The train was terribly overcrowded and had to spend the whole journey sitting on my suitcase near the toilets. At night had to sleep on the floor near the water basin.

[Latheesh]

I dont have best coz I dont like train journey, but have one worst

Hubli-Vijayawada-Tata Nagar JSR : Did not get 2nd AC ticket and had to travel in SL (2 days). TATA-Alleppy train, this is one of the worst train and came across few worst people during the journey.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

I dont have best coz I dont like train journey, but have one worst

Hubli-Vijayawada-Tata Nagar JSR : Did not get 2nd AC ticket and had to travel in SL (2 days). TATA-Alleppy train, this is one of the worst train and came across few worst people during the journey.

I once went on Allepey train from Trichur-Chennai. Journey was en-eventful as I had to just hop into the berth and sleep.

Hubli-Vijayawada is one most empty of railway sectors. Devoid of good stations, food and facilities. The only place in this section is Guntakal, where you can get some time, if the engine has to be changed or attached in the opposite direction. Tried this route once.