Train Travel in India: A Practical Guide for Foreign Visitors

Indian Railways sells reserved tickets online through IRCTC, its booking website. A visitor has two routes.

• Online, on your own IRCTC account. Register at irctc.co.in, then add and verify an international mobile number in your profile with the one-time code IRCTC sends. Once logged in, choose "Foreign Tourist Ticket Booking" under Services. You enter the passport number of every passenger and pay by international debit or credit card. IRCTC charges a one-off registration fee and a service charge on each ticket, on top of the fare, and lists both on its foreign tourist page.
• In person, at an International Tourist Bureau. Indian Railways runs these offices for foreign tourists and NRIs in cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Varanasi and Agra Cantt. The New Delhi bureau is on the first floor of New Delhi railway station. Take your passport.

One rule surprises people: IRCTC does not allow agents to book tickets under the Foreign Tourist Quota. Those seats are booked by the traveller, online or at a bureau. A tour company can still plan which train and class suits your route, as ours does on the itineraries we run (train and flight bookings).

Indian Railways keeps this quota on almost all trains for foreign tourists. IRCTC's terms for it are specific:

• Booking window. Up to 365 days ahead. For journeys inside the normal booking window, berths are given when you book; for journeys further out, they are given when that window opens, and IRCTC tells you by international SMS. Since 1 November 2024 the normal window has been 60 days, not counting the day of travel.
• Trains and classes. Executive Class (EC), First AC (1A), Second AC (2A), Third AC (3A), AC Chair Car (CC), Sleeper (SL) and Second Sitting (2S), on all trains except Suvidha services, including the Shatabdi, Rajdhani, Duronto and Gatimaan expresses.
• Fare. One and a half times the normal fare. No concessions apply, and the passenger's name cannot be changed.
• Identity on board. Each passenger must carry the original passport entered at booking, with a valid visa. A passenger who cannot show them is treated as travelling without a ticket and charged a penalty of three times the fare.
• If no berth comes through. When the railway's system does not allot a berth for a long-advance booking, IRCTC cancels the ticket itself and sends you an SMS and an email.
• If you change your plans. Cancelling an FTQ ticket costs half the fare on top of the usual cancellation charges, and it has to be done on the website. The cut-off is four hours before the train's scheduled departure.

You will see these codes when you search and book. What they mean in practice:

• First AC (1A) is the top class on ordinary trains and has the largest luggage allowance.
• Second AC (2A) and Third AC (3A) are air-conditioned sleeper classes with berths in two and three tiers.
• AC Chair Car (CC) and Executive Class (EC) are air-conditioned seats, used on day trains. The Vande Bharat trains on short and medium routes also have reclining seats.
• Sleeper (SL) and Second Sitting (2S) have no air conditioning: berths in Sleeper, seats in Second Sitting.

For most of our guests, Second or Third AC works well overnight and a chair car by day. Indian Railways sets a free luggage allowance for what you carry into the compartment: 70 kg in First AC, 50 kg in Second AC, 40 kg in Third AC, AC Chair Car and Sleeper, and 35 kg in second class. Suitcases taken into the compartment can measure up to 100 by 60 by 25 cm, but only 55 by 45 by 22.5 cm in Third AC and AC Chair Car; anything bigger travels in the brake van.

• Your passport. It is your identity document on every train, and on an FTQ ticket the original is compulsory.
• A confirmed or RAC ticket. If an e-ticket is still fully waitlisted when the final chart is made, the system cancels it and returns the fare automatically, and holders of fully waitlisted e-tickets may not board reserved coaches.
• Common sense with strangers and touts. The UK Foreign Office calls train travel in India generally safe, and advises travellers not to accept food or drink from strangers, to look after passports and valuables because thefts are common, and to avoid people at stations offering tickets and tours.

Our safety guide and first-timer's guide cover the rest of a first trip.

Some journeys are worth building a day around. The Darjeeling, Nilgiri and Kalka–Shimla lines are World Heritage Sites, listed together as the Mountain Railways of India, and Indian Railways also runs the Matheran hill line. See our guides to India's toy trains and the Ooty toy train.

India's luxury trains, the Maharajas' Express, the Palace on Wheels, the Deccan Odyssey and the Golden Chariot, are booked as journeys of their own rather than as ordinary tickets: see India's luxury trains.

For how trains fit with cars and flights on a wider trip, see getting around India.