j'ai consulté le site www.seat61.com/india.htm qui fait la liste des differentes classes de train en inde.
est ce que l'un d'entre vous à des renseignements sur la classe AC1, l'avez vous deja prise, quelles en sont vos impressions, etc...
nous voudrions faire les longs trajets de nuit (2 filles pas trop rassurées lol).
merci d'avances pour vos reponces.
2 filles qui voudraient faire un voyage d'un mois en inde dans une periode entre octobre et mars.
Ah les classes en Inde...On avait eu du mal à s'imaginer à quoi elles correspondaient avant d'être sur place. On avait quand même trouver quelques messages assez explicites. Tu devrais pouvoir y puiser pas mal d'informations.
LEs AC1 d'après moi correspondent à la première classe air conditionné. C'est bien entendu la plus cher, elle est même trop cher en fait. Ca revient presque au même de prendre l'avion en low cost que la AC1. Le confort est quasi identique que la AC2, à la différence que tu peux te retrouver dans un compartiment (boite à chaussure) pour deux avec une porte qui ferme.
La AC2 est la deuxième classe, tu as un rideau dans le compartiment qui t'isole du couloir. 4 personnes dans le compartiment et deux personnes dans le couloir. Le wagon AC2 est isolé des autres (tout comme le wagon AC1).
Ensuite tu as la AC3, 3ème classe (clim aussi). Pareil : 6 personnes dans le compartiment, pas de rideau qui sépare du couloir et 2 personnes dans le couloir.
Ensuite la Sleeper classe, idem AC3 sans l'air conditionné.
Donc pour les trains, tout dépend de la région ou vous êtes, si c'est le sud ou le nord de l'inde. Au sud les trains sont plus agréables d'après mon expérience, et les sleeper classes sont très bien. Au nord ça dépend des trajets que vous envisagez. Et pour les très longs trajets il faut se renseigner sur l'avion Low cost qui est fréquent en Inde maintenant.
Pour un premier trajet en train prenez une AC2 et vous verrez bien par la suite. (il y a moins de place en AC2 puisqu'il y a très peu de wagons avec des classes supérieurs, la majorité est en sleeper.)
merci pour cette explication eclairante, en fait nous serions interressées par la AC1 pour les longs trajets que nous ferons de nuit.
nous preferons vraiment pouvoir etre seule et enfermées (pour plus de tranquilité et de securité).
quel est le tarif moyen de la AC1 pour un trajet agra-bhopal par exemple ?
merci d'avance.
2 filles qui voudraient faire un voyage d'un mois en inde dans une periode entre octobre et mars.
Mode d'emploi : cliquer sur "trains between important stations", sélectionner AGRA CANT + BHOPAL + all class. Sélectionner un train dans le tableau où la classe 1A est proposée, puis cliquer sur Get fare.
Je trouve ça dommage de payer 4 fois plus cher pour une AC1 et de se retrouver "enfermée" pendant le trajet... La SL ( sleeper ) a l'énorme avantage d'être une classe où il peut y avoir pas mal d'échanges et qui plus c'est une classe au prix ridiculement bas, d'où de bonnes économies sur votre budget de voyage ( 1500 roupies pour une AC1, ça fait quand même une petite somme alors qu'en SL j'ai dû payer maximum 500 roupies pour 2 : Aurangabad - Hyderabad ). De toute manière même si on vous importune, il y aua toujours quelqu'un pour prendre votre défense.
Comme je ne connais que la Sleeper, je ne peux pas parler des autres classes, mais je pense que les relations sont les mêmes et des rencontres fort sympathiques se produisent autant en Sleeper qu'en AC1, pas la même classe sociale par contre...
Les voyages en train restent pour ma part l'un de mes meilleurs souvenirs.
Je dirais même plus, pour avoir pratiqué rarement la 1A, souvent la 2AC, parfois la 3tier, et très rarement la sleeper, plus ont va dans une classe confortable, plus les gens sont réservés. C'est une question de classe sociale (comme partout). Cela ne signifie pas que l'on ne rencontreara pas parfois des gens sympathiques en 2AC mais il faut plus de temps pour briser la glace.
C'est vrai mais on est moins confronté au 'where do you come from ? ' et autres
'What 's your name' qui sont quelquefois les seuls discussions qu'on a avec certaines personnes 🙂. C'est aussi une réalité qu'il y a plus de gens des classes sociales supérieurs en 2A qu'en sleeper et que la conversation a plus de chance de dépasser le "where do you come from" qu'en sleeper pour traiter de sujets plus variés.
Je n'ai pour ma part pas pratiqué la 1A et j'ai pris la 2A pour le premier voyage effectué, le reste en sleeper. Mais franchement je me souviens d'un trajet entre Agra et Allahabad (entre 2 et 4 heures d'après mon souvenir) qui a été l'un des plus "n'importe quoi" que j'ai fait de ma vie (c'était en sleeper) mais c'était de jour donc...on était quand même 16 sur des bancs prévus pour 8, sans compter ceux qui étaient assis ou allongés par terre.
Quant a nous, nous avons fait la rarissime experience de voyager quasiment seuls. Ct en classe AC2 entre Delhi et Jaisalmer soit 20 heures de train et 800 km parcourus!! En fait la raison a cela est que ct Diwali (nouvel an indien)!! Vous imaginez donc que nous etions a notre aise malgre le faite que les cuisiniers etaient en conge... quelle deceptions, moi qui voulais gouter a la gastronomie ferroviaire!
Je vous conseille AC2. C'est vraiment tres bien! Pensez a attacher vos sacs avec une chaine et un cadenas car les vols sont frequents et profitez du paysage!!!
je ne suis pas d'accord sur le fait qu'être en AC2 "augmente la probabilité d'avoir une discussion au delà du where you come from"... Il m'est arrivé de rencontrer en Sleeper un panel des classes sociales indiennes, pour preuve, j'ai discuté pendant un moment avec un jeune avocat pratiquement pendant tout le trajet entre Aurangabad et Hyderabad, un videaste spécialisé dans le montage vidéo des cérémonies de mariage ( 🙂 ), un professeur d'université, un étudiant en sanskrit et sa femme ( adorables ), un jeune étudiant en commerce à Bangalore ( il est vrai en revanche qu'il n'est pas donné à tout le monde de pouvoir s'exprimer en anglais... j'en conviens ). Je pense que la Sleeper est comme partout ailleurs, c'est juste une classe plus économique que les autres et on trouve toujours quelqu'un à qui parler et avec qui partager son repas. Même si l'on ne parle pas la langue, on arrive toujousr à trouver un moyen de communiquer et c'est souvent dans ces conditions que le contact est le plus touchant je trouve...
Désolé si je trouve cela un peu dur de dire que forcément c'est en étant dans une classe comme la AC2 donc une classe où forcément les gens seront plus riches, qu'on pourra communiquer même si je comprends très bien ce que tu veux dire : l'enseignement comme je l'ai dit plus haut, tout le monde ne peut pas en bénéficier... Du coup c'est le moment pour apprendre des rudiments d'Hindi !!!
Tu as raison, On peut aussi avoir des longues discussions en Sleeper...
En fait je disais qu'il y avait plus de chance en 2A de rencontrer des anglophones et donc de dépasser le "where do you come from?" que je considère comme de la communication mais pas comme une discussion.
Qui pourrait vraiment me detailler de façon claire les classes de train en inde? couchettes, non couchettes, air conditionné ou non? services? une idée des…
Je pars seule en inde du nord pour 1 mois du 28 mars au 29 avril (ma première fois soit en passant). Je suis un peu perdue sur les différentes classes dans les…
1- j'aimerais connaître la différence (au niveau des trains - couchettes) entre "UPPER " et "SIDE-UPPER"? car nous comptons voyager en couple et j'aimerais…
I’m planning our very first trip to mainland France in January 2027. There’ll be 2 adults and 2 kids, and we’ll mostly be traveling by train.
Here’s our itinerary:
Paris
Rouen (Normandy)
Lyon
Aix-les-Bains (with day trips to Annecy and Geneva)
Saint-Gervais-les-Bains (with Chamonix and a day in Aosta)
Back to Paris
Do you think this itinerary is well-balanced? Any tips, must-see spots, or mistakes to avoid for a first-time visit?
Hi! I’d like to make stops across France, starting from Reims, and travel by train using the Intercités. I want to discover the landscapes and picturesque villages, and make some stops along the way. Could you give me some tips? Thanks!
I can’t seem to complete the payment for my trip on the IRCTC (Indian Railways) site. No matter which payment method I choose, my Visa card isn’t accepted.
Has anyone here managed to do it, and if so, could you share the method you used?
Thanks in advance!
Charlie
I’m planning a family trip in a year. Our goal: traveling to China (and maybe Hong Kong) by train.
I’m all set with the route up to eastern Turkey.
However, I’m just starting my research for the rest of the journey—namely the Caucasus (no trains as far as I know, so buses and/or ferries), then Central Asia and China.
So, I’d love to hear any info or tips (general and forward-looking at this stage) about the train route through Central Asia and China to reach the east coast.
I’m particularly interested in details on:
- How far in advance to book / any potential difficulties with reservations
- Whether there are PASS systems (or equivalent) between countries and/or if some tickets allow stopovers, meaning you can hop on and off as you please
- Day trains vs. night trains (the latter option lets you explore cities between two legs of the journey)
- A rough idea of ticket costs
...
A huge thank you to anyone who can share some info or experiences. It’s also a great opportunity to chat about adventure after (way too) many years away from this forum.
I’m planning a trip around Italy using only trains or public transport in October (hoping the weather stays nice!).
I’d obviously like to see some tourist destinations, but I also want to get off the beaten path a bit, and I’m hoping to find some help here? I don’t plan to linger too long in the cities.
Starting in the north, I’d like to visit Lake Como or Lake Orta, pass through the Cinque Terre for some hiking, spend a few days in Naples and Rome, then head down to Sicily.
Hi there,
I’ll be traveling to Japan this coming August. We’ve finalized our itinerary and booked our flight tickets. Now I’m at the stage of buying train tickets for the few segments we’ll need to cover:
Tokyo - Hakone
Hakone - Kyoto
Kyoto - Osaka
Osaka - Tokyo
Here are my questions:
a) Is it possible to buy train tickets for these segments from Canada?
b) If so, which website should I use to do this?
c) And if it is possible, will we be able to print our tickets from Canada?
d) If it’s not possible, where in Tokyo should I go to buy these tickets when I arrive?
Hi everyone, I wanted to take the Paris-Berlin overnight train with a sleeper berth, the new service operated by European Sleepers.
24/05/2026 17:45 Paris-Nord (actually 16:00 from Paris Bercy Seine) -> 25/05/2026 9:59 (actually 7:30 in Berlin)
05/06/2026 18:31 Berlin (actually 20:00) -> 06/06/2026 10:00 Paris Nord (actually 12:30)
Part of the journey was operated by bus instead of the promised overnight train.
For 2 people: 340 € round trip
A total disaster. Never again. I was really looking forward to taking the overnight train, but we faced last-minute changes and truly unpleasant travel conditions. Here are the details:
1) 2 days before departure: email announcing a change of departure station for the outbound trip—Bercy Seine bus station instead of Gare du Nord.
2) Change of schedule: 4:00 PM from Bercy instead of 5:45 PM from Gare du Nord.
3) Change of transport mode!! A bus from Paris to Brussels, then an overnight train from Brussels to Berlin. No functional toilets on the bus. No children under 4 allowed on the bus.
4) On the sleeper train at 9:30 PM: no functional toilets in our carriage, so we had to go to other carriages, even in the middle of the night, to find working ones.
5) The onboard staff, though very friendly, were as lost as we were. In particular, they didn’t know how to handle the lower berths, so people using them had less space (armrests and backrests). Berth numbers weren’t respected, so some passengers had to move. The staff also didn’t know who was supposed to join the compartment during the journey.
6) Arrival at 7:30 AM in Berlin instead of 10:00 AM. No arrival announcement. Passengers had to search for staff to get breakfast and ended up with just a coffee (breakfast = 15 €, not bad for just a coffee).
7) Return trip: drastic schedule change announced by email on 26/05/2026—departure at 7:30 PM instead of 6:30 PM, with arrival between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM in Paris instead of 10:00 AM. No change in transport mode announced.
8) Change in transport mode announced by email on the same day (05/06/2026)!! Overnight train from Brussels to Berlin, then a bus from Paris to Brussels. No functional toilets on the bus. Children under 4 banned from the bus, and families in this situation were asked to find another way—after being notified the same day.
9) The overnight train arrived at Berlin station with a 30-minute delay on top of its initial delay (scheduled for 6:31 PM, then 7:30 PM, finally arriving at 8:00 PM). The heating was blasting in the compartment with no way to turn it off. No functional toilets in the carriage. From that point on, customer service stopped responding to my messages.
10) Woken up at 5:00 AM with an announcement in all carriages about arrival in Liège.
11) Woken up again at 6:00 AM to be told we’d arrive in Brussels at 7:00 AM.
12) Arrival in Brussels at 7:00 AM and a one-hour wait for the bus to Paris. No functional toilets on the bus.
13) Arrival at Paris Nord at 12:30 PM, so 2.5 hours late compared to the originally scheduled time.
14) The overnight trains used are very old—I recognized the carriages from 20 years ago!! No functional power outlets, no Wi-Fi, no air conditioning. Five people per compartment is a bit cramped, but I consider these conditions expected (especially the air conditioning), so I’m not complaining about that. There’s already plenty to gripe about with the travel conditions.
I have little hope of getting even a partial refund. Customer service emails acknowledge the discomfort but only offer to reimburse the cost of a coffee on board if we send them the receipt... a bit weak.
I’m sharing this experience in the hope it might help others.
Hi there,
I’d like to take the Train of the Clouds from Lima to Huancayo.
I’ve heard it only runs during certain periods.
Does anyone have info on this?
Thanks!
HuancayoHuancayo
As part of my professional thesis, I’m conducting a study on the evolution of long-distance rail transport in France, particularly since it opened up to competition.
I’ve put together a very quick (about 5-minute) and completely anonymous questionnaire. Your answers will help me better understand users' expectations regarding pricing, frequency, and environmental impact.
We’re planning a 15-day trip to Uzbekistan in March—classic independent itinerary: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva. We’d like to take the train between each city, but I don’t want to lock down the whole trip before we leave.
So, my question is: is it absolutely necessary to book train tickets before departure, whether for the high-speed trains or the regional ones? Is booking really essential for the regional trains?
Hello,
We’re traveling as a family with two boys aged 10 and 12 to Cairo in February. During our trip, we’re planning to take an overnight train (with or without a sleeper) for the Cairo-Aswan route.
Do you know how I can book this remotely?
Also, I’m looking for:
- A local contact to sail the Nile by felucca for 3 days from Aswan
- A contact to guide us in Cairo
Looking forward to your tips, and thanks in advance!
Marie
Hi everyone,
I first traveled solo to Japan in 2019, exploring the Kyushu region (28 days), and I’m planning to return with my daughter (she’s an adult and it’ll be her first time in Asia) from April 25 to May 9.
I’m reaching out on this forum to ask for route ideas—this time north of Tokyo, but without heading to the Sapporo island (I’m saving that for a future trip).
I’d love to take advantage of the cherry blossom season and its festivities.
I’m looking to create a route that’s a little off the beaten path while staying within 5-6 hours by train from Tokyo to avoid spending too much time on transfers.
Thanks in advance for sharing your suggestions and experiences!
Michael
I'm heading to MEXICO IN NOVEMBER 2025. Since private guides and drivers are really expensive—over 300 € per day—I'm thinking of exploring the Yucatán by train. CAN YOU SHARE ANY INFO ON THIS? Thanks
Hi there!
We’re planning to visit Serbia (1 week) and then Montenegro (2nd week) with our kids from April 18 to May 4. We’d prefer to travel by train (overnight if possible), but we’re not sure which platform to book on or when to do it (is it too early?). If anyone has any tips, I’m all ears!!
I wanted to know if it’s possible to go from Tashkent to Almaty by train without passing through Kyrgyzstan. I’ve heard the border is often closed 😕 between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Thanks in advance!
Olivier
Hi there!
We’re planning to head back to Istanbul next year—obviously by plane—and then take the train from Istanbul to Antalya. Has anyone here already made this trip by train with TCDD?
I’d love any tips or info that could be useful for us!
I'd like to go to Montserrat on my own from Barcelona. Share your suggestions with me.
Which train should I take, where to get off, what to see once I arrive, etc.
I need to take a sleeper train from Bangkok to Vientiane in January.
I found some ticket options on 12Go Asia, but booking doesn’t seem possible at the moment. I’ve tried simulations for several dates, but no luck.
I’m wondering if it’s already fully booked, if they’ve stopped selling tickets… yet 12Go still features it every day 😕
Has anyone else run into this issue?
Can I find tickets on another site? (I tried Baolau, but no sleepers left for January 8th.)
Hi there,
I’m a bit late to be worrying about this, but hopefully someone can help me before I leave.
Tomorrow afternoon, I arrive at Lyon Part-Dieu on the TGV at 5:50 PM and take the TER to Mâcon at 6:16 PM. Is a 26-minute transfer doable? Are the TGV and TER on the same departure board? And are they on the same platforms too?
I’ve been to Lyon before but never had to make a connection after arriving.
Thanks
Starting November 15th, I’ll be arriving in Thailand, and during my stay, I plan to visit the north, around the Chiang Mai area, then head south to the Krabi region.
After Krabi, I’m planning to take an overnight train to Bangkok. I was wondering if there’s a train that leaves from Krabi or Trang, or if I absolutely have to go to Surat Thani?
Also, which official website can I use to book my ticket?
Next, since I’ll be arriving at dawn in Bangkok, I’ve planned to spend 2 days in Kanchanaburi. What’s the most convenient way to get there—bus or train? And if you know any companies or websites, that’d be great.
Hi there,
Does anyone know if there’s a bus from Luang Namtha to Boten to catch the train coming from China to Vientiane? If so, what’s the name of the company? Also, how long does the bus take to cover that distance? What’s the condition of the road like?
Thanks for your help!
Tom
I just realized there’s only one payment method accepted for booking the Mombasa-Nairobi express train ticket online: M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer service used in Africa. Would it be impossible to book as a European?
I’d love to know if any of you have recently eaten on the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.
We’ve always ordered food on the train, and it was really good (and super convenient).
But in 2022, we ended up feeling like total idiots (with our 4-year-old daughter...) when we boarded the train only to find out that this service was no longer available... (It was the first time we’d traveled right after COVID.)
That’s also when we saw once again how kind Thai people are—they all offered to share their food with us, even though we were mortified. In the end, we managed to buy some instant noodles, which was better than nothing. Anyway, that’s the little story behind it.
In the following years, we’ve always brought our own meals.
I’ve read online that meal trays are back in service (could you confirm this, please?), but that the quality is really poor. I’ve also seen multiple reports that, even though you can eat well everywhere in Thailand, the train meal was the worst food travelers had during their trip...
Could you give me a recent opinion on this?
We’ll be departing from Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Station—do you know if there’s anywhere to buy a meal there before boarding the train?
Thanks so much for your help,
and have a great Sunday!
We’re heading to Thailand in February 2026 and we’d like to take the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Can we book two first-class tickets? I’m only seeing second-class options.
Hi everyone,
For traveling in Rajasthan by train and bus, could you give me some info: where to buy tickets, cost, purchase locations, websites, etc.?
Any tips you have would be super helpful.
Thanks
We’re traveling to Java on October 23, just the two of us.
I’ve read that it’s best to book train tickets in advance on tiket.com.
Is that true, and how far ahead do you recommend?
Are the tickets changeable?