MAY 9, 13 .. ON THE INDIAN RAILWAYS YOU HAVE .. FIRST CLASS AND SLEEPER CLASS ..

By Cap Chastain May 9, 2013 India Trains

It is a tad more complicated than the above title indicates but you-get-the-idea.  Actually you have several ‘upper classes’.  First Class A/C .. Second Class A/C and Third Class A/C .. then you have Sleeper Class and Unreserved.

This is only the second time in my twenty two (22) years of riding the Indian Railway Trains that I have gone above Second Class A/C.  Second A/C is the way-to-go.  It is a nice combination of comfort and price BUT on this trip I wanted to experience First A/C on a long train trip and I did so.  First A/C is difficult to get a berth in because there are very few berths available in First A/C.  With a 40% senior discount my ticket cost me 2,500 Rs ($50 US). It cost me an additional 1,000 Rs ($20 US) to go First A/C. Second A/C was about 1,500 Rs ($30 US).

I was on the Tamil Nadu Express from Chennai north to Agra Cantt.

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Below .. in the first photo .. you see the entry into FIRST A/C .. note the fact there is no one visible anywhere!

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So you step-aboard-into FIRST A/C ..

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And you go down to Cabin B on the right and look into MY cabin .. lots of room for four (4) only passengers .. top and bottom sheets and blankets and towels .. NICE ..

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Immediately behind our FIRST A/C coach .. attached and coupled-to-our FIRST A/C coach was the Sleeper Class coach .. they were right-behind us .. I did not have to go-far to snap the below photos ..

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ATTENTION MOTHERS OF YOUNG CHILDREN .. you may not want your children to see the inhumane crowding in Sleeper Class!

There was NO WAY that I could even begin to imagine getting ONTO the Sleeper Class Coach to take photos inside .. the below photos were taken half-an-hour before the train departed Chennai!

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We all left Chennai and Wednesday dawned .. and the train .. from-time-to-time would stop .. and below you can see my FIRST A/C coach entry door .. not many people are there?

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And looking up the train towards the engine .. you can see only-a-few people off the train ..

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The above six photos were taken with the train IN a station .. you can see the platform area on-which we were all standing ..

NOT TO WORRY .. the train also would stop out in the middle of nowhere .. and here some of them came down off their coach .. in the middle of nowhere!

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OH YES !  Above and below you can see that where the boys are the girls are .. there are most definitely woman and many children in Sleeper Class ..

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I actually sort-of got-to-know some of my cohorts back in Sleeper Class and kidded around with them a bit.  They did NOT get meals served to them however .. I sure did ..

SO KEEP ON SCROLLING DOWN and enjoy-with-me two meals on the Tamil Nadu Express ..

SMILES .. CAP

Now scroll on down for food!