India train special quota?????

shuffles03

Myself and my partner have been using a 30 day rail pass for our trip through India which we booked using a UK company before we left and so far everything has been fine but we've run into a problem. The company we bought the pass from (indiarail.co.uk) also reserved our seats/berths for our entire route on each train.

We just noticed that our final train from Jaisalmer to Delhi on Nov 15th only has one seat/berth number: A1 number 18. We mailed indiarail asking why we only had one seat instead of two on this route and they mailed back saying the train was fully booked and we were on special quota and that seat numbers would be released on the day of travel.

We have a flight a day after we arrive in Delhi and so we really need to get this train? Is there a chance we won't as we're special quota? What is special quota? Ive mailed again but I'm awaiting a reply.

We're pretty anxious/annoyed that we had to disco er this ourselves and were not told about it when we bought the pass. We've also been 1ac, 2ac and 3ac the whole way. Is there a chance we could be lower ie chair or not sitting together by being on special quota? It's 14 hours so chair would be horrible not to mention we probably wouldn't sleep in the fear of being robbed. We've already had a few close encounters in 1ac where beggars got on at midnight when everyone was asleep and walked through all the carriages and we woke up to find them in our berth after pulling our curtain back.

It says A1 for this train so would we be in 1ac when/if we're given seats?

We're trying to find out ASAP in case we have to make alternative arrangements. So far, loving India and loving the trains too-so efficient and the people are friendly.

If anyone can help us out or if anyone has experienced special quota before your help would be amazing.

Thanks.

shuffles03

This is the mail I got this afternoon when I asked what special quota was:

'If seats are sold out. Then as rail pass holders you are put on special quotas.
Berth number will be released on day travel.'

Does this sound promising? Still no idea what special quota is though.

cutymonalisa

OP, you might struggle to get an answer here - try the forum over on indiamike.com - never failed to answer any of my India questions!

bittihuduga

special quotas are released on the day or a day before.
so you have high chances of getting the berth but may be in a different compartment.
In case if you do not get any berth, you can request the TC and get into a general compartment and he will sort you out when something is available.
If it is not a night train then the TC "MAY" allow your partner to sit with you too if seats are free.

try indiamike forum, they are very helpful

dory

I would third IndiaMike. I've gotten special quote once but I still don't know what would happen in your instance. I bought my ticket last minute. Special Quota that just meant paying a bit extra to get on at the last minute. Is there any way you could make alternative arrangements to get back for your flight? As efficient as the trains are, it would be best to get to the place the plane is leaving from two days or so. Just last Saturday I spent 8.5 hours in a traffic jam on the way to the airport in India!

shuffles03

Well it doesn't matter now.

To get to Jaisalmer in the first place we were supposed to get a train from Agra to Jaipur and then a train onwards to Jaisalmer. There was only an hour difference in between the two trains and our hotel in Agra advised us to get an early bus to Jaipur instead of the train as an hour layover was not enough as that train was usually late.

Well, we got the bus earlier and arrived in Jaipur train station at about 7.30pm, waited till 23.30 and went to our platform. Our reserved berth was in carriage A3. The train arrived and for the first time since we arrived in India the numbering on the platform for each class was messed up. We ran up and down frantically looking for A3. There was A1, A2 but no 3. We were then told A3 didn't exist so we hopped onto B3 hoping to find our berth. Nada, zilch. We hopped off again and ran up and down searching. A guy told us just to hop on anywhere ie sleeper but there was no way. Sleeper was packed. I imagine our berth was somewhere on the train but god only knows where. So, we're in Jaipur now, ha! No Jaisalmer for us.

I don't think it was meant to be. First we're in special quota from Jaisalmer to Delhi, then we find out we have to get a bus to Jaipur instead of our train due to delays and in the end, our berth doesn't exist. Ha!

So we're in some hotel with the Lonely Planet on our laps wondering what to do for the next 3 or so days.

Oh yeah, also, an Internet cafe in Agra earlier botched our memory card and corrupted all our Taj and Varanasi photos, ha! Hopefully, a camera shop in Delhi can retrieve them though.

So that's my story. We're actually sitting here thinking its probably for the best we missed it as we think somehow getting back to Delhi on s.q. may have go w horribly wrong and we could have missed our flight to Bangkok.

Is Jaipur any good? What can we do here? Really annoyed we're gonna miss camel trekking!

Ah well, whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

By the way, this isn't a rant, we absolutely love India!

mosstin

shuffles03 wrote: »

Well it doesn't matter now.

To get to Jaisalmer in the first place we were supposed to get a train from Agra to Jaipur and then a train onwards to Jaisalmer. There was only an hour difference in between the two trains and our hotel in Agra advised us to get an early bus to Jaipur instead of the train as an hour layover was not enough as that train was usually late.

Well, we got the bus earlier and arrived in Jaipur train station at about 7.30pm, waited till 23.30 and went to our platform. Our reserved berth was in carriage A3. The train arrived and for the first time since we arrived in India the numbering on the platform for each class was messed up. We ran up and down frantically looking for A3. There was A1, A2 but no 3. We were then told A3 didn't exist so we hopped onto B3 hoping to find our berth. Nada, zilch. We hopped off again and ran up and down searching. A guy told us just to hop on anywhere ie sleeper but there was no way. Sleeper was packed. I imagine our berth was somewhere on the train but god only knows where. So, we're in Jaipur now, ha! No Jaisalmer for us.

I don't think it was meant to be. First we're in special quota from Jaisalmer to Delhi, then we find out we have to get a bus to Jaipur instead of our train due to delays and in the end, our berth doesn't exist. Ha!

So we're in some hotel with the Lonely Planet on our laps wondering what to do for the next 3 or so days.

Oh yeah, also, an Internet cafe in Agra earlier botched our memory card and corrupted all our Taj and Varanasi photos, ha! Hopefully, a camera shop in Delhi can retrieve them though.

So that's my story. We're actually sitting here thinking its probably for the best we missed it as we think somehow getting back to Delhi on s.q. may have go w horribly wrong and we could have missed our flight to Bangkok.

Is Jaipur any good? What can we do here? Really annoyed we're gonna miss camel trekking!

Ah well, whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

By the way, this isn't a rant, we absolutely love India!

Would love to say that Jaisalmer isn't all that but it's a lovely old city on the fringes of the Thar desert - of course you knew that anyway. The fort there was the most spectacular I visited in my two months in India. Camel trekking in the desert isn't all it's cracked up to be though - there are quite a few dodgy operators out there and it isn't 'desert' as such, more like scrub. Still, Jaisalmer is a fantastic place.
Jaipur just didn't really do it for me. It does however have Jantar Matar which is a really wonderful old observatory with some fantastic old constructions. The temple there is well worth visiting too. Enjoy India - it's intense but unforgettable.

dory

shuffles03 wrote: »

By the way, this isn't a rant, we absolutely love India!

Delighted to hear it!!

Make sure you don't take any photos with that botched up card, it's much easier to fix it if you haven't copied over the photos. Something like that happened to mine too but a camera shop sorted it for me.

Enjoy Delhi. Is it there you have the three days to kill? Check out the toilet museum. I was working the day my friends went but they said it was good. Lodhi gardens is a nice place to kill some time, I used jog there on my lunch times before. If you're sick of sight seeing I'd recommend writing some things down about your trip. They always make great memories for later, and it is incredible the amount you forget.

shuffles03

Yeh in Delhi now-we've been here since Monday. We weren't able to use that card again Dory, it says it's corrupted. A guy in Agra told us the photos are still on it but we're having trouble finding a store that understands the problem. We've been to all the major ones around Connaught Place but they all just think we just want to move the photos from the card to a CD (which is in essence the idea but they don't get that it's corrupted and cannot be formatted). We're not going to take the risk with them and are going to hold out till Thailand or most likely NZ.

Heading to the museum of toilets tomorrow, should be funny. We went to the zoo yesterday but tbh it was terrible. Not many animals and people were more interested in taking photos of us instead.

I've found the best way to deal with touts. When they come up and talk to us I just blurt out random jibberish words like 'shineshoe' and point at the sky-very funny. They've no idea what to make of this. The funniest thing I've seen someone selling is a full blown 10 foot world map. The guy actually gets really annoyed when you try to explain that as a backpacker you have absolutely no need for such a thing.

We decided to treat ourselves today and got Dominos and a Costa coffee-wild I know but it was the first taste of western food I've had in over a month. Funny thing is, Indian food's way better.

Staying in Hotel Amax Inn on Arakashan Road. Really nice staff and backpackers here.

shuffles03

Dory, if you know the name and address of a store that can sort out the card would you be able to post it up? Preferably somewhere where they understand English so we can fully explain the problem.

My g/f has been keeping a diary and Pritt Sticking everything from receipts and memorabilia into it. I'm pondering doing the same thing myself.

dory

shuffles03 wrote: »

Dory, if you know the name and address of a store that can sort out the card would you be able to post it up? Preferably somewhere where they understand English so we can fully explain the problem.

My g/f has been keeping a diary and Pritt Sticking everything from receipts and memorabilia into it. I'm pondering doing the same thing myself.

I don't know Delhi that well I'm afraid. I usually go to the North East and it was there that I got mine sorted. I know there's one internet cafe there that is good but I wouldn't know how to describe how to get there. I'd say you're best to just buy a new one and hang on to that one until you get to Bangkok.