Yes, things sometimes run late, nothing's particularly fast, and some of the train cars look truly ancient, generations of dust collected on the overhead fans. The biggest problem of all is the same shortages present in pretty much every aspect of this massively large, massively populous country: There just aren't enough spots on the trains for all the people who want to use them, meaning you often have to book days or weeks in advance.
But the system as a whole is almost inconceivably good - you can get pretty much anywhere by train, you can reserve a dazzling array of different classes and routes either at the station or online, it's extremely cheap, reliable and (mostly) makes for a pleasant journey - very little of what I've seen so far matches my preconceptions of hot, dusty train wagons with people packed in like sardines. (Though I know the south is better than the north in this respect, and apparently this part of the south especially.)
Daniel and Lena in the upper berths of a sleeper train.
I admit that after a night spent on a too-hot, too-loud sleeper train, tossing and turning in the narrow berth and unable to sleep most of the night, my main thought was: Please let me never have to do that again. (The nature of travel in India - the long distances and slow trains - means there are in fact several more night trains in my immediate future.)
But the rest of what I've experienced on trains has been lovely. Take today's trip on an unreserved passenger train from Gokarna to Goa, precisely the kind of train you would think would be crowded, hot and unpleasant. Instead there was a cool breeze from the window, lush green landscape sailing by and as always a procession of samosa, chai and cold drink vendors marching up and down the aisle chanting out their wares. If you have a breeze in your face and chai in your hand, as far as I'm concerned, everything's pretty much perfect.
The women next to and across from me peered curiously in my travel journal as I wrote (private life is indeed very public in India) and we asked each other some basic questions (their English was pretty basic and/or I can't understand the accent here AT ALL - latter is decidedly true), but as far as I could make out they were quadrilingual, you know, just as a matter of course, no big deal: the local language Kanada, plus Konkani (spoken in the neighboring state of Goa), Hindi and some English).
Passenger (i.e. local) train arriving at Gokarna Road.
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