Comfort. Train travellers in India really have the option of 1st or 2nd class travel when contemplating a longer trip. We only traveled 2nd class sleepers in India, so I really can't say what the comfort level of 1st class is like. We did meet someone who did travel 1st class and they said it was much nicer, air-conditioned etc. And they happened to have the whole carriage to themselves.

I suppose when going to Thailand after India, the differences in comfort with the night trains in the 2 countries was very large. If you don't mind the extra expense (and I guess 1st class in India would be about the same price as 2nd class air con in Thailand), then 1^st class may be worth considering, depending on your budget. If you are travelling on your own or with a friend, I would say 2nd class is fine. But if you are travelling with kids like we did, you have them to consider. Maybe 1st class might add that extra degree of comfort and ease of travel. Although we were a bit uncomfortable at times and didn't get much sleep in our 2nd class births, we were fine. You will find most independent budget travellers to India travel 2nd class.

One thing to remember is that not all train routes will have 1st class. We even know of someone who had to make do with a 3rd class seat on their 14 hour trip from Agra to Varanasi as that particular train didn't even have 2nd class (despite the fact they successfully obtained 2nd class tickets days earlier).

2nd class is pretty basic, though (but cheap). Unlike in Thailand, they do NOT provide you with anything such as blankets, pillows, an additional mattress, a privacy curtain etc. So you need to be organised and make sure you will be comfortable when you are bedded down. The births are 3 high, orientated so that as you walk along the aisle, there are 6 beds in a little open-ended "booth". During the day they are bench seats facing each other. At night, you fold the backrest up to make the middle bunk, the top and bottom bunk are fixed. IMPORTANT: You should have a bike chain so you can lock your luggage to the underneath of the bottom bunk, especially if you are travelling at night.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that some routes the 2nd class sleepers have what they call an "outside birth". These are the wider gauge trains, such as Agra to Varanasi. These bunks run parallel and alongside the aisle, and are much too short for anyone of even average height. It also means they are much noisier, even less private and less secure. They are slightly cheaper, but if you want to avoid them, make sure you firmly specify that you do not want an outside birth when booking the tickets.

Reservations. One good thing about train travel in India is that it is a computerized reservation system. So when you front up to the train when it (eventually!) pulls into the station, a computer print-out of all the passenger's names and their seat/birth number is pasted to the side of each carriage. And you can book for any trip from anywhere, at any time. Not bad, really. But, it can be a real headache waiting in queues at railway station ticket offices to book tickets yourselves. You have to fill out these confusing forms, and the ticket person when you finally reach the front is not always all that helpful. You need to have made your decisions about where, when and what class before you get to the front of the queue, they don't provide advice. A separate queue is needed for advice and information!

A good alternative is to buy your ticket through one of the many travel agents in all major places. They will charge you a fee per person, usually between R20-R50, on top of the ticket price. A warning: children are cheaper (I think about 60%), so if you are travelling with them, you need to make sure that the agent doesn't rip you off by charging them full fare. We were ripped off in Varanasi the first time before we learnt this. The train ticket issued only listed the total fare for 4 people, so we couldn't tell that we were ripped off until the next trip.