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| Wife, son & daughter (Posto!) |
I recently (8/9 July 11) travelled from Kolkata to New Delhi with my year and a half old Boxer bitch, 'Posto' on the 12273 Howrah - New Delhi Duronto train. This post is to provide the details of the journey to all dog lovers who can then plan their own trips with dogs.
One of the
reasons why there is so much of confusion when it comes to carriage of
dogs by trains is that there is very little information from the side of
the Indian Railways. The website language is sketchy and bureaucratic
and does not answer all questions that come to mind. I hope this post might answer some of the questions.
Indian Railways permits dogs to be carried in two ways. The rules are spelt out here (scroll down completely). One option is to put the dog in the dog box in the brake van (BTW: In the official site it is spelt break and brake in the same sentence!) of the train. The second way is to keep the dog with the owner provided the owner has confirmed berths in the First Class AC compartment. The second has some major considerations which I will cover subsequently. I chose this option with marginal success.
In the brake-van
In the brake-van
The brake-van is a portion of the luggage compartment which if usually found at one end of the train. The brake-van is the place where the guard sits and from the door of which he waves his green or red flag. At the corner of the brake-van is the dog-box. This is a horribly dark, musty and stinky enclosure with only one door with hardly any ventilation...a torture for any dog. Use this option only if all else fails.
Putting a dog here means that at each and every station you have to rush to the brake-van, open the dog box and take the dog out for it's constitutional and also to feed it and the put it back all the while keeping in mind that you also have to get back to your compartment. In the Duronto train, the brake-van was right next to the AC First Class. To put the dog in the brake-van, you do not have to have a AC First Class ticket, a confirmed ticket in any class with do...I am not so sure about unconfirmed tickets.
Putting a dog here means that at each and every station you have to rush to the brake-van, open the dog box and take the dog out for it's constitutional and also to feed it and the put it back all the while keeping in mind that you also have to get back to your compartment. In the Duronto train, the brake-van was right next to the AC First Class. To put the dog in the brake-van, you do not have to have a AC First Class ticket, a confirmed ticket in any class with do...I am not so sure about unconfirmed tickets.
To take the dog in the break-van, bring the dog to the railway station early. Depending on the station and the familiarity of the station staff with the procedures, the dog might need to be weighed. The rules state that the dog needs to be booked like a piece of luggage and the flat weight for a dog being taken on the brake-van is 30kgs. So at the station, you go to the Parcel/Luggage Booking Office and take a form, fill up the bare minimum basic details including your mobile number and the booking clerk does the rest. Once he enters the details the totally computerised system generates a number which me scrawls on the form you filled and then tells you to go to the payment window. You go to the window WITH your ticket and hand-over both the form and ticket. He now enters the system generated number scribbled on your form and it tells you what to pay. You pay the amount and then you are given a white stiff card on which is scrawled the train no, the system generated number, origin station, destination station and the comment 'dog in dog-box', wt 30 kgs and the signature of the booking clerk. You are also given a white thread (like a pajama 'nara') with which you are supposed to tie this white stiff card to the collar of the dog!
Then they say please go to the brake-van with the dog and wait and our man will meet you there. Note, at this stage they have not given you a 'bilti'...the most important receipt. This will be given to you when you hand over the dog to the guard at the origin station and you will need to show it to the guard at the destination station. Remember the guards change and the guard you handed over the dog to, will not be the one handing back the dog to you...hence the need for proper documentation. In case you do not have a bilti, you could be checked on the way out from the destination railway station and fined for carrying a dog without paying the luggage rate.
Along with the owner in AC First Class
Now coming on to the procedure to carry a dog along with the owner in the AC First Class. The first prerequisite is that the owner must have confirmed berths.
Now comes the first major ghundi...the owner must have either two or four seats booked...three or one will not suffice under the normal conditions! I discovered this during this trip. The reason for this is that when you go to the Parcel/Luggage Booking Counter, they enter the details into the computer and the system rejects the entry in case you have one or three berths. I suppose the reason is that if you have one or three tickets, the opinion of the other passengers comes into play and you could be asked to remove the dog to the brake-van. This could also be a simple software glitch! So have either two berths or four. In case three passengers have to travel, one will have to have a ticket on a separate PNR Number. Related with this is the risk of not getting a two-berth coupe despite having two confirmed berths. You could land up with two berths in a four berth coupe!
Herein lies the second major ghundi...how to get a two berth coupe? The answer lies in writing a letter to the Assistant Commercial Manager - Passenger Reservations and requesting for a two-berth or four-berth coupe as the case may be. Generally the request is met. In Kolkata, the ACM Passenger Reservations sits at Railway Reservation Office at New Koilaghat Building, 14 Strand Road, Kolkata. Basically anywhere, the Chief Commercial Manager would oversee the reservations and the power to allot coupes would be delegated to an ACM responsible for reservations.
The third ghundi...is that I could not pay the luggage fare for travelling with the dog in AC First Class until the chart was prepared which basically means till about two hours or less, before the train departed! I suppose this is the practice. This is probably because in the case of AC First Class, the seats are not allocated at the time of booking...all your ticket says is that the seats are confirmed, numbers are allotted at the time of preparation of charts. Thus the software is not aware of the seating configuration and hence rejects the dog. So while at the Parcel/Luggage Booking Counter I was frantically sending SMSes to 139 to find out the seat numbers, while keeping an eye on the time to ensure that I had enough time to reach the train from the Parcel/Luggage Booking Counter. This is probably since the system
In my case, I had three passengers travelling on the same ticket which included my five year old son, my wife and myself. Since we were all on one ticket, the system refused to accept the dog. All this after I had visited ACM Reservations and had got the letter endorsed in green ink by the extremely busy officer and deposited the letter in a certain hole-in-the-wall letter box (with all misgivings). So in my case, I had a two berth coupe and one berth in a four-berth coupe, and yet due to the software issue, I could not book the dog with me. So as a last resort I booked her onto the dog-box without actually putting her in the brake-van...I kept her with me in the two berth coupe. The TTE tried to use the situation to his advantage but my approach was that 'Look, take the full fine if you have to and I will get it refunded from the Railways since I have not committed any crime...if the software has an issue then I cannot be blamed'. They realised that I was not going to grease their palms and let it go at that. Add to it, though I did not have the bilti, I did have that white card to be tied around her neck...proof enough that I did book her into the brake van.
The Expenses
Then they say please go to the brake-van with the dog and wait and our man will meet you there. Note, at this stage they have not given you a 'bilti'...the most important receipt. This will be given to you when you hand over the dog to the guard at the origin station and you will need to show it to the guard at the destination station. Remember the guards change and the guard you handed over the dog to, will not be the one handing back the dog to you...hence the need for proper documentation. In case you do not have a bilti, you could be checked on the way out from the destination railway station and fined for carrying a dog without paying the luggage rate.
Along with the owner in AC First Class
Now coming on to the procedure to carry a dog along with the owner in the AC First Class. The first prerequisite is that the owner must have confirmed berths.
Now comes the first major ghundi...the owner must have either two or four seats booked...three or one will not suffice under the normal conditions! I discovered this during this trip. The reason for this is that when you go to the Parcel/Luggage Booking Counter, they enter the details into the computer and the system rejects the entry in case you have one or three berths. I suppose the reason is that if you have one or three tickets, the opinion of the other passengers comes into play and you could be asked to remove the dog to the brake-van. This could also be a simple software glitch! So have either two berths or four. In case three passengers have to travel, one will have to have a ticket on a separate PNR Number. Related with this is the risk of not getting a two-berth coupe despite having two confirmed berths. You could land up with two berths in a four berth coupe!
Herein lies the second major ghundi...how to get a two berth coupe? The answer lies in writing a letter to the Assistant Commercial Manager - Passenger Reservations and requesting for a two-berth or four-berth coupe as the case may be. Generally the request is met. In Kolkata, the ACM Passenger Reservations sits at Railway Reservation Office at New Koilaghat Building, 14 Strand Road, Kolkata. Basically anywhere, the Chief Commercial Manager would oversee the reservations and the power to allot coupes would be delegated to an ACM responsible for reservations.
The third ghundi...is that I could not pay the luggage fare for travelling with the dog in AC First Class until the chart was prepared which basically means till about two hours or less, before the train departed! I suppose this is the practice. This is probably because in the case of AC First Class, the seats are not allocated at the time of booking...all your ticket says is that the seats are confirmed, numbers are allotted at the time of preparation of charts. Thus the software is not aware of the seating configuration and hence rejects the dog. So while at the Parcel/Luggage Booking Counter I was frantically sending SMSes to 139 to find out the seat numbers, while keeping an eye on the time to ensure that I had enough time to reach the train from the Parcel/Luggage Booking Counter. This is probably since the system
In my case, I had three passengers travelling on the same ticket which included my five year old son, my wife and myself. Since we were all on one ticket, the system refused to accept the dog. All this after I had visited ACM Reservations and had got the letter endorsed in green ink by the extremely busy officer and deposited the letter in a certain hole-in-the-wall letter box (with all misgivings). So in my case, I had a two berth coupe and one berth in a four-berth coupe, and yet due to the software issue, I could not book the dog with me. So as a last resort I booked her onto the dog-box without actually putting her in the brake-van...I kept her with me in the two berth coupe. The TTE tried to use the situation to his advantage but my approach was that 'Look, take the full fine if you have to and I will get it refunded from the Railways since I have not committed any crime...if the software has an issue then I cannot be blamed'. They realised that I was not going to grease their palms and let it go at that. Add to it, though I did not have the bilti, I did have that white card to be tied around her neck...proof enough that I did book her into the brake van.
The Expenses
Just to give you an idea of the costs: luggage rates are mentioned in a book called the TTE Companion found with all TTEs and are based on distance. The distance from Kolkata to New Delhi is 1446km and can be found printed on the top of your tickets under the K.M. (kilometers) column. I had to pay Rs 135/- for carrying the dog in the brake van (though I actually did not carry the dog in the brake van). In case I carried the dog with myself in the AC First Class, then the charge was approx Rs 435/-. All fines are six times the basic charge...thus if I had not bothered to pay the luggage charge, I would have had to pay about Rs 2500/-...which would still have been cheaper than sending the dog by air and also the dog would go comfortably.
Points to remember
Points to remember
- Rajdhani Trains do not have a dog box as far as I know.
- In places like Kolkata, do play the sentimental angle for a favourable action by the railway staff...it is amazing where all you find dog lovers.
- Bengalis are generally sentimental and if you can convince them that your wife, son, daughter or mother-in-law will have a stroke/heart attack/diarrhea if the dog is not with then in the coupe, you have won half the battle.
- It is virtually impossible for one person to win this battle along...so get someone to help out...if all else fails, just jump into the train with the dog and pay the fine later. Keep the dog with you as far as possible. Avoid the dog-box.
- Incidentally, I happened to look at the drop down menu for carriage of dogs in the software. The three options were dog in brake-van, dog with owner in AC First Class & Seeing Eye dog with blind passenger!!! I was impressed.
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| Posto being her adorable self, on the Duronto |
