Do Indian trains run on time..?
Mainly the Indian railway runs on time but sometimes they run late too. In some cases they run too late which takes many hours. To know last days arrival of trains just check erail area, for example how late delhi-jaislmer express arrived yesterday and for the details of Thursdays Bombay-Delhi rajdhani express also. At erail select the starting point and the destination in which you are interested and bring the trains list to check. Select the train you want to check and click on it, after that select the date and click on the status button for the run time of trains. Then you will come to see the time table of all the planned times and the actual delay time if any at each stations is there. This data is updated for last some days and not for previous weeks or months.
On the other hand, some of the examples from my own travels list may provide you a sense for the probable delays in Indian railways:
Delhi-Varanasi all night express blemishes on time, Bombay-Calcutta Mail late for 1½ hours, Madras-Bombay Chennai Express is 40 minutes delayed from the actual time, Calcutta-Delhi Rajdhani Express mark on time as this train is very punctual for its time, Delhi-Agra Shatabdi Express mark on time-it is due to that it gets priority and the train is punctual too, Jaisalmer-Delhi Express delays for 2 hours late in its starting time and 3 hours late in its arriving time, Delhi-Kalka-Simla Himalayan Queen mark on the time, Varanasi-Agra-Jaipur Marudhar Express is 50 minutes late, and Delhi-Madras Grand Trunk Express is late for the 1½ hours.
Some tips for the Indian train trips:
Normally you find one western toilet and one squat toilet at the
both end of the compartment. Sometimes you need to bring your own
toilet papers. In main classes like AC1, AC2, AC Chair Class and in
AC3 the toilets are cleaned at a Indian standard and are in a proper
working condition. But the condition of Sleeper Class and 2nd class
toilets is a different scene. Depending upon which class you prefer,
you can get the tickets booked.