Food on Shatabdi express train in India 🚊 breakfast – dinner 🚊 Backpacking India travel blog

Hi there!

Shatabdi express trains in India are a little “higher class” than the most long-distance trains (example) and local passenger trains (example).

These aren’t luxury trains, but they do give you a little extra comfort. 

And… Shatabdi train tickets generally come with food! 

So you don’t need to order train food separately, and it will automatically just come around once you’re on the train.

This was my experience with riding a Shatabdi express train in India in March 2019 anyway!

I took a chair class Shatabdi train and executive class Shatabdi train in the Golden Triangle.

I think the difference as far as food goes between the chair car (CC) and executive chair car (EC) is that the food gets served first in EC.

I took a morning train that was around a 3-4 hour ride which came with breakfast.

I also took an evening train that was around a 3-4 hour ride which came with dinner.

Seating for eating

There are some seats that have a table. I happened to get a table for both of my train rides on the Shatabdi. (I didn’t specifically request this.)

Otherwise, there’s a tray table, similar to on the plane. 

Breakfast on the Shatabdi

Here are the timings of breakfast food in the morning for CC class just to give you an idea:

• Around 7am: Train departure timing
• 7:30am: Tea and crackers
• 8:15am: Potato snack, bread with butter, juice

And being a morning train, there were newspapers available to read too.

Dinner on the Shatabdi

Here are the timings of dinner food in the evening for EC class just to give you an idea:

• Around 5pm: Train departure timing
• 5:45pm: sandwich, samosa potato snack, juice, snacks
• 6:30pm: tomato soup, cracker sticks with butter
• 7:30pm: curries with chapati, rice, yogurt
• 8pm: ice cream
• 8:15: tea

Yes for awhile there it seemed like the food just kept on coming!

Now see a little inside the Shatabdi CC and inside the Shatabdi EC!

HAPPY EATING ON YOUR SHATABDI TRAIN RIDE IN INDIA!