Knowledge of online Railway ticket booking

In present scenario, technology has revolutionized and passengers have been provided various facilities for train reservations. For convenience of travelers, Indian Railways has launched many schemes for an online reservation system, which helps people from all over India to book tickets online from home. Online reservation system is beneficial to maintain ecofriendly atmosphere as instead of printing ticket, passenger can travel with the SMS or soft copy of booked ticket in their laptop or even on mobiles. Indian railways has its own website, www.irctc.co.in where reservation and cancellation of train tickets can be done online.

Many passengers are not aware of precise procedure of railway ticket booking online and they get confused how to book ticket using internet. Indian Railways requires reservations on long distance trains for all classes of accommodations. There are many steps in booking online ticket for travelling using Indian Railways facilities. A new online booking service for Indian Railways trains have been initiated byCleartrip which is user friendly but a 1.8% service charge is levied on the cost of the train fare. First of all, it is necessary to know the type of information and documents are needed for online ticket booking.

Document/information needed for onlineticket booking:

-Valid e-mail ID, Bank Account (with ATM cum Debit Card or Internet Banking facility or Credit Card), Internet enabled Personal Computer, registration with www.irctc.co.in and valid User ID and Password.

Other requirement:

Details of train name & number, boarding & departure points, & class of travel, ID proof, payment mode like credit card. e-Rail ticket holders must have identity card during their travel. They can use any of following identity card: Passport, Voter identity card, Pan card, Driving license, Photo I/d card of Central/ State Government.

Simple steps to book online railway ticket:

Passengers log in Indian Railways Passenger Reservation Inquiry website and find the name and number of the train, they want to travel. Click on "Train Berth Availability" under "Services". An on-line Indian Railways Trains at a Glance timetable is also available to assist them.

Enter the details of the station they want to depart from and the station they want to travel to, They must fill journey date, and class of accommodation that they want to travel.

If there are no trains running directly between the stations passengers have selected then they will get an error message and will need to go back and try some different station names. In case trains are available, passengers get a list of trains. Select the desired train and class they want to travel by and also quota if applicable and check the availability of seats/ berths. Passengers can also check the train fare and route in website.

If there are no berth available in particular train, the availability will show as Reservation against Cancellation (RAC). Passengers can still book a ticket and they will be given a seat on the train. It is not assured that passengers with RAC gets berth unless there are some cancellations. If all berths are full in train then it will be shown as Waitlist (WL).

If travelers book a ticket in the waitlist queue, they will not be permitted to board the train unless there are cancellations for a seat or berth to become available. When passengers find a suitable train to travel on, they are required to note its name and number.

For booking ticket on line, go to the IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation Site and register. Log in and then enter the station details of travel, date of travel, and class of travel. Select e-ticket (electronic ticket) and click on "Find Trains". Select train from the list that appears at the bottom of the page and click on "Book Ticket". Complete the electronic reservation form and click on "Go". Passengers will be shown the details of their booking and they should evaluate these.If details are precise, click on "Make Payment". Choose the bank that they want to use to process payment. Their transaction will be processed and they will be provided with a booking confirmation. They can print this out and carry it when they travel. But Indian railways facilitate passengers to show their ticket on mobile SMS also to avoid waste of paper nationwide in huge quantity.

Railways always cautious travelers that they should not purchase e-tickets from agents between 8am and 12 noon because the agents are not allowed to book tickets through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website during this period. This time period is reserved for normal passengers. If passengers buy general or 'tatkal' tickets booked by agents during this time, theymay land in trouble as railways will cancel such tickets and also take severe action against them under the Railway Act. The details of authorized agents have been uploaded on IRCTC website and passengers should book the tickets through these agents only.

Passengers should ensure that the reservation requisition slip has their correct mobile number so that details regarding fare and service charge are delivered on their mobile phone through SMS. Passengers are advised to collect the booking/cancellation receipt from the agents. It is to inform passengers that cancellation will be done by the same agent without charging any extra money from the traveler. The service charge for booking a ticket for AC I, II and III through an agent is Rs 40 and for sleeper class is Rs 20.

In Indian railwayssystem, there are numerous quota schemes. If passengers have to travel for urgent work, they can book through a "Tatkal" quota on some of the most popular trains, whereby births are released for reservation 24 hours in advance. Internationalvisitors can get facility of special tourist quota, which help them to get birth even in peak season. Travelers can get the availability of both quotas when they check the availability of desired train on the Indian Railways Passenger Reservation Inquiry website but ticket bookings using these quotas is limited.

Taktal Railway Reservation

Tatkal ticket is a great facility of Indian railway for passengers who have to travel urgently for business or personal reasons. Tatkal booking for every train opens one day in advance at 8 am. Travelers can check the availability for all the train for tatkal quota also. The tatkal category is not valid on first AC class and second seating class.

In railway system, every train and class has a definitetatkal quota and it differs from station to station. The tatkal ticket can be booked on Makemytrip.com also. For booking a tatkal ticket, there are following steps that passengers have to go through.

  1. Go to www.irctc.co.in or any other like www.makemytrip.com/railways/
  2. Search for passenger�s train between two stations
  3. On listing of trains, change the quota to Tatkal
  4. Select the number of passengers and your boarding points
  5. Provide the passenger details and make the payment
  6. Print eTicket for journey

Book an Indian Railways train ticket from mobile phone:

Indian Railways ticketing is alwaysburdensome as passengers have to stand in queue for longtime. But online booking system eases the passengers and they can use this technology to book e-ticket any time and at any place. Passengers can use their mobile phones to book ticket. For that, they have to follow below steps for example:

Pre-requisites to book a ticket through SMS on 139 �

Passengers must have been registered on IRCTC�s website (www.irctc.co.in).

They should have MMID (Mobile Money Identifier) & OTP (One Time Password) for IMPS (InterBank Mobile payment service)Transaction. It is important that same Mobile Number should be registered with Bank & IRCTC When users have been a registered user on the IRCTC website, and have the MMID & OTP (One Time Password) for the IMPS transaction then they can book ticket on phone. User can get the MMID from the bank if have not already.

Booking steps:

  1. Book ticket

    Send below SMS with Journey & passenger information to 139

    BOOK (Upto 6 passengers)

    If the format sent is valid, then they will receive a response SMS from 139 Trans Id: 34004567 Ticket Amount: 120 IRCTC SC: 11.24 Total Amount: 131.24 Seat: AVAILABLE-0095. For Payment SMS PAY <34004567> IMPS IRCTCUserID to 139 to book ticket.

  2. Payment for the ticket:

    For payment, send SMS with the following information to 139

    PAY IMPS Confirmation SMS will be received from 139 on successful booking of the ticket.

Your ticket booked successfully. PNR is: 2345678901 Ticket No: :0672261674 Booking Status: Ramesh CONFIRM C1 78 WS Sima CONFIRM C1 77 Ticket Amt: 120.0 SC: 11.24 Src: New Delhi Dst: Ghaziabad Date of Journey: 26/06/2013 SchDep 12:30 hrs

Then booking process for train ticket will complete.

Sometimes, passengers need to cancel the ticket for particular reasons. They can do the same with the 139, SMS service.

Cancellation process:

If travelers want to cancel the ticket completely, they can send below SMS with the following information to 139 CAN <10 Digit PNR>

If the entered information is valid, they will receive the following response SMS from 139. We have received your request for cancellation of tickets for < Passenger 1 Name> for PNR Number 2345678901. Please confirm the cancellation by sending YES to 139 or for any change in cancellation data, send a fresh request.

Once the cancellation is confirmed, user will receive the following response SMS from 139 Your ticket for with PNR Number: 2345678901 is cancelled. Amount: 60 will be refunded in your account.