A train journey can literally create some lifelong experiences and blissful joy. Moreover, you’ll also have a relaxing and rejuvenating trip keeping aside your all day-to-day worries. Don’t you ever take a journey on a train? So, you should definitely try out a train journey at least once.
If you have the experience and look for a more convenient way to reserve your ticket, then the online ticket booking process is for you. So, what are you waiting for? Go through the post below and you’d find the detailed process with lots of other information.
What is the procedure for booking a train ticket on Indian Railways?
Are you planning for a journey via Indian Railways? Yes? Then, you must make reservations if you’re about to travel in any class including General one. Once your ticket gets reserved, you can have a sigh of relief that you’d get a confirmed berth in the specific class.
Actually, you can do that in one of two ways – online and offline. In the Online process to Book a Railway ticket you need to visit the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/nget/train-search) to make your reservation in advance. The other offline process is about booking tickets physically after visiting the respective booking counter. However, this article is all about the online ticket reservation process.
Remember, you can reserve your ticket in advance for at most 120 days. The journey date at the starting station of the train won’t be added in this regard. After booking your ticket, a separate PNR will be generated like the below picture:
Ticket Booking
Booking tickets from the Indian railway station’s ticket counter will provide you with some additional advantages in terms of concessions as well as quotas. And you won’t find these options while booking tickets online.
Definitely, sometimes it’s not possible to go to the ticket counter and purchase tickets due to a busy work schedule. Do you belong to this group? Then, you must rely on an online ticket reservation. Execute the steps below to book your ticket for a dream train journey.
How to Check Train Seat Availability in IRCTC?
#. You can check for the “Plan My Journey” facility on the website of IRCTC. First, you need to log in to the website and then click on that option.
#. In the next step, enter the information about the station from which you wish to depart. The details will also include your destination station and the date of your journey.
#. If no direct train is available between your selected stations, you’d receive an error message. And then, you need to start trying with some other stations’ names. Else, you’d get trains; list. You can filter the trains in terms of the type as well as the travel class.
#. Next, it’s time to choose your preferred train along with the class through which you want to travel. Now, start checking the bed availability. Moreover, you can also find out the ticket fare.
#. In the case of the unavailability of the specific train, it would display WL or RAC. RAC stands for Reservation Against Cancellation whereas WL stands for Waitlist. Is the status showing “RAC?” Then, you can reserve a train ticket. As a result, you’d get a seat on your train journey but you can’t be sure about a bed. If there is a sufficient number of cancellations, you can expect a bed on that train.
#. Are you going to reserve a WL ticket? Then, you won’t get permission for boarding in case there are not sufficient cancellations for a bed or seat.
#. When you have decided about a train for your journey, then it’s time for clicking the option, called “Book Now” below the “Availability” section. Next, you’d be redirected to the specific ticket reservation page. The details of your chosen train would be available automatically. Now, just enter the details and move towards the payment.
#. Don’t you want to log on to the IRCTC website? Then, you’ll get a similar facility to the Indian Railways Passenger Reservation Inquiry website (http://www.indianrail.gov.in/enquiry/SEAT/SeatAvailability.html?locale=en). Next, you need to click on the option “Seat Availability.” You’ll also discover a timetable to get the support. However, you need to do some navigation. Have you already found the desired train? Don’t forget to note down the name and number of the same.
How to Make an Online Reservation?
#. First, you must visit the IRCTC website and log on to the same. Do you already have the train details and are you an Indian citizen? Yes? Then, it’s time for clicking on the tab, called “Quick Book.”
#. Are you a foreigner? If ‘yes,’ then clicking on the “Services” option will be your next task. And then, just choose “Foreign Tourist Ticket Booking”. It’s time to fill in each and every mandatory train detail. Now, go for “e-ticket” followed by clicking on “Submit”.
#. Now, you need to fill in the electronic reservation form and then start scrolling down to the section of “Payment Option”. To find it out, you need to go to the bottom part of that page.
#. Now, it’s time to select your payment mode followed by clicking on “Make Payment”. Do you want to pay by international debit or credit card? Then, you need to choose the option, called ‘International cards power by Atom.’ You’d find this option below ‘Payment Gateway/Credit Card’.
#. Just wait and let the transaction gets processed. Once the process gets completed, you’d get a booking confirmation. It’s time to print it out. Don’t forget to take it with you before stepping out for the journey.
A Brief Summary:
You already know that you need to visit and log on to the IRCTC site. If you have any queries, you can ask the licensed IRCTC agents.
Next, you need to select the source as well as destination stations. Now, choose the preferred train. It’s time for checking the availability of the train ticket.
Now, you need to enter your details, such as name/s, gender, age, and so on.
Already filled in all the necessary details? Yes? It’s time to move towards the payment process. Enter the mandatory details to make a successful payment. If everything goes well, the online ticket booking would be finalized. Moreover, you’d also receive an email or message with your registered details. You can also know about the Tatkal scheme.
Necessary ID Cards as well as Documents
You don’t need to enter the ID card details in the times of your ticket booking session of the train. However, you must take and show any of your identity cards (Passport, Pan Card, Driving License, etc are valid in this regard.) throughout your journey. Actually, your original ID card would be needed for the validation processes.
Note: Please note that international travelers must enter their passport or other necessary identification information when booking the ticket.
What’s Next?
Let’s check out some of the other rules:
#. You can book six tickets in total within a month from one particular user ID. But, if you’re Aadhaar verified, then this number will be increased up to 12 tickets per month. You can book two tickets in times of the opening hours that means from 8 am to 10 am.
#. Moreover, quick book services won’t be available from 8 am to 12 noon. You can have one log-in session at one time. You’d need to experience captcha in times of login. Moreover, it’s there in passenger detail and also on the payment web pages.
#. After entering your personal information (e.g. username, mobile number, etc), you’d need to provide the answer to a security question.
#. Nonetheless, online ticket booking is a time-sensitive process. You need to enter the details within 25 seconds. Moreover, for captcha solving on the page of payment and passenger details, you’ll get 5 seconds.
#. When it comes to the payment, you’d have 10 seconds. However, OTP is compulsory for payments. You can complete your payment via Net banking.
#. You can reserve your tatkal tickets one day prior to your travel. Do you want to reserve a berth for AC coaches online? Then, the process would start at 10 am. If it’s about sleeper bogies, the process will start at 11 am.
#. You can claim the tatkal charges along with the whole refund of your train fare only if that train doesn’t depart within three hours of whatever the scheduled time of departure is.
#. If the route of the train gets diverted and if you don’t wish to travel on that particular route, you can claim your complete refund.
#. You should book your tickets as much in advance as possible (at most 120 days prior to the departure). And it specifically holds true during the peak seasons. Else, you must be flexible in terms of your journey dates as well as times along with the accommodation class.
Wrapping Up
If you don’t want to face the crowd, you can reserve the tickets online. However, you can also experience error messages at the last phase or the payment stage at the IRCTC website. If you find an error prompt, like “service unavailable,” just refresh the browser or return to the starting phase and re-enter the transaction. Just, you need to have some patience.
I hope the overall process is completely clear to you and now, you can easily reserve your suitable train ticket online.
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