Buying Train Tickets Online at IRCTC
The best way for foreign visitors to buy Indian train tickets before they get to India is online at IRCTC. This is the official government-sponsored sales website for Indian Railways. Some people love it, but others struggle, so here are some tips for using this service:
Period of operation: The online ticket booking service is not (at the time of writing) available 24 hours a day, but 05:00-23:30 Indian time, which is 23:30-18:00 GMT. The system can sometimes be overloaded with visitors, so if you have any problems or if it rejects your credit card, try again later. This may be why some people breeze through it and love it, while others struggle..! It gets significantly less busy after about 18:00 Indian time (13:00 GMT).
Reservations for most long distance trains open 60 days before departure, although there was recently an experimental extension to 90 days. Some short-distance inter-city trains open for bookings less than 60 days. To state the obvious, you can't buy tickets before reservations open!
10 ticket limits: You can only buy a maximum of 10 tickets per calendar month using this website, so bear that in mind if you expect to book a whole series of trips through this system. A more complex itinerary requiring more than 10 journeys may be better booked using an IndRail pass, see below.
Ticket delivery: Tickets cannot be sent overseas or picked up at the station, but there are both 'e-ticket' and 'I-ticket' options.
The e-ticket option: This is the recommended option. You simply do e-ticket booking and print out your booking reference, then show it to the conductor on board the train along with your passport. It's easy, and avoids any problems with ticket delivery. IRCTC introduced this hassle-free ticket less option for travelling on the best Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express trains in 2005, then extended it to cover almost all long-distance express trains in 2006. A small charge is made for e-tickets, currently RS 25, about 35p. If you lose the printout you can still travel as long as you have your passport as ID, but there's an RS 50 fine.
The I-ticket option: You only need to use the i-ticket option if for some reason the e-ticket option isn't available for the train you want. i-tickets (i=internet) are sent by courier to any Indian address you specify (for example, the hotel where you will be staying) in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and other specified Indian cities. If you ask for them to be delivered to your hotel, the courier will need to see a letter authorising delivery if you are not there to sign for the tickets, so you will have to arrange this with the hotel. An email or fax to the hotel authorising them to take delivery is sufficient. To see which postcodes in which cities are covered by the courier service, select 'PIN codes covered' from the IRCTC home page. You will need to know the full address and postcode (which is called a PIN code in India) for your hotel. If these collection and delivery arrangements don't suit you, and for some reason you can't use the e-ticket option, it may be better to book through an IndRail pass agency using an IndRail pass as explained below.
Payment: You pay securely by Visa, Mastercard or Amex credit card, picking any of the several 'pay by credit card' options. It's been reported that the Citi Bank payment option (top right) works better than the others, although in theory it doesn't really matter which 'pay by credit card' options you pick as you're only picking which Indian banking service will handle your transaction, not what credit card you have. Unlike some Indian budget airline websites, IRCTC will happily accept credit cards issued outside India, making it easy for tourists to book train travel this way. After payment, you will receive an email from Indian Railways with your booking details. Golden Triangle
