Book Train Tickets Online at IRCTC

For travelers coming from outside India and interested to travel using train service in India, online train ticket booking through IRCTC is the best way of booking their ticket. The website hosted by IRCTC is sponsored by government for sales of services provided by Indian Railways. The website is loved by some and others struggle with the functionality. So those who find it difficult, we have brought some tips for using the website.

Operational Period: The service of booking tickets online is not available round the clock. The site is available from 05:00-23:30 Indian time, which is 23:30-18:00 GMT. If the system gets overloaded due to higher influx of users then there may be a problem with site functioning. This may result in problem of acceptance of credit card or with an automated message requesting you to try again. This may be a reason of some people finding it easier while others find it difficult to use it! However, after 18.00 Indian time it becomes less busy after about 18:00 Indian time (13:00 GMT).

Signing up: to use the IRCTC website you would need to sign up for a username and a password for the website. Creating a username and password is easy. The sign up process does not accept the post code of UK, so just use the first few digits when it asks for the same.

To reserve a place in the train a pre booking period of 60 days is allowed for most of the long distance trains. Recently this has been extended to 90 days before departure on an experimental basis. For some of the short-distance trains that run between near by cities or inter-city trains, the booking open before less than 60 days. Before the booking for a particular train is open reservation for that train can not be done.

10 ticket limits: There is a limitation of booking facility for an individual to book maximum up o 10 tickets in one calendar month using the website. Hence it has to be kept in mind that if you desire to book tickets for whole series of trips through this system. For more than 10 journeys more complex itinerary would be required and that may be better booked using an IndRail pass,. You can get an idea seeing below.

Ticket delivery: There are both the options of e-ticket and i-ticket, however they can not be delivered at overseas address or be picked up at the station.

The e-ticket option: E-ticketing is a usually recommended option which enables you to book and take a print out of the ticket as soon as you are done with e-booking. When demanded by the train ticket collector this has to be produced along with your identity proof of a passport. E-ticket booking is easy and by booking this problems associated with ticket delivery can be avoided. For travelling on Shatabdi and Rajdhani express IRCTC has introduced hassle-free ticket less option in 2005. This was extended to cover almost all long-distance express trains in 2006. For booking of the e-ticket a small charge is made extra to the ticket cost, currently RS 25, about 35p. You can resume travel if you lose the ticket as long as you have your passport as ID, however you would have to render a RS 50 fine.

The i-ticket option: If due to some reason e-ticket option is not available then you can use the i-ticket option for the train you want. I-tickets (i=internet) are delivered to a designated postal address by courier service; however the address has to be an Indian address. The address could be a hotel where you will be staying in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and other specified Indian cities. An authorizing delivery letter would be needed by the courier service, if you ask for them to be delivered to your hotel and you are not present there to receive the letter and someone else receives the letter. Hence you have to make necessary arrangement so that the ticket reaches you.

An authorization letter can be sent to the hotel administration by email or fax. You can find the postcodes in which cities are covered by the courier service; you can select 'PIN codes covered' from the IRCTC home page. Please ensure that you know the full address and postcode (which is called a PIN code in India) for your hotel. In case you find any difficulty in booking the i-ticket or the e-ticket or collection and delivery arrangements don't suit you, you may contact IndRail pass agency using an IndRail pass as explained below.

Payment: The payment options available on the website are secured and you can pay using the Visa, MasterCard or Amex credit card facility. You can pick any of the several 'pay by credit card' options to make a payment using the payment gateway. Thought it is reported that the payment option through Citi Bank (top right) functions well than the others, it doesn't really matter which 'pay by credit card' options you choose. This is because you're only choosing Indian banking service to handle your transaction and not the credit card you own. IRCTC accepts credit cards issued outside India, unlike some Indian budget airline websites. This makes the process easy for tourists to book train travel. An email is sent by Indian railways once the ticket is booked and transaction of money is done.