Trains have always been a popular and integral part of India. Whether you talk about office goers, students, professionals or traders, they travel by train in their day-to-day life. It might interest you that Indian Railways need reservations on all the classes of travel excluding general class. There are a couple of ways that you can go about making a reservation: online, or in person at some travel agency or counter of Indian Railways booking.
There are different facilities provided by Indian Railways today that can instantly get you information about everything. If you want to know about the seat availability on trains, you can instantly visit their official website, or you can even check the availability through apps. Various options like PNR and live status keep the passengers contented with their experience with railways.
Talking about online reservations, these are carried out mostly through the slow and cumbersome IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation site. Similarly, there are alternative websites too that can get your booking done. These alternative websites are much user-friendly; though they do charge a service charge and not all the trains are displayed. The simplest way would be to go to the IRCTC website and register.
Are you doing the counter booking?
In case, you are booking over the counter, print out your reservation form. Just finish the form and take it to a reservation office. Otherwise, you can also obtain a reservation form at the office and finish it there. In case, you are a foreign tourist, try to visit one of International Tourist Bureaus in main cities. These spots are much more efficient, and of course, customer-friendly.
Important points
- All the reservations, done both over the counter and online, are assigned a ten digit PNR number. In case, you are in RAC or WL line; you can check status of your booking on IRCTC website by clicking on the “PNR Inquiry”, next just enter your number and click on the “Get PNR Status” button.
- The IRCTC is closed for maintenance every day from 11.30 p.m. to 12.30 a.m. IST. Services are not available during this time.
- Cancellations take place quite often right? It is particularly in 24 hours up to the time of departure. In case you are waitlisted, you will have the best chance of fetching a bed in sleeper class as the majority of the beds (and consequently cancellations) are in this particular class.
- Bookings have to be made as far in advance as possible (up to one hundred twenty days before departure), mainly during the times of busiest travelling. Otherwise, you will have to be prepared to get flexible about your travel times and dates, and of course class of accommodation. You might even find yourself on waitlist, as demand significantly exceeds supply
The bottom line is that railways are progressing at a pace that is commendable. The crowd found in trains volumes the importance of railways in India. Once you are well-informed about everything, you can make the finest journeys of your life by trains.
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