Earning Points on Indian Railways Tickets

Getting up to10% cash back on Indian Railways tickets as railway points can happen only with a subscription to Subh Yatra loyalty points. With the accumulated points, I even traveled for free! You will have to have at least 500 points to avail free Indian Railways tickets. Well railway points are valid only on 1st Class AC, 2nd Class AC, Executive Chair Car and AC Chair Car tickets booked at the IRCTC website.

It was while booking Indian Railways tickets at the Zoomtra.com page that I was navigated to the IRCTC page and that’s how I browsed through the loyalty program page and immediately subscribed for the same. Fees for a subscription are very cheap; it’s Rs. 500 for first year membership followed by annual renewal fee of Rs.300 excluding taxes and transaction charges. Do keep in mind that you can earn points on only full-fare Indian Railways tickets.

It has been a number of times that I didn’t get confirmed tickets. Of course PNR Status kept me updated about the status of my reservation. Yes, a couple of times, even the PNR status did not show a confirmation and we had to cancel the bookings. Advance bookings are a must!

IRCTC Official Website and Indian Railways

Do you guys know that the IRCTC official website has emerged as the largest and the fastest growing e-commerce portal not only in India but also in the Asia-Pacific region? Yes, all of you guys traveling by train often should be proud of this fact. No wonder with facilitation of buying of train tickets online at the IRCTC website, train travelers have sighed deep sighs of relief! No more waiting in long queues at Indian Railways counters to get train tickets! No matter where you are, all you need to do is log in to the IRCTC website and book your train tickets anytime between 00:30 Hrs to 23:30 Hrs.

Do you guys know that Indian Railways has 7,083 stations? And just imagine how many coaches it has? It is 60,000 coaches and 9,000 locomotives! And over 30 millions passengers travel by Indian Railways everyday! Distance in track covered is more than 64,215 kilometres. And it is broad gauge that is the predominant gauge used though metre gauges and narrow gauges are also used. What started in 1853 greatly expanded over the years. Broad gauge track covered by Indian railways is 96,851 km which accounts 86.8% of the entire track length encompassing all gauges.

Achievements of IRCTC of Indian Railways

If you do not know about the achievements of IRCTC of Indian Railways as a regular traveler by train, you are actually not an informed traveler in the true sense of the term. Besides being the largest and the fastest growing e-commerce website in the Asia-Pacific region with lakhs of registered users, it has won numerous awards. Indian Railways has only made ticketing simpler introducing online ticketing services with the formation of its subsidiary IRCTC. Few of the awards won by IRCTC worth mentioning are National Tourism Award of Excellence, National award for E-Governance, Retail Excellence Award, Mini Ratna Category-1, Genius of the Web Award, and more.

Booking of train tickets at the IRCTC website is easy. Just follow the steps and proceed. This facility was also available at the Indian Railways corporate site for some time but stopped for the time being. To buy train tickets at IRCTC, you have to get registered at its site. If you enter your mobile number, you can get SMS alerts related to your train tickets. You can also enjoy budget and luxury package tours covering the length and breadth of the country. Complete information about the tourism packages can be accessed at IRCTC site.

Online Reservation of Indian Railways Tickets

Want to receive SMS alerts related to your Indian Railways reservation? Update your mobile number in your profile registered at the IRCTC website. You will not only receive SMS alerts for your ticket booking but also get PNR status in case the booking is not confirmed. Besides, PNR Status can also be received if you send SMS to 139. You may alternatively dial the same number and get your PNR status. Of course the 10-digit PNR number has to be fed in to get the status.

It is not only at the IRCTC website that Indian Railways ticket booking is facilitated. You can also book it at travel portals like Zoomtra.com. For some time online ticketing was also facilitated at the Indian Railways corporate site but is stopped for the time being. You can either get e-tickets or i-tickets the only difference between the two is that the latter is received via post right at the doorsteps.

Well, do not take for granted that you will always get confirmed reservation any time you book tickets online at the IRCTC website or travel portals. Without advanced reservations there is no guarantee of confirmed seats! Even tatkal reservation may not turn in your favor.

Tatkal Train Tickets

Do you know that travel portals like Zoomtra.com have tied up with Indian Railways and IRCTC to facilitate travelers buy train tickets online? Of course, you can also buy train tickets directly from the Indian Railways or IRCTC website. If you have not booked tickets in advance there is no assurance that you will easily get confirmed reservation. In such a situation, you can go for the tatkal reservation scheme offered by Indian Railways. This facility is also available at the IRCTC site.

How do you buy train tickets via tatkal? The booking counter opens at 8 AM; you can book a ticket two days in advance of the actual date of journey. You will have to pay extra for the tickets; it varies from class to class. For example, a maximum of Rs. 15 for second (sitting), Rs. 150 for sleeper/AC chair car, and Rs. 300 for AC 3 tier/2 tier/executive is charged. Yes there is no guarantee that you get a confirmation provided the waiting list is not too long. So, it will be wise on your part to book your train tickets several days ahead. Before booking, you can check seat availability at IRCTC and Indian Railways site.

Railway Booking and IRCTC

Do you think railway booking can be done online only at the Indian Railways and IRCTC official websites? Today railway booking can also be done at travel portals like Zoomtra.com. This is the travel portal where I not only get flights tickets, get hotel bookings, Railway Booking but also get information on all the tourist destinations. It was IRCTC that first facilitated online railway booking. Today, you can choose any of the aforesaid platforms to get train tickets.

It is not only e-tickets but also I-tickets that you can get from the IRCTC website. I-tickets are regular tickets the only difference being that that they are booked online and delivered by post. At the Indian Railways website and at IRCTC, you can get a whole lot of information right from trains list, PNR status to special package deals, and more.

If you are all geared up for vacationing in any of the Indian destinations, opt budget or deluxe package tours offered by IRCTC. Bharat Darshan is a popular tourism package for budget tourists; the package covers important tourist destination across India. You may otherwise opt for luxury tourism packages; Deccan Odyssey, Royal Orient Express, Palace on Wheels, etc. are the trains operated.

Comprehensive and quality work done by this body has ensured that it becomes one of the largest and the fastest growing e-commerce website in the Asia-Pacific region, with about six Lakh registered users till 2003.

Getting I-Tickets and E-Tickets from Indian Railways

Indian Railways reservation is such an easy process now. Instead of going to the counter, standing in queue to get a ticket you can now get it right from the comfort of your space. Indian Railways facilitates passengers to get e-tickets and i-tickets online. You can also get your Indian Railways reservation done at travel portals like Zoomtra.com.

How do you get your i-ticket? For that you will have to register as an individual at the IRCTC website, which is an offshoot of Indian Railways. Registration is free. Now as a registered member, log in by entering your user name and password. You will be navigated to the ‘plan my travel’ page. Enter all requisite details like departure and arrival station, date, and then select the i-ticket option. Then select the type of ‘quota’ and then proceed clicking on ‘Find trains’. For newer results for your Indian Railways reservation, you can click on ‘reset’.

How do you get your e-ticket from the Indian Railways site or the IRCTC site? It is the same process as aforementioned except choosing e-ticket instead of i-ticket in the ‘ticket type’ column. Payment gateways for your online Indian Railways reservation are safe; it can be via credit/debit/cash card.

IRCTC - Railway Booking Made Easy

IRCTC or Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is a government of India enterprise which manages online ticketing, tourism and catering operations of Indian Railways. This division has changed the face of ticketing in India with the introduction of e-ticketing. Whether it’s about online railway booking, canceling the ticket or modifying it or even checking the PNR status, IRCTC official website is the platform. Here you can also come across holiday packages, list of hotels with their star rating, flight details, etc.

Indian Railways form the 4th largest rail network in the world carrying about 25 million passengers daily. The organization was founded in 1857; today it has grown into 17 zones. Divided into four gauges, divisions of the track sections rating for speed vary from 75 to 160 km/hr. Indian Railways form an exorbitant network whereby there are 10 subdivisions of the classes’ viz., 1A, 2A, 3E, EC, 2S, and more.

Railway booking is now a child’s play online! You can get it done at the IRCTC website or travel portals like Zoomtra.com. Today, you can get railway booking done while on the move from mobile via GPRS or SMS. So, plan out a beautiful vacation hassle-free with the advanced Indian railway network.

The Beginnings of Indian Railways

Had there been no Indian Railways, the development witnessed over time and easy transportation to the remotest of towns and villages would have been a far-fetched affair. And getting a railway booking done online at present is all possible with the launch of IRCTC years ago. Prior to the launch of IRCTC and travel portals, railway booking for Indian Railways happened in ticket counters only or via agents. You can get e-tickets or i-tickets from the IRCTC website. For a confirmed railway booking, advanced reservation is a must. Even tatkal railway booking won’t serve your purpose.

The beginnings of Indian Railways – the world’s fourth largest rail network are noteworthy. It all started with tracks laid over a stretch of 21 miles from Bombay to Thane on 16th April 1853. This is followed by the first passenger train steaming out of Howrah station covering a distance of 24 miles to Hooghly on 15th August 1854. Indian Railways in the south started functioning on 1st July, 1856, covering a distance of 63 miles from Vyasarpadi Jeeva Nilayam (Veyasarpandy) to Walajah Road (Arcot). On 3rd March 1859, the north saw Indian Railways laying tracks covering a length of 119 miles from Allahabad to Kanpur.

Indian Railways is exceptional

Indian Railways is sanguinely the transportation support system of the country with its commendable presence ever since the last 150 years. It boasts of running on of the world’s largest rail network covering a distance of more than 64,215 track kilometers. The rolling stock fleet of Indian Railways includes over 230,000 (freight) wagons, 60,000 coaches and 9,000 locomotives. Trains run on three categories of tracks - Broad Gauge, Meter gauge and Narrow Gauge. Among these three kinds of gauges, the Broad Gauge is the most prevailing type of track. It is 1,676 mm (5.6 ft) wide and about 96,851 km of track under the Indian Railways network runs on this type of track. In some locations where Broad Gauge in not practicable, Meter Gauge is being used.

However, that covers only very less length of the railway network. Narrow Gauge is present at very few routes, especially in hilly terrains. It covers around 2,500 route-km with ‘Kalka-Shimla Railway’, ‘Nilgiri Mountain Railway’, and ‘Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’ as the most notable hill lines. Plan a trip to the hills and get the Indian Railways Reservation for any of the aforesaid trains.

To get the Indian railways reservation done, visit its corporate site or a travel portal like Zoomtra.com.

IRCTC Simplified!

There are a whole lot of facilities that IRCTC– Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation website provides its passengers. A series of activities happens at the site - right from facilitating browsers to conduct an enquiry about their train, availability of tickets to access to important information like trains fare, PNR status enquiry, railway booking. Indian Railways has made maximum use of the latest developments in IT and the use of the Internet.

IRCTC has now established a ‘beta website’, which is a remarkable feature. Now, there are many superior features which make the railway booking procedure easier for the customers. Now, travelers who want to travel by Indian Railways don’t need to stand in queues at the ticket counters. Just log in to the IRCTC website and get your desired railway booking done online with a few clicks of the mouse.

One also need not put a separate request for the train, seats, availability and fare because the intellectual enquiry software helps getting the requisite information to the browser’s advantage, bringing down the load on the servers. Above all, IRCTC now has influential servers to take up the loads, particularly during the peak hours of booking season and timings.

Indian Railways Reservation at IRCTC Website

There is none in the country who doesn’t like to visit places by Indian Railways. The airline phenomenon is new in the transportation scenario compared to Indian Railways. People earlier traveled by trains to cover long distances rather than flying. It has been since a decade that air travel has become popular owing the sudden fall of airfares. But passenger count in Indian Railways is not affected; in fact, the count is only increasing. Making Indian Railways reservation is made simple; thanks to the online reservation system. You can book tickets online not only at the IRCTC website, an offshoot of Indian Railways, but also at travel portals like Zoomtra.com.

There are different modes of getting the Indian Railways Reservation done at the IRCTC website. Other than e-tickets, you can also get i-tickets. Such tickets are bought online which are delivered at the specified address by post. For Indian Railways reservation of e-ticket, a service charge of Rs.10/- per e-ticket for sleeper class (SL) and second sitting (2S) and Rs.20/-per e-ticket in case of all other classes, are levied. If you have planned to visit a place, get the Indian Railways reservation done right away online.

Travel by Indian Railways

Indian Railways is the oldest public institution in the world. Since 1880s, development had been their main agenda. And, IRCTC is part of one of the many innovations brought to the table by Indian Railways. Indian Railways Catering & Tourism Corporation started providing online railway booking services and also improved the hygiene levels of catering services. IRCTC is considered by commuters as the official railway booking website, simply due to the ease with which one can book their tickets. And IRCTC is also responsible for tourism complaints, catering service grievances and customer service as a whole.

In 2007, Indian Railways won the ‘Genius of the web award’ for the ‘Best E-Governance website’. This award means a lot to IRCTC and proves the efficacy of online portals in bringing about revolution in customer service betterment. Railway booking and catering are just a small part of the main website. There are travel offers, rail tour packages, Buddhist trains, hotel bookings and much more available on IRCTC portal. Over past few years, Indian Railways have made conscious efforts in improving services offered to customers. And, instead of urging people to commute, Indian Railways have allured people to travel with them.

Travel by Rail - India

Indian Railways has one of the largest railway networks in the world that connects major cities in India. Traveling India by trains has been made so much easier these days by the infrastructure that is in place all around the country; thanks to Indian Railways. The comfortability and affordability associated attracts all classes of travelers. There are dedicated luxury trains meant for tourism facilitating tourists to tour around the country. The Indian Railways network spans across the whole of India almost getting you to every accessible point. Indian Railways reservation is effortless; thanks to online interfaces that provide planning, scheduling and trip organization services. Both personal and corporate travel arrangements can be made effortlessly and virtually online.

The train reservation details, PNR status, online ticket bookings, seat availability, time table, trains list, destinations, and lot of other information are available online at the official website of Indian Railways. Earlier, one had to arrive to the nearest booking station to get the Indian Railways Reservation done. Well, it was very hard to envisage few years ago that Indian Railways would make such an unparalleled progress in terms of using web technology to reach people and making life easy for many.

Milestones Achieved by IRCTC and Online Railway Booking

Are you aware of the fact that the IRCTC portal of Indian Railways is the largest and fastest growing e-commerce website in the Asia-Pacific region? Well, there are lakhs of users who do their railway booking online. No wonder IRCTC has been honored with a number of awards till date because of its contribution to the travelers’ community at large.

Few of the awards worth mentioning are National Tourism Award of Excellence by Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, Genius of the Web Award 2007 for being the "Best E-Governance PSU Site" by CNBC, National Award for E-Governance, 2007-08 jointly by Department of IT, Govt. of India and Govt. of Haryana, award for E-Governance for being "Best Citizen Centric Application" for the year 2007-08, and the list goes on.

Do not worry about standing in a queue to get your railway booking done at the ticket counter of Indian Railways stations. And you need not visit the railway agent as well. Just log in to the IRCTC website and get the bookings done in a matter of few minutes. Travel portals like Zoomtra.com also facilitate Railway Booking to the advantage of the passengers.

Indian Railways - Growth and Priorities

From diesel locomotives to electrical ones, the Indian Railways has grown in size, value and reputation. With over 8500 railway stations, 65,000 km large rail network and increasing contribution to nation’s economy, Indian Railways is a proud institution. In fact, the ‘mass employee hiring’ done in ’97 was a world record for 7 years. And, Indian Railways contributes more than one-third to GDP’s growth. Having discussed all of the above facts, one must also lay emphasis on provisions made by Indian Railways to improve traveling standards.

Indian Railways Reservation process has improved immensely. On the indialrail.gov.in portal, anyone can visit, search and book trains for themselves with a few clicks. Earlier, one had to approach a booking counter to reserve rail tickets. Today, Indian Railways reservation is as easy as any daily routine procedure. And interestingly, its official website was the most visited portal in the month of April, 2010. Also, under the ‘information’ tab, one can see a section for ‘international tourists’, which shows the willingness to reach out to the world community. Once made, such reputation is hard to maintain over a period of considerable time. But this govt. organization is here to stay.

The Official IRCTC Indian Railways Website

There is hardly any Indian who has not traveled by Indian Railways no matter whether it is long distance or short distance travel. For confirmed reservation, do get the railway booking done well in advance. In general, you can make your railway booking up to three months in advance. So, if you have an itinerary planned in your mind, it is essential that you look for the Indian Railways seat availability of your preferred train and book your tickets before time. The best way to get all the information you need for Indian Railways is to go to the IRCTC Indian Railways website. Easy to access, you will have options of trains to choose from including local and regional rail lines and daily schedules. Also, you don't have to be bothered much about high cancellation expenses.

At the IRCTC Indian Railways website it is feasible to book your seats by means of credit card or debit card payments. An additional benefit that you can enjoy with online Railway Booking is that you can check for seat availability in the same compartment and sequential seat numbers as well. Zoomtra.com also facilitates travelers to get the railway bookings done.

Booking Train Tickets Online is Simple and Easy

Since its inception in the year 1853, Indian Railways has bagged countless milestones till date, carving a forte as one of the world's leading railway systems under a single administration. In due course, added services were brought in; worth mentioning is the cover of different tourist routes, amazing catering services, booking online train tickets, and more. IRCTC- the subsidiary of Indian Railways has made booking of train tickets a child's play. Launched in 2003, online railway booking has added to the delight and comfort of travelers. As per this system, train tickets can easily be purchased online through an easy and convenient payment gateway.

The Indian Railways Railway booking can now be done through the official railway website wherein the traveler has to fill in his/her inclusive particulars regarding name, contact number, number of seats required, class of accommodation, and also his/her personal identification. Based on these details, the traveler can book the train tickets and make online payments through credit cards, debit cards, net banking, special railway cards, etc. After the payment is processed, an electronic slip is delivered online that needs to be printed out and produced while traveling.