Railway Reservation – Check Indian Railways Pnr Status, Seat Avalibility, Routes

PNR status of the Indian Railway is the short form of Passenger Name Record. It is a unique ten digit number which is printed on the ticket at the top left hand corner.  In case of those passengers who have reserved their accommodation and like to know the status of their ticket, the PNR number needs to be quoted while making the enquiry.

PNR number acts as the primary reference basically and assists in finding and updating the status for reservation and confirmation of ticket. It serves as the database for Railway Reservation system. One can easily find out the confirmation status by mobile and landline phone.

PNR represents the Passenger Current Status and online PNR Status Enquiry is available only between 0500 hrs to 2300 hrs IST.  In order to offer faster service now onwards, Indian Railways has decided that PNR Status will be available only for those PNR’s for which date of journey lies within 10 days (inclusive of current day).  Therefore, one needs to provide the details of journey date along with the PNR number for getting the current status.

Indian Railways has offered the facility of providing the Train PNR Status on the mobile phones. This has led to great relief and comfort for the passengers.  To get the PNR Status over the mobile phone, one need to type in 10 digit PNR number printed on the ticket and sends it via SMS to 9773300000.

Indian Railways has collaborated with Google to offer this facility. By merely messaging the PNR number through cell phone one gets the ticket’s current status in addition to all other journey related details. While sending the SMS to the number 9773300000, one should not prefix 0 or +91. Best part of this service is that one is required to pay the price of standard SMS only and no premium charge is charged to the passengers.

Travelling by Indian railways always had its own charm and beauty. And over the years if you noticed you must have realized that the services and the facilities provided by the railways have increased manifold. Lot of these can be attributed because of severe competitions amongst the private operators in other sources of transport. This has kept the railways on the toes and they have come with lot of features.

One of the important services launched by the railways in the last decade or so was the availability of website. Indian railways launched lots of website which has been useful for all the masses for tickets booking, train checking and other things.

Fare Updates

With the site launch, all the details of railways are found at the comfort of our houses. And one thing that a frequent traveler generally looks out for is the Railway budget. Every February, when the railway minister takes the dais to share the railway budget, most of us wait with bated breath to find out the better things in the budget.

One of the key things which people generally are interested in hearing is the changes in the fare of trains, or introduction of new trains or any other new services in Indian railways. So most of the time, a commoner comes to know about the fare updates during the time of the budget in the newspapers or through television channels. For those who are generally not in touch with the outside world with regards to these things, Railways have their own site where they generally put up this information.

To know the real time fare, one can actually log into the Indian railways site namely www.indianrail.gov.in and refer to the quick link called the fare enquiry. On clicking on that link you are taken to a new page where in you will need to put in few details. Type in the train number, the day and month in which you are planning to travel, the source station code and the destination station code, the class, the age of the passenger and concession if any.

Once all the details are written and updated click on get fare. This will give you the exact pricing on that day of the year. The date needs to be specified as some initiatives may take place only after a stipulated period of time. The age of the passenger will determine the exact cost, for example a passenger with age less than 5 has no charge, and senior citizen is charged at a discounted rate.

Similarly even for concessions, they are lot of concession a civilian can avail of. Hence it is always better if we can check all these details before we go for a train booking. So as you see get updated information in Indian railways is a very easy task, you can use the similar procedure in IRCTC too to get an update on fare for travel. You just need to know how to navigate through the site. Navigation is also easy as most of the things are self explanatory.

Southern railways are one of the oldest divisions for the Indian railways; they started close to 6 decades back. Since then there has been no turning back for the railways. One of the unique features of these railways is that the maximum revenue for the railways comes from people travelling instead of freight that most of the other railways get. Southern railways contribute close to 10% of the total people traveling using the Indian railways. The train reservation bookings are done exactly the same way as it is done for the rest of the railways.

PNR status for southern Railways

PNR which stands for Passenger name and record is one of the most commonly used term in the Railways sector. As soon as one books the ticket, he or she is allocated with a PNR number. The PNR number is a unique identity number associated with every ticket that is booked using the Indian railways. No two tickets can have the same PNR number. It is with the help of this PNR that the reservation of tickets in India is done without any complexity. To know about the PNR status on southern railway one can actually visit the southern railway site, this site will give you the most current updates happening on the Southern circuit.

Website navigation

The Indian railways have a different site for southern railways; in fact very recently they changed the URL for the site. The current site for Southern railways is www.sr.indianrailways.gov.in. As soon as you enter the site, there are lots of options on the display page itself. You can actually navigate through the site for any details. Be it train information, train running information, seat availability and almost everything that you require.

To specifically get information about the PNR status, all you need to do is in the main page of the site itself; right at the bottom of the page you have the passenger inquiry section. In that there is a link called the PNR enquiry, this when clicked on opens another page and in that page, which looks very strikingly similar to the Indian railways site one can type in the ten digits, PNR number mentioned on the ticket. You will get to the status of your ticket.

The PNR information is generally required if your tickets booked are still shown as RAC or Waiting list. The PNR status will exactly show you, the current status of tickets, whether the tickets have moved further or has it got confirmed. Apart from that an easy way of getting to know your PNR status is through the link on the main page itself. Right at the left hand corner, a small text box requires you to fill in the PNR number. On typing the numbers, the details of it are displayed on the screen. This is a quick link and a much easier way of getting the inputs.

PNR number is an integral part of the Indian railways, without with it is almost like a dead system.

Online Booking on Indian Railways

One of the surveys conducted recently states that the maximum travel plans that happen in India are generally done through the Indian railways. The railway network in India is the fourth largest in the whole world and is only behind US, Russia and China. The trains reach to even the remotes places in India. Over the last 150 years, railways in India have undergone a massive change, the system has been updated, the services have been bettered but one of the most convenient services to come out of the railways kitty is the Online Reservation. Especially in towns and metros, the long queues has been done away with and people now resort to getting their tickets booked through online reservation system. Let us read in details about the online reservation system of the Indian Railways.

Online Reservation, is a relatively a new concept but it has gained momentum in the last decade or so. With internet penetrating through towns, cities of India people across India started indulging in the use of online reservation. One of the biggest advantages is that it is such a time saving activity. After your travel plans has been decided, you can quickly browse through both the sites of Indian Railways namely www.indianrail.gov.in or www.irctc.co.in to get the bookings done. The first site will still take you to irctc to get the bookings done. To book the ticket online is an easy job; all you need to know is the site details, the travel plans and the number of tickets that needs to be booked.

One of the first tasks is to find the train that will take you to your destined location. Once that is done, check for the availability of the tickets, if confirmed tickets are unavailable confirm on the day of travel again. List out the name of people who would be travelling along with you. Once all the necessary things are taken care of you can go ahead and book the tickets. However if you are interested in doing a quick book done using an online reservation site, this is possible. In such a case you should be aware of the Train number and the boarding point station code. Once these details are in your kitty, log in to the IRCTC site. This site would require a onetime registration that needs to be done. Once you are through you can select quick book under the services section.

In Quick book, all you need to mention is the to and from station details, the date on which you plan to travel, the class, the train number, the boarding point, ticket type and the quota. For the train number details, you can get this from the Indianrail site. You can check for availability by clicking on show availability. Once these specifications are filled, type the name of the people travelling, along with their age and berth preferences. Then click on quick book. You will be directed to do the payment using net banking, debit card or credit card facility.

The quick book in IRCTC is the easiest way to get the tickets booked.

The ticket booking in Indian railways has come a long way, a few decades ago booking a railway ticket would mean endless queues. With internet the world changed, there was lot of technical invasions and railways also didn’t want to left behind. They first came up with their site www.indianrail.gov.in ,which helped the passengers a big way but they striked gold with their new website www.irctc.co.in.

About IRCTC

IRCTC stands for Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation opts. This was set up in the year 2002 and is a public sector company. This is completely owned by the Ministry of railways and serves almost close to 13 million people on a daily basis. They have been instrumental in managing the catering and tourism services at various stations and have also been helping in promoting a lot of domestic tourism.

Ticket Booking

IRCTC has already become synonymous with booking of tickets. They help in planning and booking tickets for long distance travel as well as for the normal season tickets. Season tickets are generally passes that can be furnished on a monthly or a quarterly basis depending upon the frequency of the travel. Season tickets are by and large used very heavily by Mumbaikars who travel on a daily basis to work.

Services

As discussed earlier, one can book long distance travel through IRCTC. For that all you need to do is log into the IRCTC site, type in the password and username. If you are a first timer on the site, you may need to create a username and password. Once logged in, for booking tickets one needs to click on plan my travel. Plan my travel opens up a new page, where in you need to mention your to and from destination, the date on which the travel is decided and the type of ticket. On IRCTC, you can book tickets via e ticket, I ticket and for Tatkal services. Once all the details are filled in, a list with the name of trains will appear on the screen. Select the train, select the class and click on book depending upon the availability. Payments can be done using debit card, credit card and net banking. Apart from booking, IRCTC also helps in keeping track of the tickets, checking the status of the tickets.

Other services

One can also cancel the tickets via IRCTC; you need not go to the ticket counter for the same. Apart from cancellation, you can also take printout of the ticket if you have booked an e ticket. Other than the services related to tickets one can also claim for refunds via TDR, this generally happens when you are not able to undertake the journey. Also, as said earlier IRCTC also helps you book season ticket. All you need is click on season tickets, on the screen that gets displayed specify the details and make the payment online.

IRCTC, in short has made life really easy for the general populace as they are saved from long queues.

The Metro Railways of the Indian Railways is one of the best ways for journey that connects various places in the metropolitan cities. The Metro Railways provides efficient solution for the chaotic city roads and offers great relief to the people living in the metropolitan city.

The Metro Railways usually operates either on the elevated paths or underground. This is designed in order to keep it away from the heavy traffic on the clogged metro roads. Metros answer the transportation needs of the millions of the passengers in metro and save lots of commuting time. Presently metro railways are in operation in the two metropolitan cities of India including the Kolkata Metro and the Delhi Metro.

The Kolkata Metro train boasts of the first underground rail network throughout the India.  It was built during the years 1972 and 1995.  The Phase I of the Kolkata Metro began in the year 1984. It stretches from Esplanade to Bhowanipur spanning the distance of 3.04 Kms.

The Kolkata Metro consists of two railway lines along its 1676 mm broad gauge track. Each train comprises of 8 coaches and each coach, each of is capable of accommodating 48 sitting passengers and 278 standing passengers. The maximum speed of the train is 55 km/h while the average speed is usually about 30 km/h.  The time taken by Kolkata metro to run from its originating station to its final destination is 33 minutes.

The Delhi Metro is also known as Delhi Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS). It is the second Metro rail network in India after Kolkata Metro.  It is administered by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) and came into existence on 24th December, 2002. Delhi Metro consists of elevated, at-grade, and underground tracks.  Delhi Metro operates at the maximum speed of 80 km/h.

At present it is operating on 3 lines through a 68 km long network consisting of 62 stations which includes 48 elevated, 13 underground, and 1 at-grades.

Indian Railways provides the Student Concession facilities for the students under various categories. It is allowed only in Sleeper Class and 2nd Sitting I tickets.  Students can exchange only I-tickets with student concession by showing the I-ticket and the valid student concession order to the adjacent Railway Reservation Office.

Student need to visit the reservation office and carry journey cum reservation ticket with an appeal for exchanging it with the student concession. Student is required to submit his/her original totally paid ticket and a student concession ticket with the revised charge will be issued to him/her.

The Student Concession tickets are allowed only in Sleeper Class (SL) and 2nd Sitting (2S) and currently it is not allowed to e-tickets. The difference of paid and payable fare less the clerk age fare of Rs. 20 is refunded and credited electronically to student’s account on the following day by IRCTC on receiving the refund file.

The percentage element of concession for the single journey tickets(2nd and SL) and season tickets(2nd and 1st) for students for going to hometown and educational tours is 50% in General Category and 75% in SC/ST category. Girls up to Graduation and boys up to 12th standard are permitted to travel free between home & school using the second class.

The percentage element of concession for the single journey tickets using the second class for students of Govt. schools in rural areas for study tour once a year is 75%.

The percentage element of concession for the single journey tickets using the second class for entrance exam of Girls of Govt. schools in rural areas, for national level for medical, engineering entrance exam, etc is 75%.

The percentage element of concession for the single journey tickets using the second class and sleeper class for Students and non-students participating in Work Camps is 25%.

The percentage element of concession for the single journey tickets using the second class and sleeper class for Research scholars up to the age of 35 years for journeys in connection with research work is 50%.

The IRCTC offers the facility for making transactions with Mumbai suburban season ticket System via the Internet. All Rules and regulations related to Mumbai suburban season ticket booking is applicable to all such transactions in addition to special conditions that are imposed for Internet based booking.

Services Offered by IRCTC for Mumbai suburban season ticket include Online Reservation facility for registered users who agree to various terms and conditions as mentioned in document. The timing of booking via Internet is permissible from 5 AM to 11:30 PM (Indian Standard Time) on all days of week including Sundays.  The booking of Season Ticket is allowed only against adult quota.

Registered users can purchase a season ticket in advance from 2 days up to 10 days from the date of booking.  In case one request for season tickets to be delivered at home by courier, then there should be at least two calendar days between the booking date and the date of travel.

Some of the services which are not offered by IRCTC include Concessional season tickets booked via Internet, Cancellation/ Refund/ Modification of tickets booked over the internet, Season ticket booking for child ticket, Student concession, Modification and Cancellation of season tickets, Issue of duplicate tickets for mutilated, lost, or torn season tickets, Change of destination and source stations of season tickets and Personal Collection of tickets by customers.

While booking the season tickets over the IRCTC site, one needs to mention the complete address if one intends to opt for dispatch and delivery of tickets. Tickets will be delivered at customer’s desired address via courier. This delivery of Mumbai suburban season Tickets via courier is limited to the following places including Mumbai, Nashik, Pune, Surat and Thane. One may look for the places covered by railways for delivery of season tickets through courier from IRCTC websites.

Indian Railways through IRCTC and SBI Cards have brought about the SBI Railway Card and it is only credit card that allows the user to get free train tickets. SBI Railway Card presents many exclusive and global benefits. One is required to be a registered user of IRCTC website to apply for the SBI Railway Card online.

There are lots of exclusive benefits of using SBI Railway Card. One can get 10% of the base fare as Railway Points on AC class (excluding 3 AC) railway tickets by complimentary membership to Shubh Yatra .  One gets the 1.8% transaction charge waiver on transactions by credit cards at www.irctc.co.in.

One can earn 1 Railway Points for every Rs. 125 of retail spending like shopping, dining, travelling, etc.

One can use one’s card for purchasing fuels and other lubricants for amounts more than Rs. 400 up to Rs. 2000 at designated IBP and IndianOil petrol pumps, thereby saving transaction fees. One can also enjoy high savings with 0% Balance Transfer interest rate for the period of 75 days.

IRCTC SBI Railway Card has worldwide acceptance as it is accepted at over 24 million VISA outlets across the globe. With over 24 million VISA outlets all over the world one can get the cash anytime, anywhere.

One can travel now and later on make the payments in easy installments.  SBI Railway Card offers the ProtectionPlus insurance cover to provide protection through personal accident insurance.

With SBI Railway Card, one can receive the card account statements directly into email box and also receive credit card status on mobile phone via SMS.  It also provides the Teledraft Facility where the card statement comes with convenience and it thus makes the life simple.  One can also receive the E-statements and for this one is required to possess active email address.

For details regarding the SBI Railway Card, one may visit the following link.

http://www.irctc.co.in/sbidetails.html

Indian Railway offers the facility of booking the tickets online via IRCTC website and gets the tickets delivered at home. This ticket is known as I-ticket. One needs to book the I-ticket at least two or three calendar days before the date of journey as time will be required to courier the ticket to one’s home.

The ticket will be sent by courier to the address registered on the IRCTC website or to the address mentioned at the time of booking.  I-ticket will be sent in the name of the person who has booked the ticket and as of now the facility of changing the name of the recipient does not exist.  One can reserve an I-ticket even if the status of the online reservation is showing as ‘waiting list’.

IRCTC applies a service charge of Rs.40/- per ticket for booking of Second Class and Sleeper Class tickets and Rs.60/- per ticket for booking of other classes. In addition to service charges, bank also charge transaction charges for each such transaction.

IRCTC is a VeriSign certified site and one can click on the VeriSign logo in order to check the certificate. Monetary transactions through this site are secure. Site received the details of the credit card and transmits it to the Payment Gateways. It is transmitted through secure SSL mode with 128-bit encryption that is browser independent. No record of the credit card details is stored on this site Payment Gateways handle the transactions.

Cancellation of the I-ticket is not possible online as of now. It can be done at various PRS counters of Railway Reservation Office. Also there is no cash refund made at the counter.  After deducting the applicable cancellation charges, refund is credited back electronically to one’s credit card / bank account.

Customers can reserve the tickets from across the globe; however it is delivered the cities mentioned on the IRCTC website. One can even specify the address of a Hotel, address of a friend / relative if case it lies in the area of delivery, however one need to present authority letter to receive the ticket on behalf of the customer who has booked the tickets.