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

Indian Railway offers the facility of booking the tickets online and prints the electronic reservation slip (ERS).  In this case E-ticket will be not be sent by courier at home. One is required to take a print of the ticket as an electronic reservation slip which will appear after reserving the ticket on the website.

E-ticket can be reserved only if the seat/berth is RAC or is confirmed. One can reserve the ticket even on the date of journey till the time of preparation of final reservation chart.  One is required to provide the details of personal Identification Document at the time of booking the tickets and it is mandatory to carry the same personal Identification document while travelling along with the printout of the ticket.

Personal identification document may include Driving license, Passport, Voter Id Card, PAN card and Photo identity cards issued by Central/State Government for their employees.

Cancellation of the E-Ticket Railway Reservations can be done only on the Internet till the time of preparation of final Chart and it is not permissible at any Railway Counters. The time of preparation of chart is normally 4 hours prior to the scheduled departure of the train from originating station. Customer can log on to www.irctc.co.in and need to visit the Booked Tickets link. After that customer needs to select the ticket to be cancelled and the passengers to be cancelled.

One can confirm the cancellation of E-tickets online and the refund is done by way of crediting the amount directly to the account utilized for booking. In case of a partial cancellation of ticket, customer needs to print the modified electronic reservation slip separately.

IRCTC applies a service charge of Rs.10 per ticket for Second/Sleeper class and RS.20 per ticket for Higher Class for the first passenger and an additional RS.5 per ticket for every following passenger up to a maximum of Rs.25 per ticket for Second/Sleeper and RS.40 per ticket for Higher Class.

The timings for the booking hours are as 4.00 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. on weekdays and on Sundays it extends from 4.00 am to 8.00 pm.

Indian Railways extends the facility of Indrail pass for the foreign tourists.  It is designed and created especially for the foreign tourists and Indian nationals who are residing abroad. This pass should be used within one year from the date of issue and is available in flexible time period that ranges from 1/2 day to 90 days.

Indrail Passes are available for purchase in various Railway Offices at the following places : Agra Cantt, Ahmedabad , Hyderabad, Jaipur, Agra City,  Amritsar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Aurangabad, Bangalore City, Calcutta, Puttaparthi Town Booking Agency, Rameswaram, Gorakhpur, Mumbai (At Churchgate Booking Office), Vadodara, New Delhi(At International Tourist Bureau), Secundrabad, Varanasi, Trivandrum Central, Vasco da Gama and Vijayawada.

In addition to these railway offices there are few recognized and authorized Travel Agents who sell these passes in Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai,and Chennai. There are various benefits of Indrail pass. One can travel across the country based on one’s likes and preference. These passes allow the foreigners priority on Railway Reservation from their Foreign Tourist quota.

With Indrail Pass, those Children who are below 5 Years can travel Free and those between 5 & 12 years are charged only half the original fares.  Free meals are provided luxury trains like Rajdhani Express or Shatabdi Express trains. While travelling in night there is no sleeper surcharge applied.  Travel by Superfast Trains comes at no extra cost.  There is no reservation fee applied for berths and seats

For Single Journey by Indrail pass, one should buy Half Day/One Day pass as these passes have validity for 12 hours and 24 hours respectively from the time of one begins the journey.  In case of Rajdhani Express (Half Day/One Day pass for), one is eligible to use one class lower than one pay for the class. For e.g. If  one pays  for AC class, then one is eligible to travel by any of the following classes like First Class/AC-2tier, AC-3 Tier/AC Chair Car.

E- Tickets and Online Reservation have revolutionized the scenario of the reserving the tickets by Indian Railways Reservation system.  As per the data released in the current fiscal, E-tickets accounted for the giant share of 98 percent of the total train tickets booked online over the internet till October-end.

There has been increasing trend of booking the tickets online as more and more commuters are turning to online reservation for booking their tickets.  As per the official released data, there is an increase of unto 133 percent in the number of tickets booked via the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Web site in comparison to the previous year.

E-ticket allows the passengers to book the electronic ticket online and take a printout after the booking is done.  I-ticket (Internet-ticket) facility permits the passengers seeking reservation to book their tickets over the internet, however the printouts are done by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and they delivered these tickets to the passengers by post.

E-tickets facility was launched by the Railways in the year 2005 and since then it has become a huge hit among the passengers. Initially there were apprehensions regarding its usage like its misuse but it has provided a huge relief and comfort for the passengers.  E-tickets are cheaper than I tickets as I tickets need to be delivered home via courier and thus charges includes courier delivery charges.

Apart from booking the tickets online, one can also book the waitlisted e-tickets and even change the place of boarding and make other adjustments.  This growing trend towards E-ticket has made the life easier for large number of railway passengers. Reserving the railway tickets has never been so easier before and it has led to giant step forward in improving the services offered by Indian Railways.

TatKal Railway Reservation Scheme is a facility for emergency reservation in addition to the ordinary reservation. It can be made five days before the date of journey for those trains where it is admissible. These Tatkal reserved tickets cannot be cancelled or changed and additional fees need to be paid for it.

Tatkal Reservation bookings are permissible in all the classes excluding First AC and Executive class. However one cannot opt for Ladies and general quota along with Tatkal quota.  One can book the Tatkal reservation ticket over the internet.

In order to book online Tatkal reservation, one needs to select the Tatkal check box on the ‘Plan my travel’ page in addition to other details for reserving the Tatkal ticket.  However one need to ensure that Tatkal booking facility is available for the train one intends to use because the Tatkal quota is not available for certain tarins, class or locations.
There is no concession is permissible in Tatkal Booking. Extra charges for the Tatkal booking depend on the class of accommodation as well as the non peak and peak season. In case of trains and classes with mean utilization of 80% and more from April to September will be considered for uniform Tatkal charges as applied for the peak period.

Non peak season comprises of journey between 1st Feb. and 31st Mar and journey between 1st Aug. and 31st Aug.  Charges for 2 AC and 3 AC are Rs 200 and charges for AC CC and SL are Rs 75.

Peak season comprises of journey between 1st Apr. and 31st July as well as journey between 1st Sept. and 31st Jan. Charges for 2 AC and 3 AC are Rs 300 and charges for AC CC and SL are Rs 150.

In case of cancellation of Tatkal reservation tickets, a flat refund of 25% of total fare charged is granted and it excludes the Tatkal Charges.  Time limit for cancelling the Tatkal tickets is 24 hrs prior to the schedule departure of train.

In case, cancellation is done within 24 hours of scheduled departure of train, no refund is provided.  For waitlisted Tatkal ticket and contingent cancellation, the cancellations charges are applicable as per the existing Railway rules.

As per the Commercial Circular No. 27 of 2009, issued by Ministry of Railways, Government of India; the time limit has been reduced for Advance Resevation Period as applicable under Tatkal Scheme. It has been decided to decrease the Advance Reservation Period (ARP) from 05(five) days to 02 (two) days excluding the journey date under Tatkal Scheme w.e.f. 01.08.2009.

Tatkal reservation booking begins at 8 am on two days prior to actual date of journey and it excludes date of journey w.e.f. of 01-08-2009. For example in case a train leaving on 6^th of any month, Tatkal Booking will open at 8 AM on 4^th of that month.

In case of Tatkal Scheme, Identity proof is not a requisite to be produced by the passenger at the time of booking or during the travel. Time needed for the delivery of Tatkal tickets is the same as normal tickets and passengers seeking reservation needs to book their tickets two/three days in advance of journey date as to consider the time required for delivery.

Booking of Tatkal tickets can be done only from source station to destination station. It can also be booked from remote station that possesses Tatkal quota to destination station having the facility of boarding from intermediate station.

In case of one needs to change the name on ticket, it is not permitted for bookings done under Tatkal scheme. The facility of Tatkal booking is available only till the time of preparation of charts. The time limit for the reason of yielding refunds & issuing TDRs for waitlisted tickets is same as applied for the refund of normal tickets.

Zonal railways have the rights of imposing restrictions on Tatkal booking considering the overall utilization of the available accommodation in the train. It may define the train as end-to-end or keep it free or impose distance restrictions etc