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

The star of Indian Railways has been on the rise ever since it was launched back in 1853, from one single track between Mumbai to Thane to the remotest location of the country, the Railways have grown a long way. The biggest advantage of travelling in Railways is, it s one of the cheapest mode of communication and India has a huge middle class population who would still like to travel cheap. The features that the Railways keep adding are also on the rise, and hence Railways have turned out to be one of the profit making network.

Websites

Indian railways have two major websites which it uses to provide all sorts of information. The information would range from availability of trains, fare checking, running status, type of trains, facilities on trains and many other things. That is why both these sites namely www.indianrail.gov.in and www.irctc.com are both a huge success. Initially a decade back when we had to book tickets we used to run around to get all sort of information, but now with the advent of technology all this and more can be gathered in one single site.

Train schedule

One of the important tasks of planning a travel is to get to know the train schedule. In case if you want to get down at a smaller station but isn’t aware whether it will stop at that station, that is the point when the train schedule information will come handy for you. It also allows you to know whether the trains are on time or running behind schedule. To get to know the train schedule all you to need to do is open the site www.indianrail.gov.in. There are many ways to check the schedule of the trains you can either click on the quick link trains between stations or seat availability to get this information. On clicking on trains between stations, you will need to select the source and destination station, select the class, type and the date, and if you have preference on the train timing. Select the timings and click on get details. A list of trains will appear on the screen and you can choose the one which is comfortable to you. Below, you will get the details of get schedule, get availability and get full fare. The get schedule will give you the details of the stations that it will stop on, when will it reach and when it will depart from that station. The same details can be gathered on the quick link fare enquiry; this will also produce similar results. Apart from this site, you can this information from the irctc site, where when you are planning to book the tickets you can check on the train schedule. Apart from both of these you will also be able to gather this information from the reservation counters spread across the country.

Getting information on trains, seats available, fares are all an easy task now. All you need to have is technology at your place; the rest is just navigation through the sites.

A decade and half ago, when the holiday season stuck, people used to form queues and get their reservation done. And many a times they had to return disappointed as the tickets for that would already be booked or be wait listed. Holiday seasons are the peak season for Indian railways and getting reservations during these time frame isn’t easy. Looking at the mad rush the Indian Railways came back with a plan of introducing special trains.

Need for Special trains

As discussed earlier, the peak seasons in India are generally during a festival time or during the holiday season for the kids. Travelling during this season become very difficult as getting tickets is almost like an impossible task. The railways then decided and came up with a plan to introduce special trains. The special trains are required to take off the burden of the holiday special populace. There are a lot of special trains which are generally introduced by the Indian railways time and on, looking at the need of the hour.

Features of special trains

· Special trains are introduced when the need occurs; hence like regular trains the booking does not need to be done 90 days before the journey. This can be done when it has been introduced, and most of the time they are chances that you will get through the booking too.

· The announcement of such special trains is generally done using a public media, like a newspaper or so. This announcement generally comes only a few days before the trains are actually scheduled to start. They are also published in the railways site for everybody’s viewing. All you need to do is check through the site for these kinds of update.

· There is no cost increase for these kinds of special trains they are on par with the fares of the regular trains.

· There are close to 134 special trains in India. Every Railway budget that comes up in February, a new set of special trains are added to the kitty. This special trains run to all the different part of the country. All the Zones of railways get almost equal amount of trains during the peak season.

· These trains run only for a specific time frame and are then taken back from running, it only caters during the peak season.

Some of the special trains that across through the span of the country are Ernakulum – Kochuveli express up and down, LTT – Yeshwantpur up and down, pune – Secunderabad up and down, Kolkotta- Guwahati express up and down, Dadar – Bikaner up and down. These are few of the special trains in India. Maximum special trains are introduced during the summer vacation, Diwali and Christmas time. These are times when the family gets together and decides upon a holiday

A special train comes across as a boon to many people who are struggling to find reservation on regular trains. This is almost like another feather in the cap for Indian Railways.

The last century has seen so much technological boom that it is difficult for mankind to measure it. Electricity, Telecommunications, computers, internets everything came into existence only in the last century and since then human kind has grown in leaps and bounds. Look at the case of railways itself from Steam engines to Bullet trains; we have come a long way. Talking about trains, let us look at the most advanced train of all times till date the Bullet train.

Origin

There are very less chances that people who are reading have not heard about bullet trains, we all know that it is the fastest train in the World and is run in Japan. Bullet trains are very high speed trains and are run in Japan by four of the railways networks in this country. The bullet train got its name thus because it appeared like a bullet. The first services for this were launched in the year 1964 along with the Tokyo Olympics. It covered the distance of 7 hours in around 3 hours. The biggest beneficiary from this was the locals, the business men. The distance covered the two most important metro of Japan, a journey of a day was possible to and fro and thus business flourished in these two regions.

Technology

It is of course obvious, that to get the bullet trains in place called popularly as Shinkansen in Japan a very high tech technology was used in terms of routing, the tracking system , the signal and even the use of trains. There was no compromise done on the safety and the security of the passenger who were travelling in it. These trains are generally lighter in weight and offer high acceleration and deceleration. Talking about punctuality, these trains were highly punctual and used to reach 6 seconds within the stipulated time. However; like all the other things they also had to face through a lot of natural challenges like the rain, the snow and the earthquakes but however they have managed it pretty well. Though Japan being a place very prone to earthquakes and typhoons, there has not been a single casualty which has occurred due to this to these trains.

Bullet trains in India

Apart from Japan, the technology of bullet trains is being used in Taiwan, China, UK, Brazil, US, Canada and Vietnam. As far as India is concerned though it has one of the largest networks in world, It does not support lines which can cross 200 to 250 Kms. We have few trains, like the Duronto express which are generally nonstop trains between two major stations like a Mumbai – Ahmadabad Duronto or a Mumbai – Nagpur Duronto. Even the Satabdi express are generally called as high speed train in India. However no concrete plan has come to start the Bullet trains in India. There have been various elevator corridors discussed between important stations in all the part of the country, but that has not taken off yet.

Bullet trains will take a few more years to become a reality in India.

Indian Railways has been continuously striving to up their services and they have been quiet successful in that. One of the things that they have looking at has been to get as much as international tourists use the Indian railways. They have been fairly successful in it; foreigners on an increasing numbers are actually making use of the Indian Railways. But beyond that they need something that will provide the essence of India, the culture, the cuisine and with that purpose in mind the luxury trains were started off in India. It was a single train thing, but now they have almost 4 trains which run on similar lines. Let’s look at all the four of them.

1) Palace on wheels – this is the oldest luxury train in India, launched in the year 1982 it has been a pioneer for all luxury trains. The train flags of from Delhi and covers whole of Rajasthan beginning from Jaipur and ending at Agra. The complete journey takes close to 8 days. The Coaches are named after the 14 Rajputana states and they have two restaurants Maharaja and Maharani which caters to Chinese, continental and Indian food. A bar which has ample supply of alcohol ranging from Indian to international taste, a reading hall with a plethora of books. The success of the original palace on wheels led to few other luxury trains in India.

2) The next on the list of luxury trains is the Deccan Odyssey. This runs through the heart of Maharashtra and Goa and is flagged off from Mumbai. The Deccan odyssey covers Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Goa, Pune, Aurangabad, Ajanta caves and Nashik. The two famed restaurant on the Odyssey is the Peshwa I and Peshwa II also a bar both of which caters to wide range of cuisine and alcohol. Apart from that you have a massage centre and a gym to cater to the needs of the passengers.

3) Royal Rajasthan on wheels again is a luxury train on the heartlands of Rajasthan. This also has few places which are common along with the original palace on wheels. The travel duration for this luxury train is also almost close to 8 days and is flagged of from Delhi. It carries you through the best places in Rajasthan, where you can sight see a lot of tourist attractions, eat the most amazing Indian cuisines and shop to the heart’s content.

4) The last of the luxury trains that we have in India is the Fairy Queen. This however is for a shorter duration of two days and 1 night. This luxury train covers Delhi, Alwar and the popular wild life sanctuary Sariska. On reaching Sariska you are treated with a jeep safari of the sanctuary. This train service is available only during the months of October to March. During these months it runs on every 2^nd and 4^th Saturday of the month.

Luxury trains were started off with the intentions of getting maximum tourist attractions, in fact it was not available for Indian nationals however now even they are allowed on Luxury trains.

Most of the Indians would agree if asked how they wish to get their journey done. Pat, the answer would be Indian railways. Travelling by Indian Railways is a pleasure indeed, especially now with upgraded services and facilities. But beyond this, imagine traveling in Indian railways and getting the luxuries of a 5 star hotel, well we have train of such a kind and have been rightly called as “Palace on wheels”.

History

Palace on wheels happened when both the tourism industry and the Railways industry joined hands together and decided to come up with something so spectacular that would give a boost to both the industries. On 26^th January, the republic day of 1982 this luxury train was launched with much fanfare. The idea behind this was to promote tourism for the state of Rajasthan. The original palace of wheels runs through the breadth and the length of Rajasthan and has been catering to a lot of national and international tourists. Looking at the success of this, many other luxury trains started in other parts of India as well. The inspiration of this idea came from the railway coaches of the princes from the states of Hyderabad, Rajputana etc.

Facilities

There are almost 14 coaches on this luxury train, and the name of each coach belongs to the old names of Rajput states. Even the interiors and the decors match up to the past of the royalty. The train has a bar with choices of alcohol ranging from Indian to International taste, a library with a huge collection of books. Apart from that each coach has different cabins, and each cabin is air conditioned with two beds, Music channel, DTH, attached toilets which has the provision of hot and cold water and also an intercom. With regards to cuisine, the train serves all kind of foods ranging from Chinese to continental to Indian, and this is served at two of their hotels, the Maharaja and the Maharani.

Route

Well, as said before the palace on wheels covers the complete district of Rajasthan. It takes almost 8 days to finish the journey and the source station is Delhi. From Delhi it stops at various places like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Sawai Madhopur, Udaipur, Bharathpur, Agra and Chittaurgarh though not in this specific order. Each place has its unique charm and essentially portrays the culture of Rajasthan. At the launch, this luxury trains was thrown open only to foreigners but now Indians are also allowed in this train.

Information

People who are planning to spend their vacation in a very luxurious manner can think of this option as well. More details of this can be acquired by checking this site http://www.palaceonwheels.net. This site will give you a fair idea of the facilities and other features. In fact if need be you can also take a look at the pictures and decide. It will also give you a detailed itenary.

Palace on wheels gives you a luxury which has been almost craved for, along with the charm of Indian railways.

Indian Railways operates a range of superfast trains also in addition to regular trains. Initially the number of Indian Superfast Trains was limited to few dozens however it has increased to more than 200. Superfast trains usually operate faster than the other Mail / Express trains and registered the same distance in less time.

As per the Indian Railways, the trains attaining the mean speed of 55 km an hour are termed as “Superfast Trains”.  The train numbers of Indian Superfast Trains begins with 2 in order to mark them as superfast trains. The charges of the superfast trains are higher as compared to the regular trains however  they effectively reduce the time taken to travel the same distance and thus worth the price.

There are mainly three types of Indian Superfast Trains including Rajdhani Expresses, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi Expresses and other Superfast Mails / Expresses.

Rajdhani and Shatabdi Expresses are the most prominent Indian Superfast Trains. They are all air-conditioned trains offering comfortable and plush journey to the passengers. Rajdhani express as the name suggests links the capital of the country with the different destinations across the nation. It is regarded as one of the fastest trains which register the maximum speed of about 140 km/h.

Shatabdi Expresses are the inter city air-conditioned trains that links the metro towns, significant cities and business centers of the nation. These trains comprise of seat accommodation only and they can register the maximum speed of 130 km/h.

There is a more luxurious version of Shatabdi trains known as “Swarna Shatabdi Express”.  Another variant is Jan Shatabdi Expresses which are economical and usually non-air conditioned train.  Apart from these trains, other trains do not fall into any category and are known as their names. The commercial speed of the train is calculated by dividing the total distance covered by total time taken.

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.

The International Trains from India chiefly links the neighboring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. The commencement of international trains from India has its historical significance and plays an important role in the transportation of passengers and goods across the borders.

International Trains to Bangladesh includes “Maitree Express” that operates from Kolkata in India to Dhaka in Bangladesh. This train reflects the true bond of camaraderie and brotherhood among the two countries. Maitree Express was inaugurated on 14th April 2008 and it is noteworthy that it is being managed by both the countries.

Both the Indian Railways and Bangladeshi Railways share the responsibility of proper management and services of this train alternately after every six months.  This train covers the distance of 538 km including a stretch of 418km in Bangladesh and a stretch of 120km in India. The train covers the border point route at Gede and Darshana and runs twice on Saturdays and Sundays.

International Trains to Pakistan include the”Samjhota Express” that operates along the route of Delhi - Amritsar – Lahore. It is operated twice a week on Mondays & Thursdays.  The service of the “Samjhota Express” was inaugurated on 31 May 2007.

Another international train to Pakistan is the “Thar Express” which is operated along the route of Delhi - Jodhpur – Karachi route. It was inaugurated on 17 February 2006. It connects Jodhpur in India with the Karachi in Pakistan via Munabao.

Trains connecting to Nepal do not include any trains directly to Nepal however there are break journey which helps the passengers to reach Nepal effortlessly.  One can board the train to Gorakhpur from Delhi or Varanasi while traveling towards Nepal. One can further his journey from Gorakhpur to Nepal Border via bus or jeep ride.  Once at the Nepal border one can take up various buses plying to Kathmandu.

Heritage on Wheels is the luxury train that runs on meter gauge and presents the opportunity to explore the regions of Bikaner and Shekhawati in the state of Rajasthan. The tour of 4 days and 3 nights takes oneself to the exotic and majestic places of Jaipur, Bikaner and Shekahwati region.

The itinerary of the Heritage on Wheels basically covers the Shekhawati Region, Bikaner, Nawalgarh,  Ramgarh (Mahansar),  Mandawa that includes sanctuaries like Gajner and Tal Chhapar.  It will depart twice in a week on Tuesday and Friday from Jaipur and will return back on Friday/Monday morning to Jaipur respectively.

The Tariff per person per night for Single Occupancy is 300 US Dollar, Double Occupancy is 200 Dollar and Triple Occupancy is 150 Dollar. The tariff is half for the children between the 5 to 12 years.  RTDC also offered the Pre and Post seeing the sights of Jaipur on nominal cost.

Indian Luxury Trains:  The Royal Rajasthan on Wheels

The Royal Rajasthan on Wheels is a luxury tourist train administered by the Indian Railways. It is designed as per the model of the Palace on Wheels and it covers the similar route across the Rajasthan. It provides the tourists the opportunity to experience the many significant wildlife and heritage sites in Rajasthan.

It was launched recently in January 2009 after the success of the Palace on Wheels and offers the alternative option of another luxury train that traverses across the popular tourist destinations of Rajasthan.

This luxury train offers the tour of 7-day and 8-night across Rajasthan. It departs from New Delhi’s Safdarjung railway station and covers the tourist destinations at Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Sawai Madhopur, Chittaurgarh, Udaipur, Bharatpur and Agra.

This train covers world class tourist attractions including the Ranthambhor National Park, the Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds), Sheesh Mahal, Moti Mahal, Chittaurgarh Fort, Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Jag Niwas (Lake Palace), the Agra Fort and finally the Taj Mahal.

The Palace on Wheels proudly boasts of the fact that it was the first luxury train of India. It was launched basically for promoting tourism in the state of Rajasthan and today it is being regarded as one of the top ten luxury trains across the world.

The Palace on Wheels is highly popular for its delightful and captivating journey through the former era of the royal heritage and rule of Maharajas in Rajasthan. It presents the memorable tour of 8 days / 7 nights to famous tourist attractions of Rajasthan. The success of Palace on Wheels inspires the launch of another luxury train known as Royal Rajasthan on Wheels on the same route.

The Palace on Wheels was inaugurated on January 26, 1982 on the occasion of Republic Day of India. The concept and theme of this luxury train is based on the royal architecture of its compartments that resembles to that of palaces and forts of Rajasthan.

The Palace on Wheels consists of 14 coaches and each is named after bygone Rajput states. Each such coach reflects the interiors and aesthetics of the royal past.  Apart from the mesmerizing architecture and interior design, other facilities include a bar containing the world class Indian and international spirits, a well equipped lounge with a great collection of books, televisions and DVD players.

All the cabins of this luxury train are air-conditioned and possess amenities like twin beds, intercom, channel music and attached toilets with running hot and cold water. Apart from that the train comprises of two lavish restaurants which are popularly known as “The Maharaja” and “The Maharani”.  These restaurants portray the Rajasthani ambience and serve range of cuisines including Chinese, Indian continental, and Rajasthani cuisines.

The palace on wheels departs from New Delhi and travels around Rajasthan covering famous tourist destination like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Sawai Madhopur, Chittaurgarh, Udaipur, Bharatpur, and Agra during its eight day journey.

Tariff

Tariff for season 2008-2009 per person per night are as follows :

Single Occupancy : The charges during from October to March is US $ 560 and from April to September is US $ 415.

Double Occupancy : The charges during from October to March is US $ 419 and from April to September is US $ 322.

Triple Occupancy : The charges during from October to March is US $ 340 and from April to September is US $ 260.