Booking Rail Tickets from the comfort of your seat.
One of the most preferred mode of travel for many is by train especially for those who cannot afford to go by flight and those who do not like travelling by buses. Most of us tend to book tickets from booking counters or people who are lazy or do not want to take pain of stranding in queues prefer to book from the comfort of their office or residence by booking over phone through a travel agency. Travel agencies charge a certain fee and have the tickets delivered to their customers.
However there are two easier ways of booking tickets which many are not aware of. These facilities are offered by Indian Railways. For using these facilities one has simply get registered with Indian railways site irctc.co.in and get a user id and password. Once you are logged in you can book a took through the following options.
1) I Ticket:- Once you enter the to and fro destination codes and the date of journey, you are directed to a list of trains running on that particular day through that rate. You can also view the timings, schedule and availability of tickets. You can book tickets online if you have a debit or credit card which comes under the acceptable list of cards of Indian Railways. You will get a temporary confirmation number of the Seat No and Coach and the tickets will be delivered either at your residence or office in 24 to 48 hours. For booking an i ticket a person has to book it atleast 2 clear days before date of journey. This time is required by Railways to courier tickets to us. Once the tickets reach us by courier, we can use it like a normal ticket. If you need to cancel these tickets, you need to do it manually through a railway counter. The money will not be refunded at the counter, but will be credited to your credit or debit card account.
2) E Ticket. The same procedure is followed for booking as in the case of I Ticket. The only difference however is that you get the advantage of printing your ticket at the place of your choice whether you are at your office, home or Internet parlour. You can print the paper on a normal paper as is the case of most computer print outs on normal xerox type of papers. If 5 passengers are travelling on a E Ticket, then one of them has to carry a identity proof and is required to show the checking official in the train. If none of the passengers travelling on that E Ticket is able to produce original identity card like Voter Id or Pan Card, that it is treated as ticket less travel and liable to be penalized. The advantage however of booking a E Ticket is that you can even book the ticket 6 hours before departure of train.
Advantages of Booking I Ticket or E Ticket compared to booking from counters and travel agencies.
Immediate Confirmation of Ticket:- Sometime you tend to get a very short time to plan your journey. For example if you are to travel on 3rd November 2009 and you get a intimation on 1st November 2009, there could be 50 seats available. It could take atleast 15 minutes for you to reach the booking office either by walk, auto or on your book however much you are near to the booking office because of traffic jams and signals. It takes some more time for your to park your vehicle obtain a parking ticket. By the time you reach the counter there could be 50 odd people who are seated before your arrival. Of that 50 add people, 10 people might have come to book tickets for the same train. 10 people could possibly mean 10 tickets and 20 passengers as more than one passenger can travel on a single ticket. By the time you reach the counter, it could have taken you about 1 hour since the time you saw the availability status at your office or home. Since many people books tickets simultaneously through counters and online from various parts of the country, the chances are that by the time you reached the counter, those 50 seats would have already got booked and you would get a RAC or a Wait listed ticket, which is of hardly any use to us. Here online booking becomes very important as online booking does not take more than 5 minutes. Once there is availability of 50 seats and you finish the online transaction in 5 minutes, you are assured of the seat.
Charges:- Railways charge around 40 rupees per ticket for booking a ticket online. These are basically charges for couriering the ticket. These charges are very nominal and cheap when compared to travel agency charges. Travel agents charge around 75 rupees for a person which means even if the ticket is one but there are five passengers they charge Rs.375/-. Another disadvantage with travel agents is that while they charge extra they can never assure of a confirmed ticket. They take a order from you and book tickets in the same way as an ordinary passenger does, standing in a queue in a railway counter or block it online. The only service assured by them is delivery of tickets to our homes or offices. However in some cases they merely do the booking, and the tickets have to be collected by us from their offices. Even if one are to book a ticket directly from the counter there are indirect charges which needs to be paid. If a person goes by auto he has to pay auto charges and if the person travels on his own bike or four wheeler, he has to pay for fuel and parking charges in addition.
It is always preferable to book tickets online especially during festive months when there is a heavy rush for tickets and for officials who do not get early enough intimation to book confirmed tickets. When we can book tickets from the comfort of our seats in air conditioned rooms why take the pain of standing in queues.
Regards
Satish
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