Convenience Of Rail Ticket Booking On Line

Indian railways, which is operating 114800 km track length and facilitating travel of over 30 million passengers every day, maintains a ticket reservation system which is admired by one and all. Railway tickets can now be bought from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited, shortly referred as IRCTC, through online net booking.

Prior to computerization of rail tickets booking, reservation counters in specific railway stations were flooded with people all the time and separate counters were assigned to different trains running in the same route. It used to be an ordeal for one who goes to reserve his travel requirements, for one had to change queues after finding chances in one counter get exhausted. With regard to the staff at the counter, it would be another ordeal for writing the ticket numbers in the registers and similar manual work.

After computerization too, the rail tickets reservation was available in railway station counters, when the job of the booking staff was easier and like wise the one who stands in a single queue had the facility of choosing any train from the same counter.

During both these periods, travel agents were also facilitating railway tickets bookings, with quotas allotted to them and passengers were availing that source when they wanted to avoid going to railway counters.

After the introduction of booking rail tickets on line, it became easier for the traveling public to reserve their tickets without hassle. Initially the rail tickets booking on line was restricted to certain work hours, but now, it is 24 x 7 operation, with the exception of 30 minutes intervel between 23.30 and 24 hours every day.

On line rail tickets booking process also improved in its comfort level stage by stage. Originally, the booking person had to give his identity document details at the time of booking, which document had to be produced at the time of travel. This requirement was relaxed and it is enough now for any of the passengers to produce the identity documents.

For buying rail tickets online through IRCTC , one must have Computer facility and internet connection.

Railway tickets are obtainable 90 days before the date of journey, for which you have to sign in to your account with IRCTC, when the computer screen will guide you for booking rail tickets, finally giving the reserved ticket to be printed out.

The latest improvement in online ticket booking is that you don’t need to take a print out, but you get a message in your mobile phone informing the reservation of rail tickets online and also send you an eMail enabling you to produce at the time of traveling.