Know India Better with Indianrailway

Introduced in 1853, Indianrailway is one of the world’s largest railway networks comprising of a total of 114,500 km of track, with 7500 stations. It operates both long distance and suburban rail systems running on meter, broad and narrow gauges. It connects various parts of the country and plays a major role in the national integration, bringing people together. It offers limited services to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, while services to Bhutan and Myanmar will be started shortly. About 1000 trains are run by the Indian Railways daily and they carry a five-digit numbering system. Indian Railways is divided into 17 zones and each zone is further divided to a total of 68 divisions. Each division has headquarters and each zone is headed by a General Manager, who is directly under the Railway board. Under him or her come the divisional managers. Then comes the divisional officers and at the end of the line comes the station master who has the entire responsibility of the station under him. There are six production centers of the Indian Railways where locomotives, coaches and other equipment are manufactured. Indian Railways uses diesel-electric, diesel -hydraulic and electric locomotives. Based on the speed of the trains, they are divided into faster trains with a few halts and slower trains with lots of halts. Faster ones are usually long-distance trains and have sleeper classes and pantry cars. There are different classes available on the train and you can choose the one you prefer, depending on the rate of the tickets and the comforts offered. The AC First Class is the most expensive class, the rate of which is comparable to airline tickets. The Second Class is the cheapest, and the choice of the common people. Booking of tickets in the trains is now done in a number of ways such as through online, travel agents, call centers, mobile phones or directly at the reservation counters in the railway stations or booking offices open at various parts of the country. The online booking is the easiest and fastest method of booking tickets and more and more people resort to this method. The website of IRCTC is always available for this purpose. The mobile booking is also gaining popularity as it is easy to carry and operate. Indianrailway has undergone a lot of reforms during the last 60 years and a lot more changes and reforms are yet to be introduced. The introduction of online booking has helped a lot in controlling the huge rush in the railway stations and all train alerts such as the train timing and the real-time arrival and departure of trains are now available on the mobile. You can also check the PNR status of your tickets and even cancel your reserved tickets online.