Indian Railway Reservation - Train Bookings

The new systems at stations help know the rail availability

2016-11-18T09:58:00.000+05:30

After the huge success of the IVRS system and the online portal system, now the railway board has come up with a new idea. The IVRS system was a system which required a telephone line. The person used to follow the instructions of the computerized voice and responded accordingly to know the rail availability and the train timings, etc. Then came the online portal; system which used the internet facility to book the tickets and tell the information about the trains and all. But this system despite of all its huge advantages lacked in one feature. If the person wants the information about any train and he doesn’t have a computer or internet facility it was almost impossible for him to know the required info. Thus a new system was launched in some major cities of our country for the convenience of the common man.

This new system was an interactive machine just like the ATM machine. The person has to enter the instructions using a touch screen and a keypad. After processing he will get the required information then and there. For example if someone desired the information of the Garibrath booking that he did from the online portal, he just needed to go to the desired options using the touch screen and then selecting the appropriate information by entering the Garibrath booking information he has on his ticket. This system gives immediate information of the rail availability, the waiting lists or confirmed lists, the arrival timings, the new timings if any train is late, etc. It is a system which derives its sources from the centralized database system to which it is connected.

Some people might be confused about the advantages of such system but it has been observed that this system is by far the best method of inquiry when the internet and phone services are not available. Although this system cannot be used for reservations of tickets, it is still a very useful system in the entire context mentioned above. The railway board and the experts and engineers of the railways are working very hard to bring more and more facilities with this single system. There was a slight disapproval of this machine and this system at the railways stations when this system was first introduced as some doubted its usability, but now that this machine has gained popularity, it will be implemented in more stations with some more changes that will prove to be more useful.

Garib Rath reservation charges increased by the Railway minister C. P. Joshi

2016-11-18T09:57:00.001+05:30

Garib Rath express is one of the most significant and the most innovative trains started in the Indian Railways. It was introduced in the year 2005 by the then Railway minister, Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav ji. The train was launched in order to let the poor people who cannot afford AC and Sleeper class tickets to enjoy the AC benefits. The charges of this train were fairly lower than the rest of the trains so that the common and the below average person can afford a comfortable AC ride. This brought great economic benefits and upraises to the then ruling party and gave great popularity to the former Railway minister Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav ji.

The latest news in the country is that the new Railway minister Shri C. P. Joshi has planned to increase the charges of this particular train. As per the sources he says that the surcharges of the bed will be exercised onto the bill charges and the seat charges themselves would also be increased. He clarifies that this amendment has been taken in order to restore the economic conditions of the Railways. An extra charge of Rs. 26 would have to be paid for each bed or seat that is booked by the person. The common views of the people have yet not been taken, but it is supposed to have a negative effect to this new amendment.

The railway minister has asked all the railway boards to make the proper changes to the system software so that this new scheme can be implemented as soon as possible. Although the scheme is to be implemented for a period of 6 months only to see the response of the people to it, yet there is quite expected that it will have a downing effect on the railways. The Garib Rath reservations have been cancelled from the online railway booking portals and other such counters until the new scheme is uploaded onto all the systems. Shri C. P. Joshi have asked all the Railway board personnel to submit a due date as when this scheme would be fully installed in the software. Till then the Garib Rath reservations and advance booking for the tickets can be done at the zonal offices by paying the extra bed charges then and there itself, with a confirmation slip stating that the extra charges have been paid for the bed rolls as per the new scheme which will be implemented very soon.

Receive A Grand Welcome From Indian Railway In Garibrath Where A Hassle-Free Travel Experience Is Waiting For You

2016-11-18T09:55:00.001+05:30

Indian railway services have introduced so many premier trains now and they are successfully running among various states. Garibrath Express is one of them. This train is available for common man and woman at reasonable rates in comparison to high-class trains which are meant for elite-class people only. The services of Garibrath are mainly between Bihar and Punjab. But, this sophisticated train is also taking routes to other important cities of India like Bhopal, Jammu Tawi, Kochuveli, Ajmer and Sitamarhi. The amenities and accommodations of this train is of modern class and with all advanced electronic equipment are there in the coaches.

India's cities, outback, coastal towns and local areas are all connected with railways now. Experiencing Indian train services means getting in to a land of diversity with unforgettable and spectacular journeys. Right from a few years back, the ministry of this department is focusing more on delivering hassle-free train services to common people especially. Indian government has introduced now a host of train services which are air-conditioned and affordable even for passengers who could not afford buying tickets for top-class trains like Rajdhani Express. Premier train services have been introduced to give faster, comfortable and reasonable services even to lower-class people.

One of these "Poor Man's Chariots" is Garibrath Express which was on track in the year 2005. Garibrath comes with the faster speed with 130km/h which is not less than the top speed of Rajdhani and Shatabdi. This super fast train as a common people’s friend connects notable cities like Saharsa in Bihar and Amritsar in Punjab. When the train started its journey, there were controversies and critical reviews from different sources that this train is provided only for political purposes. Mostly, critics stated that the train is favorable for working class of Bihari people especially who have migrated to Punjab and who hold some strong note from politically powered Yadav family.

Whatever it is, Garibrath Express is now one of the most popular trains in India and it is getting positive feedback from citizens. The train is equipped with all sophisticated and modern amenities like fridge, microwave oven, toaster, television sets and fan. Also, a passenger can get a continuous display of an electronic board that will show current and next stations’ names, distance remaining, expected time to get there, temperature and guidelines for passengers. All coaches are decorated with famous and beautiful paintings from ancient and modern Indian artists which are like an art exhibition in railways.

Know A To Z Reservation Queries With India’s Sophisticated Railway Reservation Centers Anywhere At Anytime Now

2016-11-18T09:53:00.002+05:30

Indian railway is now packed with one of the world’s busiest train reservation services which allow passengers to access railway services between two stations. These services include remote services, special services and all essential information which can be received simply in a mobile phone, a personal computer and also by visiting nearby reservation centers and authorized agents. In spite of the huge crowd in Indian railway, the complete reservation system is arranged proficiently and flawlessly by government for smooth operations. Well-trained government stuff members are now managing the entire operation in a hassle-free manner for passengers seeking any information or query.

India’s railway reservation is one of the world’s largest railway networks. The system of reservation now turns around completely computerized. This central reservation system (CRS) of India is now retrieving and storing data for 115,000 km tracks, 7,500 stations and more than 20 million passengers daily on board. Major operations are comprises sell and book railway tickets which is opened with a particular or scheduled time table across the country at the same. Tatkal ticket reservation services are also offered Tatkal booking opens at 10 AM for AC Classes and 11 AM for NON-AC Classes on One days in advance actual date of journeyexcluding date of journey

The reservation system quickly brings people looking for train between two stations. Everyday, reservation counters across the subcontinent remains busy and restless due to huge gathering of citizens seeking tickets between two destinations for a train journey. With changing time and scenario the railway time table and schedules are also changed and many new trains have been included with new ticket reservation counters. To eliminate fraud activities and fake agents, security and vigilance personals are appointed for 24 hour reservation system. Customers with this new reservation system now can check train ticket fare for various classes, train arrival/departure between stations, train timing, running status, distance and expected arrival.

The new reservation arrangement has allowed passengers even to book ticket directly from the privacy of their home with an internet connection in hand. Many authorized booking center also make ticket reservation for customers by taking some extra charges for train between two stations. Now, counters for Indian railway enquiry and for other services from reservation center are available even in various leading hospitals, educational institutions and regional offices and shopping complexes also. Railway reservation is not only about ticket reservation but also it is now a wide range of special services placing Indian railway as the fourth largest utility employer in this planet.

An Overview of Indian Railways and its Functions

2016-11-18T09:49:00.001+05:30

Indian Railways (IR) is considered to be one of the largest railway networks in the world. In India, railways were first introduced by the Britishers from Bombay to Thane in 1853. Nationalization of these railway systems was done in 1951. The Government of India operates IR through the Ministry of Railways. The network is traversing through the length and breadth of the country covering a distance of 115,000 km, which also includes 7,500 stations.

In a year, approximately 7,500 million passengers are traveling in train. Indian Railways operates sub urban as well as long distance rail systems on narrow, metre and broad gauge networks. Additionally, it runs coach and locomotive production facilities in many parts of the country. Indian train routes cover 24 states and 3 union territories and also limited services are provided to Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

More than 1.4 million people are working in the Indian Railways, which is considered to be the fourth largest utility employer in the world. About 10,000 trains are running across the country and all the trains have five digit numbering system. IR holds passenger coaches, locomotives and freight wagons. Almost 34% of the total rail route was electrified.

IR is divided into number of zones, which are again sub-divided into divisions. Each division has an individual headquarters. Heavy engineering components and rolling stock manufactured at the railway’s six production units located in Trichy, Chennai, Asansol, Patiala, Varanasi, Bangalore, Chhapra, and Kapurthala. Research and design, electrification, training of officers and modernization are some the other independent organizations controlled by the Railway Board.

Nowadays, passenger coaches like electric multiple unit (EMU) are mainly used by people and control suburban traffic in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata. IR earns revenue of approximately 70% from the freight traffic and good wagons.

IR has many types of travel classes with or without air conditioning. Duranto, Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains will only have air conditioned class, whereas slow passenger trains will have unreserved seating class. A pantry car is available in long distance trains. The number of coaches in the train varies based on the demand and train routes. A normal standard passenger train has four unreserved compartments, in which one is particularly for ladies, sleeper classes, AC coaches.

A special compartment is present at the train’s rear end, called the guard’s cabin equipped with a transceiver to give clear signals. Still now, the tracks are maintained by manual means and need to be mechanised at the earliest. Only few routes are available with interlocking system.

IRCTC Indian Railways Aims to Enhance Customer Services

2016-11-17T17:40:00.000+05:30

Indian Railways has set up a subsidiary called Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) that deals with the catering, tourism and online ticketing of the railways in order to upgrade the services with private and public sectors. The mission of IRCTC Indian Railways is to improve the facilities and services for customers in railway hospitality, catering, travel and tourism. IRCTC is providing services to around 13 million passengers daily.

Indian Railways has taken the responsibility from IRCTC to handle the catering services. Most of the services are operated by the respective zonal railways, whereas IRCTC is providing catering services to few trains like all Frakkha express, Duranto express, Maitree express, Kandhari express and some Rajdhani express. In addition, IRCTC Indian Railways commenced a non-railway catering (NRC) project, through which cafeteria were set up in several Indian Institutes and Ministries.

IRCTC is an official website launched mainly to authorise online ticket booking in India. It has changed the way of ticket booking in India. Anyone can access this website through internet, mobile phone via SMS or GPRS connection. IRCTC has also created a hotel and flight booking options. Tickets can be modified or cancelled through this website without going to the respective station. IRCTC is also providing I-tickets, which are similar to regular online tickets.

Recently, the website has provided a PNR option to check the status of the booked ticket. The status can also be verified by opening the website and entering the train between stations. A loyalty campaign, called “Shubh Yatra”, has been newly introduced by IRCTC for regular travellers. Most of the passengers are benefitted through this program and can get discounts for all their booked tickets, just by paying an upfront yearly fee.

In order to ease the ticketing process, IRCTC has come to a decision to introduce Rolling Deposit Scheme (RDS), by which passengers can reserve their ticket against advance money. This fastest e-commerce website provides many payment options such as credit cards, atm cards, cash cards, debit cards, NEFT, netbanking etc.

Foreign and domestic tourists can avail for deluxe and budget package tours from IRCTC. Indian Railways also offers luxury tourism packages. Tatkal ticketing scheme has been introduced in all the classes except unreserved compartments, in most of the available train between stations in India. The ticket booking starts at 10:00 hrs daily, one day before the train departure from the source station. Recently, IRCTC has commenced a call centre in order to service customers and guiding them.

Metro Services of Delhi Railways Recognized by United Nations for Carbon Credits

2016-11-15T21:23:00.000+05:30

Indian Railways is the common more of transportation for long distances in our country. It is the world’s fourth largest network. It provides transportation services for more than 10 billion passengers and 1050 million tons of freight in a year. Indian rails can be classified as sub urban, metro, superfast, goods wagon etc.

Delhi Railways has both metro and suburban rail service operated by Northern railways and Northern capital region. The suburban railway service encloses Delhi together with the nearby districts Ghaziabad and Faridabad, as well as other places in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It normally runs on MEMU and EMU rakes. The suburban rails use the same tracks used by the long distance trains.

The government introduced ladies special trains between Palwal and New Delhi in 2009 and will run two more ladies special trains from Delhi to Panipat and Ghaziabad. Over 110 suburban trains are running on important stations, according to the Northern Railways. They are often crowded during peak hours.

Delhi Ring Railway gains specialty among the other Indian rails. It is a circular rail network established in Delhi, running parallel to the Ring Road. The distance of the circular road is 35 km, in which the train normally takes 90 to 120 minutes to complete both the directions. This ring service was introduced in Delhi to mainly bypass all the goods trains in other ways.

Delhi Railways has metro rapid transit system that serves New Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad. This metro rail includes six lines with 142 stations, among which 35 are underground stations. Delhi Metro is operated by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). This system uses both standard gauge and broad gauge rolling stock. The rails can be classified as red line, yellow line, blue line, green line, violet line. They get power output of 25 kV, 50 Hz alternating current, by means of overhead catenary.

United Nations has certified the DMRC as the first metro rail based system in the globe to receive carbon credits for minimizing the emissions of greenhouse gases and helping to reduce the pollution by 630,000 tons in the city, each year.

Delhi metro is growing at a rapid phase and needs to be strengthened more, as per the reports. Delhi railways is planning to start EMU services also from Gurgaon. After the completions of feasibility study, the authorities have formed a steering committee to monitor the project. New Orbital Rail networks may be created on the city’s outskirts in order to ease the travelling pressure.

Mumbai Railways – A High-Dense Railway Network in the World

2016-11-15T21:20:00.001+05:30

Typical Indian trains have the engine, second class or general compartments, second class sleeper, AC 3-Tier sleeper, AC 2-Tier sleeper, First class AC, AC chair car, First class, Break van, Pantry car, and ladies unreserved compartment. Duranto, Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabti, Garib rath, Mail or Express, Superfast mail, Passenger or fast passenger, suburban, goods train are the types of trains available in India.

Mumbai Railways is operated by the Central and the Western railways to serve Mumbai Metropolitan Region. More than 7.24 million people are utilizing the city’s suburban rail system daily. Mumbai suburban system has the highest passenger density when compared to any other system in the world. This rail transit system gets the power supply of 1500 V DC / 25000 V AC from overhead catenary lines.

The rail network is the main means of transport in Mumbai due to its highly dense population and presence of numerous businesses. In order to ease the congestion in Mumbai Railways’ suburban services, monorail and metro system are being constructed. The Harbour line, Central line, Trans-Harbour line and the Vasai Road-Diva-Panvel line are operated by the Central Railway and the Western line is operated by the Western Railway.

These Indian trains consist of 9, 12 and 15 coaches based on the routes and demands. Every train has special coaches to fulfil different needs of the passengers. These suburban trains will normally have first and second class ladies compartments and general compartments. Special coaches are reserved in every train for handicapped and cancer patients, and separately for senior citizens. Indian railway is planning to bring air conditioned coaches.

The Mumbai metro is being constructed in Mumbai and is designed specifically in such a way to decrease the traffic congestion in the city. It is anticipated that the construction will be completed by 2021. Once completed, the metro rail system will include three high-potential metro lines.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning to add more lines to the current metro lines. Indian Railways has given a contract to the Swiss-Swedish ABB Group to supply power to Line 1 of Mumbai Metro. This metro service will have an advanced signalling system, which also comprises an automated signalling and an automatic tan protection system in order to control the movement of train.

Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) is planning to expand the Harbour line to Goregaon, under the phase II Mumbai Urban Transport project.

Service of southern railways based on new schemes of Train fares

2016-11-09T11:38:00.000+05:30

In India, the whole southern railway zone is controlled by the Chennai railways as Chennai railways is the oldest railway zone and biggest one since British sovereign. It was the first to be created after the independence of India. Although southern railways are divided in six division but headquarter is in Chennai. Moreover more than half a thousand million passengers take a trip on this whole network of six divisions. Hence now more effective and some new schemes are needed to be applied for the train fares. Concessionary soon after the Indian independence has been applied to the railway fares. Since then they have not been updated and now with the advancements seen in the entire field they require some more service schemes to be applied.

In additional to new services and schemes there are small and more innovative ideas to be applied over the train fares in the southern region which should be purchased by the people satisfying their condition and criteria of their journey. This is must to be applied soon because now privatization has increased to limits and in summon of the new budget there is a rumor that Chennai railways are also going to be privatized. These projects of the southern railways consist of two phases. The first phase covers an area of near about 45 km which was already start way back in last decade and second phase is projected to be accomplished till 2014-2015.

Fares charged over the Chennai trains are much more feasible and under budget of the common man plus they are ought to provide more schemes and discount option with the fares. As now online booking has increased a lot, there are some services attached to the online booking to just reduce the fares or even provide some kind of gift along with it. Sponsorship like advertising along with the booking will give the benefits and profit which can adds to the discount for the fares schemes. There is also an option of giving virtual points to the online booking which can be in-cash for the goods brand or even in the petroleum business as well. Moreover share market is also attached through these points which can be another way to provide discount. All these services contribute to the fare box recovery ratio which is basically a transport system in India and cover 30-40 percent of America and Europe. Validity for the discount on the fares are limited and hence new and more effective scheme are need to be tossed in the fare business within equal interval of time.

PNR status in Kolkata railways and its advantages

2016-11-08T18:07:00.000+05:30

Passenger Name Record status is abbreviated as PNR status in Indian railways system. it is basically a Database that monitors and maintains all the query and data of the Indian railways and their passengers personal and booking history. This is a largest government system to maintain the database of all the users in India. Hence it becomes a little difficult to maintain from single server hence reports are generated zone wise in the Indian railways. In the west zone Kolkata railways check out all the booking history and hold the control of west zonal database information. PNR status is highly affected by the Indian population and hence some alphanumeric codes are attached to the record just to segregate the abundance and reducing the complexity with easy zonal wise searching and maintenance.

There are many functions that are managed by the Passenger Name Record status. The most important is the booking and cancelling. Advance service needs a special assistance from the analyst who provide all the guidelines and confirmation of the booking and cancelations over any media system like through phone or SMS and also in emails. To maintain proper services Indian railways have started a subsidiary which done all the booking and cancellations ob behave of Indian railways. This is designed and applied first on the Kolkata railways. There are other subsidiary than IRCTC but most reliable and ease with work performance is given by IRCTC. They provide a login system before that a sign up registration process so that it becomes easy for the database administrator to maintain the searching and booking and solving all the problems of registered users.

Suppose a customer want to book a ticket in advance and then if his journey got changed he wants to cancel the ticket and eventually there this record from the database helps them to cancel the ticket with refundable money only 10 percent less. All such query is answered through subsidiary in Indian railways. Kolkata subsidiary are situated in the sub urban areas near the location where eastern railways gets operated. With the help of API the whole database system is maintained there. This concept usually taken from the airlines and then applied firstly in the eastern zonal this is famous for one incident that was happened when one passenger wants to exchange their trip because their train got cancelled. When it was done successfully government gave a thought to apply them in the whole railway system.

Information about procedure of seat availability applied by Bangalore railways

2016-11-08T18:02:00.001+05:30

Bangalore is the hub for the private sectors and industrialization hence daily there are more than million passengers to the Bangalore. Online booking has somewhat abate the rate of complexity while booking and problems that passengers has to gone through due to no seat availability. The Indian railway subsidiary introduced by Bangalore railways zone will help in searching and maintaining the database of more than thousand trains booking. They work based on the important function that every seat occupied will be managed by the central control which was taken care at Bangalore.

Availability has become a major problem is not managed properly as there are many more other subsidiary that are not authorized for booking the seat. In such cases Indian railways will not allow the passenger to travel but then passengers’ needs to suffer. South zone is further sub divided into two divisions which manages in accordance with each other. The one headquarter is at Bangalore and other at Mangalore. Seat are maintained by the counter function which decreases by one as per one booking and if by chance as ticket get cancel it does not get increased by one but in fact when waiting list is reduced by one. There are one more option provided in IRCTC subsidiary for seat availability that RAC which is basically a reservation confirmation without the actual allotment of the seat.

Charges applied are all same either for confirmed seat or it is RAC or even waiting. The main problem arises here. Hence last decade Bangalore railways has set up a committee of Indian railways experts who discuss about this problem and solved it by adding extra bogies to the train if the RAC peoples are more than 50. After login there are 4 simple steps registered user need to perform which are entering their trip details and search for the train. Second one is choosing the train available which might be fulfilling the query requirements. Third step count for the checking of available numbers of seat and finally booking the ticket by doing the payment. This procedure is easy and followed by the most popular subsidiary of the IRCTC. This procedure is approved by the southern railways as well. One flaw which has done serious scams is the false numbers showing in the site for available numbers of seat. Hence security needs to be increased for the online booking procedure. Now as this procedure is followed by all the zones of Indian railways there are more than 70 percent of booking done online.

Brief description of Indian railway stations based on the rail info facts

2016-11-08T17:28:00.001+05:30

India’s central railway station is Nagpur railway station which daily handles the traffic of merely more than 50,000 passengers. In the history of the Indian rail info one incident happened in the Nagpur railways is commonly known to everyone and due to that central railways passed a scheme that consist of just of passengers who daily pass through the route in order to maintain the channel of central railways. This scheme must be applied soon so that in recent times RRI system will makes the flow of trains in track smoother than previous times. The main problem that was occurring is due to too many stoppages within the source and destinations. All the higher authorities have given the assurance that this will get abate to much lesser rate than earlier times.

The cons that are arriving due to his scheme is that passengers have to suffer a lot as nor boarding stations are reduce in the Nagpur railways route. But still the rule is passed as because congestion will be decreased to a maintainable rate plus it can definitely going to reduce the number of accidents. Recent Indian rail info releases information that system operational unit will rescheduled the trains in their route. This system was first found active at the Delhi station and from there it has gained all the popularity. The traditional methods of enquiry remain the same as ever and though very useful fail at times.

Nagpur remains the tourism city from ever since and hence it is famous destination where every year tourist visits which has made second capital, virtual capital, from the tourism point of view and this premium importance is given because of the central location of India.

India has the second largest track in all over the world this fact about the Indian railways makes India one of the largest tourism support worldwide. Many surveys are performed on the different railway stations in all over the India. They are because to keep the track about the services and facilities that are issued are achieved or not. Going to the history there are many cases of accidents due to improper maintenance of the services and facilities of the Indian railways. For this there railway board is constituted early in 1905. At that time British had taken over the control of Indian railways but facilities were still maintained at time too. Overall Indian railways have maintained their dignity which makes their position at the second level.

E-Ticketing: advanced and effective way to search trains Info

2016-11-08T17:24:00.001+05:30

From the history of the Indian railways there is maintained the services and facilities that holds the second position of the Indian railways. With technology there come many subsidiaries too for the online booking and cancellation of the train’s ticket. This whole process along with other facilities like trains info are included by IRCTC which is the only authorized subsidiary of the Indian railways. Advanced technology added in the IRCTC is the E-ticket facility. This is printed in the read only mode which is authorized by the Indian government and allowed too.

Another important thing is that with the help of the PNR number one can easily get the latest status of their booking and trains booking conditions with seat availabilities as well. Moreover searching is also become easy and less complex with this online booking subsidiary. At the time when it needs to be checked by the TT, you can simply show this E-ticket on your phone with a proper and valid identity card along with it.

A person can take the photo of the ticket reservation system into his mobile and show it with a valid identity card. This photo of the ticket is computer generated image which is known as E-ticket. To save paper new technology which is applied is the SMS tickets where one single SMS will do the work which earlier one complete ticket were required.

For the convenience of the common man, the Railway Board has uploaded all the necessary information, rules etc on the website of Indian railways. They have also given proper step to follow for how to book the ticket search for the train info and act according fulfilling their criteria. E-ticket is more effective because it makes booking process online and provides 24x7. User guides are provided in every site for the railways booking. Train information like source station their halt in the intermediate stations along with the time durations are also available 24x7. There is more functionality like now recently an Indian railway tells the current position of the running train. This information really helps the customer to manage their time.

In all, comparing with the decade ago booking style, now hours time are reduced to minutes with saving time, resources and less complexity. This functionality only needs the internet and they also save travelling money and time. The Indian government is also benefited with this as from the advertising and sponsorships with a little extra, merely 10 rupees extra per online booking are deducted from the account.

Airtel ties up with IRCTC for railway bookings

2013-08-24T14:48:00.000+05:30

Bharti Airtel has joined up with Indian trains Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to offer trains bookings through Airtel Money in top North comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

"Our integration with IRCTC for booked ticketing is a step to empower our customers expressly after the built-up footprint with the convenience of booking permits without the need of retaining a bank account or an Internet connection," Airtel CEO-Upper North Sarang Kanade said in a issue here.

IRCTC mobile bookings through airtel Money service works over all mobile apparatus, does not involve any facts and figures or SMS allegations. It benefits a simple USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) expertise that prompts users with interactive and directed menu choices in the direction of registration permits, he said.

Through this service, customers can not only make ticket bookings but furthermore search for stations, teaches, accessibility, PNR investigation, cancellation etc, he added.

IRCTC told to upgrade online ticketing system

2013-08-24T14:45:00.000+05:30

in the middle of accounts of passengers finding it tough to publication tickets online, railway minister C P Joshi has inquired the Indian trains Catering & Tourism Corp (IRCTC) to enhance the capacity of its world wide world wide web servers and upgrade its ticketing services.

causes said Joshi, who took over added ascribe of trains for the second time in UPA-II , conveyed frustration on the ministry's malfunction to tackle the issue. They added that he told his officials that the ministry did not appear involved in explaining the topic.

On Monday, IRCTC agents had notified the minister that the agency's world wide web servers could publication round 2,000 tickets per minute. The Indian trains subsidiary designs to increase this to 7,200 e-tickets per minute in the present economic year, Joshi's predecessor Pawan Bansal had announced in his rail budget speech.

According to causes, rail ministry agents notified the minister that they required to spend round Rs 10 crore to procure hardware to upgrade their ticketing capability and it would take them at smallest another three more months to get that.

Upgradation of e-ticketing facility is vital, considering the gigantic burden on the website at 10am, when registration of Tatkal permits opens.

IRCTC promises faster, smoother rail bookings site early next year

2013-08-24T14:43:00.000+05:30

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) plans a revamp of its online rail ticket booking world wide web site and will relaunch it early next year. The new site promises to be much much quicker. The business states this will bring relief to the millions of users for who registration a permit on the the IRCTC location is a annoying, even nightmarish, experience.

The troubles that IRCTC users face are a throwback to the early 2000s when the internet was still in its infancy. some cannot even get past logging on to their anecdotes. Even if they do, "every next step is a strike and miss", states Anoop Nair, a Bangalore-based techie.

"You can get attached at any stage, from loading in names to choosing the berth or seat. More annoying, you can get logged out without alert any time." Even if a client organises to reach the end of the method, more often than not the permits would have been traded out. poorer, there are times when the money is deducted from the user's bank account or borrowing card but the ticket is not issued. "It is lawless person for the government to permit this to continue," states Navi Mumbai's K Srikanth who has faced three failed registration endeavours so far.

The IRCTC points to the yawning gap between accessible tickets and buyers as the origin origin of the difficulty. The location sells more than half of the eight lakh trains permits available in a day, and familiarity up to four lakh hits in a minute throughout the daily forenoon hurry for tatkal tickets, said Vasu MS, added general supervisor, software. The present capacity is to book just 2,000 permits a minute. The new site, to be constructed at an buying into of more than Rs 100 crore, will be adept to make 7,200 transactions a minute.

meantime, some fine-tunes such as separating search and booking purposes, and an e-wallet system that will slash banks' sites out of the registration process are being made to make the current location much quicker, Vasu said.

professionals are skeptical, though, about how all this will convert into better client experience, saying the IRCTC is an anachronism that needs the agility required of a expertise company.

IRCTC is one of a clutch of businesses that report to the railway board, each owning different chunks of trains property, such as facts and figures, connection infrastructure, etc. Sibling rivalries often make it tough for these businesses to work in tandem, said people who have worked with the businesses.

IRCTC is hobbled by developed era guidelines, for instance, in hiring gifts and upgrading skillsets, said Sundar Lakshmanan of Ideophone that boasts commute answers. He said the IRCTC tender process to ranch out work to the smallest bidders prevents it from employed with large technology businesses that can leverage elastic public cloud hosting stages. Such a platform would permit scaling of assets such as servers and bandwidth real-time, founded on traffic, cost-effectively. The IRCTC has taken years to address the troubles with its website, regardless of the high development rate in e-bookings, which have more than increase two-fold.

Anand Chitipothu, an independent IT professional and expert in high traffic websites, said IRCTC should be more open to employed with IT professionals to better its e-ticketing capabilities. Rail ministry should unshackle IRCTC from rail board's control and give it a business makeover if it has to assist rail travellers well, professionals said.

Visakhapatnam railway station sees heavy rush

2013-08-24T14:24:00.000+05:30

VISAKHAPATNAM: With all the APSRTC buses going off the road over the three north seaboard districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam in the Seemandhra district since the midnight of August 12 on account of the strike call given by the RTC workers' unions, the town trains position is seeing an unprecedented hurry of travellers.

According to trains agents, almost 5.5 lakh journeylers opted to journey by trains from various parts of the town dropping under seven authorized ticket registration hubs of the Waltair partition of East Coast trains (ECoR) from August 1 to 20 this year.

trains agents anticipate the traveller traffic to go up to 8.5 lakh by this month end with profits of Rs 7.5 crore as against nearly 8 lakh passengers in August 2012 with earnings of Rs 7.1 crore. In the last 20 days, the partition garnered Rs 5 crore from passengers of the town alone. The town position has seen a huge rush of travellers as the RTC hit sent aspiring engineers rushing to other towns for Eamcet counselling as well as the rush due to the ongoing wedding ceremony time of the year.

During usual days, the Vizag railway position sees almost 18,000 to 20,000 embarking for various destinations on a daily cornerstone, but since the public street transport came to a complete stop, the traveller numbers have gone up to 25,000 to 27,000 per day in the direction of cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Tirupati and even Vijayawada and Rajahmundry. almost 80-85 teaches overtake through the city trains position to diverse destinations over the homeland.

Between August 20 to 22, the position saw unprecedented hurry on account of Eamcet rankers and parents trying to reach diverse destinations as the therapy could not take location in the centres in the town and neighbouring districts due to disputes.

Now with private coach operators also discovered to have expressed their enthusiasm to connect the Samaikyandhra disputes from Saturday by halting their services from Visakhapatnam to other destinations, the rush is all set to proceed up at the Vizag position.

Leaders of ASPRTC unions including nationwide Mazdoor amalgamation and RTC workers Union, have been appealing to the personal bus operators to connect the protest by closing down transport services. Though so far they did not heed their plea, sources on Friday said that the personal bus operators took a conclusion to proceed on hit from Saturday in support of joined Andhra Pradesh.

The NMU Vizianagaram zone secretary, PVV Mohan, said that almost 50 private coach services to long paths beyond Vijayawada would be halted with the hit call given by personal bus operators. affirming the hit by personal operators' from Saturday, AP Non Gazetted Officers' Association secretary for Visakhapatnam district unit, T Gopal Krishna, said that the personal bus operators would be joining the mix from Saturday. "Almost all public transport to various parts in the state will be stalled from Saturday," Gopal said.

A older railway authorized sharp out that the railway station would glimpse a huge hurry of passengers from Saturday with the hit of the personal coach operators. "We are designing to augment some significant teaches with additional coaches and furthermore restore some of the called off teaches towards Vizianagaram at the earliest," Anil Kumar, divisional trains manager of Waltair partition of ECoR, told TOI. "If required, we will converse to our equivalent at the South Central Railway at Secunderabad for added advisers or special trains for sake of the passengers," he added.

Track washed out again, rail traffic on Delhi route hit

2013-08-24T14:19:00.002+05:30

Around 30-metre up line trains pathway in Magardoh-Barbatpur part under centered trains Nagpur partition was washed away early Friday morning due to hefty rains in Madhya Pradesh. The occurrence, a repeat of alike development near Sindi last month, has hit train action on north-south route.

Due to cleaning away of track on up-line (Delhi to Nagpur), traffic was diverted on down line since 5.45am on Friday influencing train movement. Daily at least 30 up and down teaches move on this path.

Pressure on lone track has led to diversion of 4 express trains 12791 Secunderabad-Patna, 12625 Thiruvanathapuram-Delhi Kerala articulate, 12269 Chennai-Nizamuddin and 12803 Vishakapattnam-Nizamuddin. The teaches went by Badnera-Bhusawal-Itarsi on Friday evening. Freight train traffic too was redirected.

Diversion of trains commanded to sudden hurry at Nagpur station and panic amidst travellers. Many passengers going to Delhi were accommodated in Chhattisgarh articulate. "More trains are expected to be redirected if the track is not fixed by Saturday forenoon. Looking at the accident site, it seems improbable that the pathway, which is virtually hanging, will be refurbished by morning," said officials.

Divisional trains supervisor (DRM) Brijesh Dixit along with older agents hurried to the spot to supervise the procedures. PRO PD Patil acquainted piece of the bridge's base over Machna stream caved in due to incessant rainfall. At smallest 15 sleepers were washed away in the flooded stream while an overhead electric powered (OHE) beam was uprooted.

Over 170 employees are employed to refurbish the track. Patil said 18 wagons with boulders, sand and other material have been transported to the mishap location. in addition to, 80 such wagons have been kept prepared. Passengers have been appealed to contact helpline (0712-2564343) for information.

A alike tragedy had hit the Central Railway in July when 500 metres of up and down tracks were cleaned away at Sindi trains on Nagpur-Mumbai route. agents said urgent situation is not so critical now as one pathway is open.

Five Easy Steps to Book Railway Tickets Through By SMS

2013-08-20T11:57:00.002+05:30

Indian trains on Friday launched SMS-based ticketing system to tackle the hurry at the registration counters.

Indian trains Catering and Tourism company (IRCTC) launched the permit registration which can be done through non-internet based wireless.

Government is wanting that this new system will help overcome the menace of touts who fleece unsuspecting people.

But have you tried to publication the permit by SMS? Here’s five very simple ways that will help you book a permit by using your commonplace mobile telephone.

First: list your mobile number with your bank. The bank will supply a mobile cash Identifier (MMId) and one-time password (OTP) for authorization of fee.

Second: After getting the MMid and OTP, now you can publication your permit. For registration, kind an SMS with all your journey minutia like train number, date of excursion, boarding position and destination and Class of journey, in addition to title, age and gender of the traveller. The SMS should be sent to 139 or 5676714.

Third: On receiving the SMS, the IRCTC will drive a transaction ID. The passenger has to reply to the SMS with PAY followed by the transaction ID and the bank password (OTP).

Fourth: This confirms registration and the permit allowance will be deducted from your bank account.

Fifth: On thriving registration of ticket, a note will be dispatched to the client by IRCTC which will be sufficient as the valid travel article along with photograph ID business business business card in initial.

Please ascertain the IRCTC connection for further queries like chair availability, Schedule, time table, PNR rank

NOTE:

First: The SMS design will not be accessible throughout 8 am-12 pm for registration ARP/tatkal/general permits.

Second: There will be no need for internet at any stage - registration, payment, cancellation etc.

Now book your pizza on train Excursion / Journey

2013-08-20T11:55:00.000+05:30

Now book your pizza or pasta through Internet before boarding a train and food will be consigned at your chair throughout the excursion.

Much to the great pleasure of train passengers, the trains Ministry has decided to launch a navigate task of registration meals through Internet in chosen teaches on Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Amritsar route.

"We are trying to supply a kind of repasts to passengers throughout train excursion and for this we will soon be having an arrangement with some well liked nourishment chains," said a older trains Ministry authorized engaged with the project.

As per the suggestion, a passenger will be offered to publication his meal by giving his name, coach and berth number of the train on an Internet booking location and the nourishment will be delivered at his seat at a particular position.

"There will be alternatives like biryani, pizza, pasta, burger and sandwiches among others which are else not available in pantry vehicles of teaches. Some reputed nourishment outlets will be roped in to cater to the claims of passengers," said the official, adding "payment will be made after consignment of food."

although, the official clarified that the service is not meant for Rajdhanis, Durontos and Shatabdis because the fares encompass the food served in these teaches.

A meeting was held at Rail Bhawan last week with agents of CRIS and IRCTC to discover the possibility of registration meals through Internet.

It was determined at the meeting that a navigate project for registration repasts through Internet would be commenced on a couple of chosen teaches on Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Amritsar paths to start with, said the authorized.

The authorized further said that a conclusion will be taken shortly if to conceive a new location or to supply a separate link on the existing permit registration location of the IRCTC for it. A supplier bureau will also be selected for providing consignment service on trains through a tendering process.

Currently about 10 lakh passengers avail catering facility every day at positions and trains, while 302 Mail and Express trains have pantry cars.

Rail Tariff administration to be set up through executive alignment

2013-08-20T11:52:00.003+05:30

The government is discovering the likelihood of expediting the formation of the Rail Tariff administration (RTA) through the executive path after the proposed regulatory body obtained an in-principle nod from the Cabinet.

"RTA has got in-principle acceptance from the Cabinet. But since setting it up through an Act of Parliament will take some time, the Law Ministry and trains will examine if it will be set up through an executive order," regulation Minister Kapil Sibal notified reporters here on Friday.

The regulation Ministry and trains will work out minutia for the formation of RTA, the first-of-its-kind body for the national transporter, to periodically suggest tariff levels for both freight and passenger fares taking into account input charges (diesel, electrical energy) and volatile market conditions.

RTA will be a five-member body headed by a head person.

"We need to take it ahead through boss action," Sibal supplemented.

The administration, mooted by former Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi in his Rail allowance for 2012-13, was pursued by his successors CP Joshi, Pawan Kumar Bansal and present incumbent, Mallikarjun Kharge.

The need for setting up the RTA, which is proposed to be immune from political interference, has been sensed due to a increase in the cost of running teaches and the need to insulate the teaches from hikes in fuel and electrical energy charges. One of its objectives would furthermore be to eradicate uncertainties in tariff formulation.

The cross subsidisation for passenger services had gone up to Rs 36,000cr in 2012, which was decreased to Rs 32,000cr after the latest hike in passenger fares and cancellation allegations.

In 1950, Railways was earning 47 per hundred of its income from travellers, which is down to 27 per hundred now. Freight profits account for 67 per hundred of incomes at predispatched.

trains had dispatched the plan for the RTA to different ministries, encompassing Finance, searching their outlooks on the proposed body before submitting it to the Cabinet for its nod.

The major Miniter's agency, too, was constantly impelling the proposal for the setting up of RTA.

Currently, Railways has fuel change component (FAC) principle which is linked to power and fuel charges and calculated accordingly. The FAC for both freight and passenger fares is slated to be reviewed every six months.

While freight rates have gone up by about 5.7 percent from April 1 due to the connecting of FAC in the tariff, trains will in October examine its applicability for traveller services.

In fiscal 2013-14, the deregulation of diesel charges for bulk users, such as Railways, will add Rs 5,100 crore to the public transporter's costs. The trains will soak up the Rs 850 crore increase in passenger costs on this account.

Kolkata hosts photograph public showing on Indian Railways

2013-08-20T11:51:00.003+05:30

A young Rabindranath Tagore aboard a train, Mahatma Gandhi at a platform and other such rare images that notify the article of Indian Railways are part of an display here to commemorate 160 years of the country`s railway system.

Inaugurated Monday at the Academy of Fine Arts, an oeuvre of over 200 snaps depicting historic instants in the development of the trains - the lifeline of the homeland - will take one back in time to 1853 when the first train chugged into Thane from Mumbai (then Bombay) in Maharashtra.

"There are 210 images 1853 onwards that will be on display. Most important ones are those of Mahatma Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Tagore etc. that highlight their association with the railways," RN Mahapatra, head public relations officer, to the east trains said.

Pieced through archives of Indian trains, diverse zonal trains and the archives of the nationwide Rail repository, the exhibition comprises chosen images of the first articulate train, landmark structures linked to trains like the Howrah position among other ones.

Also frozen in time are black and white snaps of Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

Indian Railways to supply advisers with Braille stickers by October

2013-08-20T11:45:00.000+05:30

In a first, a railway adviser is being arranged with Braille-embedded signages to facilitate visually-challenged travellers.

"The first prototype coach with Braille stickers is anticipated to be turned out here in October 2013 for repsonse from visually impaired persons," an official said.

The non-AC accepted adviser manufactured in the Integrated Coach manufacturer (ICF) at Chennai will have Braille stickers on berth, lavatory, wash basin and doorways as well.

"The Braille stickers are placed accordingly after discussion with the constituents of blind association in the capital," said the authorized, supplementing, "It is a important step for facilitation of visually weakened passengers throughout train excursion as part of trains' communal firm pledge to make the national transporter more friendly towards specially abled passengers."

actually advisers are supplied with signage, instructions, seat numbers which are mostly in the form of vinyl stickers or metallic plates and have no Braille individual features and will not be read by visually weakened travellers. Now it is designed to use stickers with metallic groundwork with published characters embedded into it.

The Braille sticker for visually challenged individuals was announced in the Rail allowance 2013-14.

As per the design, more advisers will have braille stickers in due coarse.

ICF, a output unit of the Railways, has evolved the specification for integrated Braille signages in coaches in consultations with blind associations and input obtained from study Design and measures Organisation (RDSO) and handed out to the Railways.

Braille publishing will be superimposed on these stickers and identical can be utilised by both a individual with normal vision and visually weakened individual. With embedded image or individual features, there would not be any defacing even on recurring contacts or wiping. Flexible metal foil base and adhesive backing on these stickers make them very simple to install on flat as well as on bent exterior of the coach.

Make Indian Railways safer and cleaner

2013-08-20T11:44:00.000+05:30

At smallest 35 people, mostly pilgrims, died on Monday when a very quick moving traveller train ran over them in Bihar. According to Arunendra Kumar, head person of the trains board, “The misfortune appeared because some persons left the stage of the position and came on the tracks.” although, this does not absolve railway agents of responsibility. The accident may be due to travellers trespassing on railway pathways, but the agents at the policeman position should have forewarned them before allowing the train to overtake.

According to a latest report of the Railways’ safety reconsider committee, killings on the pathways because of trespassing are far higher and allowance to a massacre. “A large number of casualties take place over the whole trains system due to unlawful trespassing though accurate figures have not been compiled by the trains and are not readily available. The estimation is nearly 15,000 individuals get killed in such a manner every year,” the report said. Indian trains are reluctant to own to these casualties, which do not drop under the purview of train misfortunes.

Nevertheless, the detail that such a large number of killings occur on account of teaches can by no means be ignored. No civilised humanity can accept such massacre on their trains scheme. While misfortunes at unmanned railway traversing extend, the cash-strapped nationwide transporter is yet to put its proceed simultaneously to eradicate these death tricks numbering about 12,582 across the homeland. trains minister Mallikarjun Kharge has lately admitted that Indian trains is not adept to achieve the desired grade of progress due to restricted accessibility of funds which were being circulated over a large number of projects. The reality is that security and hygiene are the smallest main concern for the trains which is more concerned about super-fast teaches to cater to the rich. The teaches should set apart a repaired percentage of its income for safety and hygiene and set up a system of accountability.

Booking Tatkal Ticket on IRCTC - The ticket to hell

2013-03-05T17:03:00.000+05:30

Booking a train ticket on the Indian railways is no joke. In fact, it can be so futile that it has spawned a new category of online memes.

It could be called India's biggest sport. It needs a lot of mental preparation. Often, it has drama, desperation and nail-biting finishes that can either lead to a whooping victory or downward spiral into anguish and an untimely death of a laptop.

The sport is called 'booking a ticket on IRCTC' (the official ticketing site for the Indian Railways). It is sort of a hurdle race but one that is customized to maximize your pain and despair. Attempts to buy Indian Railway tickets have, in fact, given rise to a new class of jokes on social media and a category of memes. Some Twitter jokes go like this: "We are against reservation - IRCTC", "IRCTC: India's favorite massively multi-player online adventure game", "A lot of people think IRCTC's tagline is 'This webpage is not available'".

The website works on the actual timings of railway ticketing counters. So, the website faces a feeding frenzy everyday at 10 am, when the bookings open. Unfortunately, that is the least of the troubles. Sometimes, even clicking the 'book' button does not spell certainty. Even after going through the whole process, it is entirely possible that the service will suddenly be 'unavailable' and a consumer will have to go through an array of drop-down menus and web pages once again. And by the time, a ticket-seeker has actually managed to reach the end of the road, the Tatkal tickets will most definitely have run out. It is understandable why 'Service unavailable' and 'Webpage unavailable' and payment failures are the premise of most memes. These web jokes echo the collective, bitter laughter of a country driven to humor out of frustration.

But this is not the worst situation. Often, you might get that tingle of glee when your payment has been deducted, but that could soon be replaced with horror when you discover that you don't have a booked berth.

There is even a petition on Change. org, which requests the ministry to fix the online booking site, make the experience less traumatic. About 1, 050 people have signed the petition. Another person has designed a new railway website herself to reduce it of its clutter and make it more user friendly.

In desperate times, the solution, unfortunately, still lies in the hands of travel agents who can engage their soldiers to stand in line and brave the surge for a ticket on the great Indian Railways.