IRCTC

Yatra offers all facilities for train reservations including IRCTC login on its site, which means besides booking the ticket online, you can search for trains and their routes, train schedules, check for seat availability and train fares. You can also get your PNR status, view your tickets, print or cancel tickets on the Yatra website. Along with online train reservations, the IRCTC Tatkal service is also available on the Yatra platform.

Yatra offers a dedicated phone line and email id to handle customer queries, so customers can reach out to a Yatra executive in case of any booking issues or related queries.

Train reservation is available on Android, giving customers further ease of use. Yatra with its high-end technology services and the Yatra app, enables a seamless train booking experience for its customers. Besides payments on Yatra are secured and hassle free. It is no wonder more and more people are logging on to Yatra to book their train tickets.

IRCTC translating into Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is an offshoot of the Indian Railway, a platform where you can predominantly book your train tickets online aside from ordering your meals, plan your holidays, and book tourism packages.

This subsidiary website of the Indian Railways churns out about 6 lakh bookings a day making it the second busiest website in the world. Not to mention, with a punchline like 'lifeline of the nation', you can't expect anything lesser. It all started with IRCTC opening up to online ticketing, cutting down the dependency on agents, middle-men, or the hassle of queuing up at a railway counter, and booking a quick ticket. With the advent of IRCTC, users have the luxury of time to browse trains of their liking, decide upon their budget, study the arrival and departure stations, and accordingly proceed with the booking. With the aid of an IRCTC login, users from across the country tap into Indian Railways wide network and browse for train availability, trains running between stations, subsequently going ahead to make an IRCTC online ticket booking.

IRCTC Train Booking

In order to make an IRCTC train booking, you need to follow the below steps:

• You need to register yourself on the IRCTC Next Generation website.
• You can then make an IRCTC booking by logging in with your username, password, and then entering the captcha code.
• Once you have logged in to IRCTC online, you can enter details of your destination of origin, onward destination, date of journey, preferred class of travel (you can choose between AC 2 Tier, Anubhuti Class, AC First Class, Executive Chair Car, First Class, AC 3 Tier, AC 3 Economy, AC Chair Car, Sleeper, Second Sitting), and hit search.
• At this stage you also have the option of checking the box 'flexible with date'.
• While the subsequent page displays your search result at the bottom, in the top panel you still have the option to enter 'number of passengers', and/or 'modify your search'.
• In the second half of the page you will see the list of trains available on your preferred dates to your selected destination.
• The first column displays the train name and number along with its departure days, followed by the second column which displays departure time, proceeded by arrival time, total duration of the journey, and class of travel.
• Now select the train you most prefer and click on the bright blue rectangular button against each called 'check availability & fare'.
• By clicking on 'check availability & fare' you will know the IRCTC seat availability, whether the train is available on your specified date and the fare for that date. Aside from your selected date, the IRCTC site also displays the subsequent days on which the train is available for booking, and allows you to 'book now'.
• In the same page, you also have the choice to 'confirm availability on alternate trains', and immediately you will be shown alternate trains found on that day, if or not they are available for booking or are on RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation).
• After zeroing on your preferred train, click 'book now'. Further on, you will get a confirmation window asking whether you would want to proceed with your current choice. Click 'ok'.
• Further enter passenger details, their name, age and gender, followed by berth preferences of the passenger. You need to then fill up your meal preference particularly if the train is a Rajdhani, Duronto or a Shatabdi. Also whether any of the passenger is a senior citizen, which qualifies them for a senior citizen concession. This is applicable to all men above 60 and all women above 58.
• This will lead you to the payment gateway, where you need to verify your bank details and eventually make the final payment, and close your IRCTC online booking.
• Upon making the payment, you will get a confirmation window displaying all the details of your booked ticket.
• The ticket details will comprise the PNR number, and the status of your ticket at the time of booking, whether confirmed (CNF) or on wait list (WL). You coach number, seat/berth number, these details too will be displayed on this page.

IRCTC Tatkal Booking Scheme

For those wanting to make their IRCTC train ticket booking on a short notice can opt for the Indian Railways Tatkal scheme under which they can make a booking, both online and offline (at the designate railway counter), a day ahead of the date of travel. The IRCTC ticket booking window opens at 10am one day before the journey for the air-conditioned coaches, and for booking a sleeper coach it is 11am.

IRCTC Live Train Status

The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) website gives you the option to track your train in real time. The National Train Enquiry System page has a tab called 'spot your train' where you can carry out a search after entering your train name or number. And you will get all information on the distance covered by the train so far, the arrival and departure time at prominent stoppage stations, and an estimated arrival time at your desired destination.

IRCTC Waiting List Ticket

This means you have been issued a ticket on a train that is already running to capacity. But as and when passengers with confirmed tickets cancel their bookings your rank on the wait list keeps improving, consequently making it possible for you to get a confirmed ticket.

There is no guarantee whether or not a wait list IRCTC train ticket will get confirmed. It solely depends on the number cancellations that take place against confirmed tickets, and how that impacts your rank on the wait list. If it makes a significant difference to graduate you into the RAC list (with no confirmed or reserved berth) when the train's chart is prepared, you will at least be able to board the train. Of course you can SMS 139 to the Indian Railways from time to time to check the position of your wait listed ticket. However, on a unconfirmed wait list ticket at the time of preparing chart you can seek a full refund.

An offshoot of IRCTC Next Generation, the IRCTC tourism arm enables you to book special train-based packages, air travel, theme-based holidays, nature and sightseeing tours, and of course, its high-point, pilgrimage tours to all the key places of religious interest in the country. The site is known for its runaway hit programmes like the Bharat Darshan Special Tourist Train, also called, Ramayana Yatra. You can even view this detailed itinerary, the choice of trains, the inclusions in the package such as hotel stay and finalise your dates depending on the IRCTC availability.

• The capacity of IRCTC Next Generation site is touted to be 7200 tickets every minute as opposed to the former 2000 ticket per minute.
• IRCTC is perhaps Asia's greatest e-commerce site, clocking up a staggering 4 lakh bookings a day, leaving a certain Flipkart or Amazon far behind.
• IRCTC was the most searched term on Google India in 2014.

IRCTC is your treasure trove for everything trains, and now holidays, and it makes perfect sense to register yourself, and become its active user.