IRCTC Ticket Booking
Book IRCTC train tickets quick and easily on our train app or website using your IRCTC login. You can also check the latest state-wise COVID-19 guidelines and confirm the running status of your train or the special COVID-19 train. Find trains according to your travel destination and preferred date, check seat availability, and complete your ticket booking, since online railway reservation is now easy, swift and secure at ixigo. You will be paying ₹0 as service charge on your first IRCTC train booking. You can also check your PNR status and know the chances of your ticket confirmation.
The confirmation prediction feature also assists in deciding whether to book train tickets or not. If the seat is on the waitlist and you book a waitlisted IRCTC ticket, the PNR auto update feature keeps you updated about availability till your journey date/ticket gets confirmed. Along with online train reservations, an IRCTC Tatkal ticket booking service is also available on the ixigo app and website.
IRCTC Live Train Running Status
Tracking of GPS-enabled Indian Railways trains in real-time and determining the current status of your train is known as train running status. It provides information about the last reported location of a train, with an estimated arrival and departure time for the upcoming stations in its route.
IRCTC Seat Availability and Enquiry
The Train Seat Availability feature helps you find out the seat/berth availability in a train and of a particular class whenever you are planning a rail journey. It enables passengers to make train ticket bookings according to their choice of travel facilities and reap their benefits.
You can also use the IRCTC Train enquiry services to seek detailed information about the availability of trains, seats, train timetables, fares, concessions, quotas or anything else you might need for the journey. The service also helps to check trains between two stations and provides a list of all available trains for a particular route. ixigo helps you out in booking train tickets, forwarding train enquiries, and checking the real-time seat availability via its train app or website.
PNR Status Alert & Prediction of IRCTC Train Ticket
Your PNR, or Passenger Name Record, is a unique 10-digitnumber issued by IRCTC's computerised reservation system to every booked ticket. It contains the personal details of a passenger such as age, sex, and contact information, and helps you find out the current status of a waitlisted booked ticket, regardless of whether it is confirmed or not.
Sometimes, booked tickets are upgraded to higher classes depending upon seat availability. Combine this with ixigo’s PNR status prediction, which offers high accuracy in knowing your booking status, for a smooth and trouble-free experience.
How can I book IRCTC train tickets online?
Indian Railways reservation can be done both online and offline.
Online Train Ticket Booking
An IRCTC train booking can be made online effortlessly, since the whole process is carried out at the convenience of a smart device and an internet connection. Use the ixigo trains app or ixigo website for a quick, seamless transaction experience. Here’s how it works:
• Visit the train section on ixigo website or train app.
• Choose the source and destination stations.
• Select the date of journey and class.
• Click the ‘Search Trains’ button.
• A list of trains along with their seat availability and travel fare will show up.
• Choose any train ticket class from the options, as per your travel requirement
• Fill in the passenger details.
• Log in to your account using IRCTC login credentials and complete the payment process.
• And it’s done! You will now receive a message with your IRCTC train ticket details on your registered mobile number and email address.
The ixigo trains app has a couple of smart features to help you with everything related to your IRCTC train ticket status. We’ve already told you about our IRCTC PNR prediction feature that predicts the confirmation chances of your booked tickets, along with providing a confirmation percentage. But what if your train’s running late?
No worries! Check its Live Running Status through the ixigo trains app. Enter your train details along with the date of journey for precise, live information on your train’s location.
Offline Train Ticket Booking
To book a train ticket through the Indian Railways reservation counter, visit the nearest railway station and follow these steps:
• Collect a reservation form from the counter.
• Ask for the train seat availability, fare and other train details from the enquiry counter.
• Fill in details like passenger name, sex, age, berth preference, etc.
• Forward the filled form to the booking counter.
• Complete the payment and get your train ticket from the counter.
• Verify the train details, journey date, and passenger details mentioned on the ticket.
• Booked tickets have a unique PNR number, so you may also check its current PNR status.
IRCTC Valid ID Proof
No documents or identity details have to be entered while booking trains on the app. The passengers will, however, have to carry an ID card with them during the journey. The Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) will ask for identification documents while checking passenger tickets in the coach.
Please remember to carry the original versions of all the identification documents, such as:
• Aadhar card
• Voter photo identity card
• Passport
• Driving license
• Pan Card
• Central/State Government issued Photo Identity card
• Student Identity Card with photograph
• Nationalised Bank Passbook with photographs
• Credit Cards with laminated photographs
• Photo identity cards having serial numbers.
IRCTC Next Generation Ticket Booking
The IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) features a next generation website that has changed the face of train travel in India.
Besides e-tickets, the website also offers i-tickets (regular tickets) which are booked online and delivered by post to your doorstep. Rail tour packages are also on offer, spanning hotel bookings, tourist trains, car rentals, e-ticketing as well as i-ticketing. It also runs a 24*7 support centre that helps passengers with issues during train ticketing, train timings, tour bookings and seat availability.
The Indian Railways Reservation system has enabled different types of ticket booking categories based on age, sex, emergency, inability, and other quotas. These bookings are available online and offline, except for a select few. Tatkal tickets are booked at different time intervals for the AC and sleeper classes. The Railways has also introduced IRCTC ticket booking fare concession schemes for senior citizens, students, women and disabled persons.
IRCTC Ticket Booking Types
General Booking
General tickets can be booked offline at the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters, or online through the IRCTC and ixigo.
Tatkal Ticket Booking
The IRCTC Tatkal ticket booking facility is available for all Mail/Express trains including all COVID-19 special trains. It enables a passenger to book a ticket one day before the actual date of their journey, and can be booked online on ixigo.
There are two kinds of Tatkal bookings you can choose from—Premium Tatkal and Tatkal. The premium booking has a higher price, can only be booked online, and its tickets cannot be cancelled. More information:
• IRCTC Tatkal train bookings open at 10 am for AC classes and 11 am for non-AC classes, one day in advance of the actual date of your journey.
• The Tatkal quota provides 10 reserved seats for AC-II, 16 for AC-III and the AC Chair Car each, and about 30 percent of total seats in sleeper class, which comes to 24 out of 72 berths in every coach.
Premium Tatkal Booking
Introduced in 2014, the IRCTC Premium Tatkal works on dynamic pricing. This means passengers will be charged a higher price in case of increased demand, and a lower price if the demand is less. Confirmed IRCTC train tickets are only booked under Premium Tatkal quota and cannot be cancelled once booked. No booking preferences are allowed under this quota.
A summary of its features is below:
• Premium Tatkal booking timings are the same as Tatkal i.e. 10 am for AC classes and 11 am for non-AC classes.
• This quota is not applicable to all trains. Only a handful of trains have the option of ticket booking under Premium Tatkal quota.
• The Advance Reservation Period (ARP) of Premium Tatkal ticket bookings is the same as Tatkal ticket bookings.
• It gives a chance for passengers to try and secure a confirmed ticket in a train at the last minute. It applies higher fare rates, and this surge pricing is loosely based on the airline ticketing model.
Ladies Quota
The Ladies Quota ticket booking was introduced in 2011, and provides concessions to women who are either travelling alone, or with a child below 12 years of age. There are only 6 berths available under ladies quota in an entire train. These concessions are offered only in sleeper class (SL) and second seater (2S) trains.
• A user can book a maximum of 6 IRCTC train tickets in a calendar month under this quota.
• This quota can be used only if a woman or a group of women want to travel on a single ticket.
• Special provisions are available for accommodation reservation for women aged 45 and above, and pregnant women. Expecting mothers must provide a pregnancy certificate from a registered medical practitioner during the booking to claim this provision.
Senior Citizen Quota
For the convenience of older passengers, the Indian Railways allows you to book separate tickets for senior citizens.
• You can book a senior citizen’s ticket under the quota and your ticket under the general quota at the same time.
• Men who are minimum 60 years of age, and women aged 58 and above are granted this concession in fares for all classes of Mail/Express/Rajdhani/Shatabdi/Jan-Shatabdi/Duronto trains. The concession for men is 40%, while women get 50%.
• While the senior citizen concession can be availed on premium trains like the Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto for all classes, passengers must still pay the full fare when booking Tatkal tickets. The fare to be paid will exclude IRCTC tatkal charges, meaning it will be the general ticket fare.
Unreserved Ticketing System
‘Unreserved Ticketing System on mobile’ (UTS) is an app which allows passengers to book an unreserved paperless ticket for a journey between any two stations. This app eliminates any need for a passenger to visit a counter for an unreserved ticket. After booking, one can also collect the unreserved paperless ticket from an automatic ticket vending machine in any part of the country.
Also equipped with an offline mode, it helps passengers to access their ticket without an active internet connection. One can pay for a ticket through an R-wallet (Railway wallet), which is an online wallet offered by the Indian Railways. For example, you can use your unreserved IRCTC train ticket at stations in cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi.
To use the R-wallet, you must download the UTS app and register yourself. You can recharge your R-wallet at any railway booking counter up to ₹5000. You can also buy platform tickets as well as season and journey tickets using the app.
To book an unreserved ticket on the app, you must be at least 15 metres away from a railway station. For journey tickets, passengers must be within 5 kilometres of their source station, while platform tickets can be booked up to a distance of 2 kilometres from the source station. These restrictions do not apply on the booking of a season ticket.
Users can purchase only four tickets and four platform tickets at a time. Monthly passes are also available. Your ticket is then sent to the app where you can use the 'show ticket' option to display the ticket at the time of checking.
FTR (Full Tariff Rate)
To make the online booking of train coaches easier for occasions like marriage parties and tours, an FTR (Full Tariff Rate) allows you to book an entire train or a single coach via the IRCTC website. One can book through a 'single window booking system' offered by the IRCTC.
The registration can be done a maximum of 6 months in advance and a minimum of 30 days before the journey date. The Indian Railways has fixed a security deposit of ₹50,000 per coach, and in case of special trains a minimum of 18 coaches will be charged. The whole transaction has to be carried out digitally. A facilitation charge of 5% is levied on your total fare for booking these trains or coaches.
FTR booking is allowed only for journeys starting from the stations of the Western Railway Zone. At the time of booking, an individual or a party needs to provide basic information like the booking type, the route and details of the coaches. Once the registration is done, you get a reference number and a registration amount. After the payment against the reference number is complete, an FTR number is generated. The IRCTC needs to receive the amount within 6 days of making the registration.
In case of cancellation of an FTR booking, or if the IRCTC decides to cancel your booking, the refund is processed through a manual procedure which involves the Chief Commercial Manager.
A maximum of 10 coaches can be booked by a party through FTR in a single train on a single tour. However, you can book a maximum of 24 coaches of an FTR train which includes 2 SLR (Seating-cum-Luggage Rake) coaches. The registration amount for a coach for 1 week is ₹50,000. For extended journeys beyond 7 days, an additional ₹10,000 per day, per coach is charged.
IRCTC Train Types
The Indian Railways is one of the most popular modes of transportation connecting different cities, towns, and capitals in the country. IRCTC offers train ticket bookings for these trains that include high-speed, fully air-conditioned, long-distance, daily, economy class, seasonal, special and mountain train services.
The different train types under the scope of the IRCTC are: Tejas Express, Vande Bharat Express, Shatabdi Express, Gatimaan Express, Rajdhani Express, Duronto Express, Humsafar Express, AC Express, Double Decker Express, UDAY Express, Garib Rath Express, Yuva Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Sampark Kranti Express, Kavi Guru Express, Vivek Express, Rajya Rani Express, Mahamana Express, Intercity Express, Antyodaya Express, Jan Sadharan Express, Suvidha Express, Superfast Express, Express, Passenger, Mail, Suburban, Mountain Railways and Luxury Trains.
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