Indian Railways ,Pnr status, Railway Reservation Guide

Indian Railways has been constantly working towards providing facilities for the convenience of long distance travelers, domestic and international tourists and for intercity travelers.

A handy guide, Trains at a Glance has been designed by Indian Railways every year to help you know the timings of all the mail/ express trains which are operated by the Indian railways.

However the book fails to mention all details about the stoppages of the train, only main station stoppages have been indicated. All the stations appearing from the journey by a particular train are mentioned in a neat alphabetical order.

Important stations that have various destination stations are listed under them. The table numbers of all the trains are mentioned alongside the destination stations. The trains which connect these stations are also mentioned for your reference along with their nos.

If at all the destination stations are not mentioned under it, the train number too is mentioned against the originating station itself. We should then go to the most relevant table and choose the most convenient train.

Another method is, if you are aware of the train number of the train you intend to travel using the Train No Index you can easily locate your train no and go to the mentioned table no given alongside for further convenience.

If you are aware of the train name then to it is easy to locate your train No and go to the table no given alongside. Passengers who are traveling can easily locate your starting station and the route further on towards your point of destination. The numbers along the routes indicate the no of the train.

Indian Railways has been making efforts to show accurate services schedule in this time table but at times they can be randomly changed without any prior notice to its travelers.

Interestingly you would find it hard to believe but it is actually possible to upgrade your tickets from a sleeper class to a confirmed ticket in 3 AC. But this has been made possible by Indian railways now.

Indian railways in a bid to provide accommodation to waitlisted passengers have come out with an innovative scheme to make optimum use of all the accommodation available in the train.

Under this scheme a wait listed passenger who has paid a full fare will be provided accommodation without levying any extra charges if vacant accommodation is available even in higher class coaches of the train. Upgrading can be done from one class to the next higher class only (i.e.) from second class to three tier Ac and from 3 tier Ac to first class and so on.

To avail this facility while booking tickets the traveler needs to feel “yes” in the application form, which makes clear your desire to get upgrade if in case possible. While the charts are being prepared the travelers who had filled “yes” for the possibility to get upgraded get randomly selected by the system.

When your ticket gets upgrade to the next level a chart like the waiting list chart is displayed this indicates the old as well as the new status of the upgraded passengers. The original PNR no is retained even when your ticket is upgraded.

The tickets that have been booked in bulk by passengers are not eligible for up gradation. The tickets that have already been booked under the confessional rates and those tickets that partly consist of complete fare too are not eligible to be upgraded to the next level.

It’s worth trying your luck…May be you too get an opportunity to get upgraded on board. All the best and try your luck.

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Tatkaal service is a scheme offered by the Indian railways which serves to be very useful to avail reservations in case of any emergencies. This facility provides the customer the privilege of just booking the tickets just 2- days in advance, excluding the date on which the travel wants to travel. E.g. if the date of the journey is 6^th November, then the tatkaal ticket can be booked on 4^th of November from 8: oo am for the travel journey.

In case of cancellation within 24 hrs before the departure of the train, 25% of the total fare excluding the Tatkaal fare is refunded. Full refund of payment in tickets booked is a rare phenomenon in cases where in the train gets delayed for more than 3 hours at the originating point of journey.

Full refund is also possible if the traveler himself plans not to travel, or if the train route gets diverted due to some unavoidable circumstances and also if in case the boarding or the destination stations of the traveler is not in the diverted route.

The time frame for the refund of the amount of the travel is the same as that of other normal ticket bookings. Tatkaal charges are the same throughout the year and the optimum use of the tatkaal service is made in the months of April to September, which happens to be a holiday season for mostly all schools and colleges.

Tatkaal service is favored by many passengers because of instant and immediate service that gets provided to them, even though it involves paying a certain premium amount to get the service.

Indian Railway services and schemes are constantly on the move with innovative ideas and quality services for its passengers. Tatkaal booking is surely one. Let’s wait and see what more and user friendly service does it provide further on.

If you are planning to travel on Indian Railways you are required to make reservations for all classes of accommodation on long distance trains except if you plan to travel by second class. For this a user friendly online booking service has been launched by Indian Railways to make reservations quick and easy for the travelers.

The online reservation facility has been started so that the passenger does not have to stand in long queues on reservation counters on a few prominent stations. These queues are huge and can take as long as two hours to reserve your tickets. Where as the online reservation system started by Indian railways is user-friendly and has made it possible to book the tickets from anywhere around the world.

For reservations you need to log in to the Indian Railways passenger reservation inquiry website and find the name and the no of the train you want to travel on. Under the option of “Services” you will need to click on the option of “Train berth availability”. An online time-table to view the list of all Indian Railway trains in a glance will appear to assist you.

You will need to enter the details of the station you want to depart from and your place of destination. You will need to mention all details such as your journey date, destination you want to travel to and even your class of Accommodation. You can check all the class for accommodations since some class book more easily than the others.

If there is no availability of the trains between the stations you have selected you will get an error message and then you will need to try some different train names and numbers along with different stations.

If at all there are no reservations available on particular train, the availability will show as under the category of (RAC), which means if at all there are any cancellations the tickets would be made available to you. Waiting list tickets when booked means there is no seat available in the trains and waitlist passengers won’t be allowed to board the train unless there are enough cancellations.

Once you have found train to travel on take a print copy of the same as that is the only witness of you booking the ticket online when on board.

Online booking facilities have changed the facet of the Indian railways. The official website www.irctc.co.in is great and worth appreciating. Initially we all had to go to book our tickets standing in the huge queues at railway stations booking tickets for our journey.

But now with the concept of online booking its possible just a click away. It’s possible for the consumer to book i-tickets online where in they would be receiving the tickets by post which looks very much like initially found regular train tickets. Incase of any cancellations in e-tickets the money gets directly gets credited into your respected accounts.

Another privileged service offered by Indian railways website is e-ticket booking, where in the commuter just needs to carry a printout of the online booking conformation. (ERS) is enough. The website is providing improved convenient services to its commuters through its easy and user-friendly service to make online bookings.

The customer care taken into consideration by Indian railways online booking service is decent. You just need to login to the website, mention the mention the originating and destination stations of the journey along with the date and class of travel. The website will quickly show the list of trains and the route map on that route. Check the ticket availability and pay the mentioned fare online through Credit or Debit card and book your tickets for your journey in just a click away.

The significant growth of online bookings is a smart move taken by the Indian railways. Numerous pay options available to book your tickets online and check the status of your booked tickets is a real convenient and passenger friendly move by Indian railways. We appreciate your move Indian railways and look forward to more added value based services for us passengers on board too.

Advance reservation is the service offered by the Indian railways to help an individual plan his journey well in advance. The advance reservation facility allows you to book your tickets well in advance on the Indian railways network. We can book tickets from any originating station to our required destinations across the country through Computerized Reservation centres across the country, making it possible for us to book our tickets from anywhere to any destination of your choice. This method of reservation of tickets has drastically cut down on the huge lines to reserve tickets and has even made reservation simpler, faster and hassle free.

You can reserve your tickets 90 days in advance before our scheduled journey excluding the date of travel. This facility gives a person an opportunity to work according to planning and save enough for the holiday home.

The reservation status is clearly visible in your ticket. If your ticket has been confirmed as per the availability your class of reservation other than in first class and AC first class will be clearly mentioned along with your coach details and berth numbers. The word “confirmed” will be mentioned alongside the class of the travel mentioned on the ticket. If your ticket in case has not been confirmed due to non-availability (RAC) Reservation against Cancellation OR Waitlisted status for the same will be mentioned on the ticket.

You can board the train if in case you have an (RAC) Reservation against cancellation ticket initially and sit on the seat allotted for RAC passengers. Further if there is any cancellation if any confirmed ticket passenger does not turn up the berth can be allotted to (RAC) passengers by the train superintendent subject to availability.

In any case Indian Railways are not liable if any passenger suffers losses due to non- provision of reserved accommodation or for that matter any losses suffered by the passenger if the trains are running late or due to any other untoward event.