There goes an old joke: If you want to
commit suicide, try booking a tatkal ticket on IRCTC website by Internet
Explorer through BSNL Connection. You will get frustrated and commit
suicide.
But jokes apart, the Indian Railways and
net connectivity has increased tremendously in last few years and
Indian Railways have come with some really helpful and fast railway
websites/ mobile applications to make your life easier. We Indians love
to travel and the best way to travel in India has been Railways. So what
better time than current festive season to check out this cool
websites/ application before you start your journey in dussehra / Diwali
or any other holidays.
Let’s See the List of Best websites to book Railways tickets without Agent
Erail.in (to check availability and other information)
Before you book a ticket, you need to
check the availability of reservation. Here is the official railway
website exclusive for this purpose. www.erail.in (also check its android
application from here
). Unlike other sites which gives list of train for a particular day
and availability of one train only, this railway website gives you list
of all trains on all days at a glance. What is more, you can check all
availability in single window. In addition, you can find out fares,
seats in various quotas, route, availability of amenities like pantry
etc. from the single window.
IRCTC (to book a railway ticket without Agent)
Now you have checked the availability, it’s time to book the ticket. And the revamped www.irctc.co.in is best place to do so. (click here
for its android application irctc connect) Unlike earlier days, this
railway website has been made ‘light’ with less ad and other images
during pick hours. Also, the timings of normal and tatkal reservation
have been changed to 8 AM and 10 AM respectively so there is lesser load
on the server. All these have made the railway website really faster.
In addition, feature of IRCTC wallet, flexibility to choose coach
number, advantage of booking food or taxi etc. has made this a really
multi-purpose railway website. The android application remembers your
passenger details, so if you are frequent traveler, you need not feed
your details again and again. (Note: the android application cannot be
used to book ticket during pick hours of 8 Am to 12 PM).
NTES (to know status of your train)
So now you have booked the ticket and want to know the running status of your train. www.enquiry.indianrail.gov.in is a very handy railway website to help you find the current live running status of your train. (for android application, click here)
Unlike other govt agencies, the status shown on the site is absolutely
correct & is updated real time while passing through a Station/
cabins as it uses GPS coordinates to determine the exact location of all
trains. In addition, it has updated list of all cancelled or diverted
trains. So, you can leave from you house knowing exactly when your train
is likely to arrive.
Railyatri.in (for knowing everything about railway and its passengers)
Journey on Indian Railways is not just
about reaching your destination but enjoying wonderful scenery, getting
to explore various stations on the way. www.railyatri.in
is a wonderful railway website full of tit-bits of railway history,
details of various trains, stations etc. There are useful blogs on
topics like ‘which is the most late train on a route’ ‘which is the best
train on a route’ ‘which station has most utilities’ etc. It also has
features like platform locator, arrival departure at stations which is
extremely helpful to start your journey. So before starting your
journey, you may go through this railway website to know your stations
better. The other beta feature (under testing) of this site is ‘rail
radar’. You may like to go through it just for fun to see various trains
reaching a station in radar like view. (for android mobile application Click Here )
www.Indiarailinfo.com (everything about railways by rail fans)
Only non-government railway website in
our list. This railway website is managed by rail fans. It has huge
information about Indian railways. You can check everything: your PNR
Status, train information, seat availability, information of new trains,
cancelled trains, diverted trains and many more. When you search for a
train from A to B, the site gives to option of direct trains as well as
connecting trains which you can choose by breaking journey in between.
Many a times, you may not have reservation available in direct train but
by breaking in-between you can get confirm reservation, There is also a
feature called PNR Prediction, wherein once you enter your wait listed
PNR, the rail fans give their prediction whether it will get confirm or
not. Please do remember, it’s just prediction and may be wrong. Also,
PNR history feature can be used to check the PNR status of previous
years so that you can check a pattern of how much wait list gets
confirmed. The train information segment has details of coach
composition and platform numbers of each station. So if you are boarding
from a small station, you can check the location of your coach from
this site and don’t have to rush / ask coolie etc. at railway station.
I hope these few railway websites and applications help to make your journey more enjoyable. Have happy holidays.
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