Irctc

I want to thank IRCTC and the people working here to make me feel that what we think about services in India ( specially government offices) is not all that true.

This review is my tribute to the exceptionally efficient and helping people working at IRCTC. This might sound surprising to a lot of Indians like me, as the general perception about any government office and officials is not very good amongst us. But there are exceptional guys, take my word for that.

To highlight what I am trying to say, I will share my experiences in two categories. One, my experience of booking tickets at IRCTC, second, an incident where in somebody booked a ticket using my credit card information.

Category I ? The IRCTC services

I joined this website around 6 months back (registering oneself is free and very simple on this website.) and have been booking tickets since than. They offer you two choices to book ticket. You can either pay using your credit card or you can choose to book ticket by online paying from your bank account. IRCTC charge INR 40 to deliver a ticket at your doorstep ( they deliver it in 24 hours however their announced time is 48 Hours, I never had to wait for more than 24 hours). The benefits of booking tickets from IRCTC are many.

1. You can book ticket till 10 PM.

2. You don?t have to be in any queue.

3. It will give you all the options available for the journey date along with the availability, schedule of the train and fare etc. ( Any reservation counter clerk will not entertain more than 3 forms from you, here you can check unlimited options before actually booking the ticket)

To sum it all, I have got all my tickets booked using IRCTC only, since the day I have joined this website. It is easy to navigate, efficient and actually saves you money. If I go to railway stations to book the ticket, it costs me at least Rs. 100 for petrol of my car and require 2 to 4 hours. If I book thru an agent, they charge much much more than what I pay here. Also, this site is very secure as they don?t keep any record of your credit card or bank account once the transaction is over.

Category ? II the IRCTC People

On 13th of Sep. somebody fraudulently booked ticket worth INR 14099.30 using my Standard Chartered Bank credit card. After knowing about the same, I called up both IRCTC and SCB. I do not want to talk about Standard Charted here as this review is on IRCTC and also because my experience with SCB puts me off.

This was the first time I was calling IRCTC, and was not very hopeful about the treatment I was about to get. But, the guy on phone took the issue very seriously and promised all the help to me. He was not able to give the details about transaction as they don?t keep the record of Credit card etc. for security reasons. However, I was asked to send a dispute deceleration letter to SCB and an email about the issue to IRCTC.

I called up IRCTC after 24 hours and I was immediately made to talk to the supervisor on floor. After listening to my problem, he called up a gentleman from IRCTC who was looking after the ?Charge Backs?. He assured me that they are following the issue and I don?t need to worry about the same. He also gave the direct number of Mr. J. Vinayan, who is Jt. General Manager (Operations) IRCTC.

I had my own apprehensions of calling Mr. Vinayan but after talking to him I was a much relieved person. He was aware of the issue and as soon as I said, ?I am Alok and want to talk to you regarding a ticket?, he started off with the proceeding going on this issue. He gave me his email ID and phone number and assured that for any issue I can call him up directly.

In the mean while I got a call from IRCTC that they have found out the transaction, and the ticket was booked from Trivandruom to Lucknow.

Today, I got a call from Mr. Vanayn who was calling from Lucknow. They were there to arrest this person and wanted to know if somehow I know that person.

My heart is filled with joy and a lot of gratitude today, not because of I do not have to pay these Rs. 14000, or they arrested that person. I am happy because one government department and officials working in that department makes me feel India is still a good place to live and we are not all that bad as a society as we think we are.

I wish if all of us reading this article can learn something from this story and imbibe some good practices as shown by IRCTC people, we will be a much better society.

Kudos to IRCTC and all those whom I have interacted with regarding this issue. Keep up the good job.

No Q & counter closed just as you reach the window.

Review : I had read a lot about online booking of railways tickets but never did try it since I did not have a CC or internet Banking. I took the trouble and managed to get on Internet banking activated and the first thing I tried was to book the ticket Good thing I read all instructions first so as to avoid any surprises.

1.Things to remember you would need a CC or an Internet banking account in order to book tickets. I use the Internet banking facility of ICICI or HDFC pay directly Banks charge Rs 10 /- and CC 1.8 % (confirm with website of IRCTC) in addition to service charges charged by IRCTC

1. Allow 2 to 3 days (depending on whr you need the tickets delivered) b4 date of travel.

3 NO cash refund for tickets booked online they will be directly credited back to your account.

4 Cancellation procedures is the same old routine of standing in the Q.

5 need to sign up with basic info log in name, your details address. CC numbers are asked only when you pay and are not stored when creating an account.

6 make sure your Internet connection is good and surfing is fast since there would be delays if traffic is high and you could encounter problems while paying or getting travel info.

1. I think tickets can be booked only during a certain period of time during the day. Now for my booking experience. I needed to go from Mumbai to Mangalore. ?Plan my Travel ? on the side helps you in selecting the trains you would need. Fill in you Origin and destination and choose your train. Fill in Passenger details and pay. Simple. Clear instructions are provided thru out the process. Then I had a problem. While paying the payment did not get processed but my account was debited for the ticket money along with the service charge of Rs 10. Frantically I tied to see what happened since the tickets had not been booked but was paid for.

I dashed of an email to the customer support and thankfully they replied back soon saying that an error would have happened and the money would be refunded along with bank charges the next day and that I would have to book again. So I booked gain and this time it went thru easily. But now I had paid for the same ticket twice. Since CS had told me to wait for the next and I waited. And next day the money was credited back.

The Tickets were delivered the next day of booking within 24 hrs. Service charge is Rs 40 for SL class seems reasonable when you see they courier it from Delhi nad is charged per icket and not per passenger ( 5 or 6 passengers per ticekt )and you do not have to stand in the queues (and the q in Mumbai are not very Pleasant). Since then I have traveled 7 times and have only booked tickets thru IRCTC for my family and me.

Must say booking tickets is not a reason for panic any more for me?. No waking up early to be first in queue, no arguing with the counter staff, no worries about the time running and counter closing for lunch as you near the window? Just sit in the comfort of your house office or cyber café and book you tickets.

Pros : Comfort

Cons: all minor ones

Following is what IRCTC says about itself on its Website:

?The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) is a public sector company set up and fully owned by the Ministry of Railways. The IRCTC has been incorporated under the Companies Act 1956 and has its Registered Office at 9th Floor, Bank of Baroda Building, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001.

This company has been formed to function as an extended arm of the Indian Railways to upgrade, professionalise and manage the catering and hospitality services at stations, on trains and other locations and to promote domestic and international tourism through development of budget hotels, special tour packages, information & commercial publicity and global reservation systems under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between IRCTC Ltd. and Indian Railways dated 12.04.2002.?

I have visited this Website and the only info/service available is on reservation system - Online Rail Ticket Booking. There is nothing on the Website about the catering and hospitality services and promoting domestic and international tourism. What has happened to the Memorandum of Understanding between IRCTC Ltd. and Indian Railways? Many people like me must have wasted lot of time on the Website in the hope that they would get some information on these services, and/or would be able to provide feedback to IRCTC on their experiences about the quality of catering services on trains.

Some time back I had travelled by Kalka Shatabdi from New Delhi to Chandigarh. When tea was served I found that Catering Services being provided by Indian railways on the train were certified for ISO 9001:2000 and HACCP Based Food Safety Management systems. It was a pleasant surprise for me. After reading this printed message on paper nepkin and packages of some food items, my whole perception changed and I naturally started expecting a catering service and food of a higher standard and hygiene . But to my surprise I discovered during the course of onward and backward journey that it was only a printed matter. No official on the train was aware of it. Catering staff was totally ignorant of this.

Bottle of Kingfisher Premium packaged drinking water (ISI Marked) served on the train was not having manufacturing date and batch number printed on the label or bottle. This information is essentially required as per law of the land ? Indian standard on packaged drinking water, Packaged Commodity Act & Rules etc. Thermal jug containing hot water and plastic cup for drinking tea/coffee were not properly cleaned and were having stains on them. Where food items were cooked and whether that kitchen and cooking personnel had followed good manufacturing and hygienic practices could not be ascertained due to lack of information and any documentary evidence.

In short there was no visible evidence of compliance to ISO 9001 & HACCP systems except the printed matter. This unsatisfactory catering service prompted me to visit this Website and I was more surprised to find no information on the Website related to catering services for which IRCTC has been created by Indian railways.

I had sent an e-mail message through ?Contact Us? button on Website but no reply was received. IRCTC.CO.IN is an incomplete Website. My experience has been very unsatisfactory.

I have not booked any ticket online, and, as such, would not like to comment on the quality of service this Website is providing to its customers.

To start with the site is very slow.

I had the experience of the payment for my tickets being debited from my account, without the ticket booking going thru - after the payment confirmation I got a session expired message..no information in the booking history and no email confirmation either!

I shot off a few emails to the customer service mail ID on the site but there was no response for a couple of hours - and Since the only support numbers listed are Delhi numbers, I eventually had to make an STD call to Delhi, only to be told that there was nothing they could do about the booking not going thru - I would just have to wait 2-3 days for the amount to get credited back to my account..In fact it was suggested that I go ahead and try booking the tickets again.

I for one, will never use this site again to book my tickets.

Hi,

I have been using irctc.co.in for booking railway tickets since it was launched 3 yrs ago....and since then I have never visited any tout or railway reservation counter....

This website is like a boon to the indian railway passenger....

Why I like irctc :

1: irctc provides delivery in more than 50 locations in the country in less than 3 days...and if you are in a city where they have their office...it takes only 24 hrs...

2: There are about 15 different payment options including credit cards, direct debits from bank a/cs.

3: One can get the reservation status while he is booking the ticket.

4: The site sends email alerts for the reservation till you board the train.

5: It charges on the basis of per ticket and not per person...

6: With every ticket, we receive discount coupons to various hotel, travel destinations...

This site has become very popular and has grown into Asia's biggest e-commerce site..it has been doing transactions worth more than 5 lakh Rs a day...and more than 2600 reservations a day...

This site has been a big success...and helpful to commuters of Indian railways..

Well the sites pretty ok and can be useful to most people but well I am one of the weird ones and the one who is always in a rush so heres my tale with https://irctc.co.in I booked my ticket and everything was fine, I am sure my ticket was even printed and stuff but it never reached me. <p>Well the situation is like this, you have to give the railways 2 days to deliver the ticket to your doorstep. Now when you book the ticket and the date of journey is not any date prior to 2 days from the date of booking then the ticket is automatically sent for personal collection at delhi. I would expect a good system to not accept such a request when the station of origin of the journey is any place other than delhi. But the website did process my registration and Citibank did debit my account. I received the citibank statement intimidating me of the transaction but I never got my ticket. <p>I know its my fault I didnt pay much heed to the warnings stating that one should allow two clear working days for the ticket to be delivered but I expect some sensibility from the system too. I guess thats my fault. I also tried to get a duplicate ticket but when you book ticket through the net, the local stations cannot print a duplicate ticket for you. They have the entry in their record but they cannot print the ticket. Also to cancel the ticket you need to have the ticket in your hand. <p>So guys just beware, keep your eyes open and read through every details before completing any transaction online. <p>For me, ummm I try to keep the cool, thinking that this time I travelled to Nagpur via air. <p>Hey my travel agent was cheaper, he delivered the ticket at my office, and he charged half of what IRCTC and Citibank charge me. <p>I think its gonna take sometime for online booking to be more flawless and more cost efficient in this country, at least for the railways. <p>Anyways I do appreciate this really useful service started by the railways.

I came across IRCTC' s site about 2 months back. Since then I have booked 4 tickets from the site. Though the procedures for booking a ticket have really become a lot easier nowadays, nothing beats sitting in the comfort of own home and clicking away.

Booking a ticket is really simple from the site, you just have to select the from and to stations, wherein you are presented with the list of trains that are available and that it .........click away.

Payment is accepted by credit and debit cards, though I would be ecstatic if they could waive off the 40 rupees charged or atleast reduce it. I am not quite sure who the 40 rupees goes to the bank or the railways. There is also a processing fee if you paying from cards belonging to certain banks like ICICI and HDFC. I prefer paying by Citibank direct debit facility as there is no extra charge on it.

Delivery is lightening fast, in all the 4 tickets I have booked so far, I received the ticket the very next day. The site also has a facility by which you can track your ticket in delivery, but the delivery being so fast that is just not required.

Customer service is excellent. Queries sent to their email address are answered the same day itself..........no matter how foolish the question, I asked them a lot ;-)

The only additional facility required by the site is for a online cancellation procedure. I had to cancel two of my tickets and had to go through the same old procedure of filling up the form and standing in the queue. The refund money in lieu of the cancellation however is credited back to your account the very next day.

The worst set of experiences I had ever had with the railways is when booking a ticket.

Imagine the long queues and the bored staff that treated people with indifference as if they were recording the details of criminals on their age-old computers. Those dirty little forms and the silent prayers for availability of berths on the desired dates. Those frantic search for change and the reversion to the end of the queue to try in another train. Those long hours of wait interrupted by ''Links Down''signs...yes I am referring to the age of computerization and not the one before.

About an year ago, I stumbled upon a magic lantern called IRCTC. This is the Catering and Tourist Division of the Railways. They also provide for online booking of railway tickets through https://irctc.co.in. Thanks to it, I can book my ticket in 10 minutes sitting at my workstation or home.

The last time I reviewed a website, I was thrashed soundly by the discerning ‘janata’ for pitching in for a piece of junk. At the risk of being thrashed again, I venture out to give a clean chit and thumbs up to this facility of the Railways.

The reason:

1. I could book tickets from anywhere to anywhere sitting at my workstation at work.

2. I could check for of trains from A to B on a particular day, of time and distance for journey, of availability of berths on a given class and of alternatives, before booking my tickets…all in a jiffy.

3. I could get a lot of allied info…train frequencies, time tables, routes, fares etc.

4. I could follow up my booking using my PNR number anytime to track my Wait-listed or RAC ticket.

5. I could even follow up the courier delivery and contact the local courier office, in case the ticket was late on arrival or I was unavailable at the designated address.

6. If my payment failed, I could book again.

7. I get regular updates on the status of my booking on my mail ID.

8. I can maintain my own record of bookings.

I have booked 19 tickets on this facility. On the first 3 occasions, I received my tickets in three days of booking. The rest, I received the very next day of booking. That is fast service, considering that the tickets came from New Delhi vide courier. The courier service is offered to about 85 cities and towns across the country. Even for a journey on a short notice when you do not have the minimum two days of time for delivery, you get to check the berth availability since the site is connected to the national booking network.

The gateways for payment (It accepts both cash card and credit card) are secure and generally fast, though occasionally they take an eternity. I heard they have opted for LINUX. Which must be good news. (Frankly, really know the difference between Linux and Windows save that Linux is open source).

The are generally hassle-free. On one occasion, I had made a wrong entry of details. Unknowingly, I had opted for collection of the ticket from the New Delhi office instead of courier delivery. I called up the folks in Delhi to explain the error on my part. To my surprise, it was the General Manager who answered the call, on a Sunday, patiently explaining me what is to be done. He even offered to talk to the Bangalore City booking office to help me out. WOW! That is some service considering that this is a PSU.

The flat rate of Rupees 40 per ticket for booking and delivery is OK considering the saving in time, effort and money I make on going to the nearest booking office and queuing up. Not to mention, the comfort and the piece of mind I get. The 40 bucks is for the delivery of the piece of paper on which the ticket is printed. I.e. if 4 people are booked on one ticket, the cost is still 40 bucks.

However there is one sore point about the whole thing.

You still have to trudge along to the booking office to cancel the ticket…which means, the queues, the bored staff, the time, the links down….