Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) provide internet based online reservation system through its website www.irctc.co.in. Customer is required to first create an account in the website. Customer registration process is simple to follow. While his registration process customer is required to create his login and password and he supply his personal details and residential address (for I-ticket delivery option). During registration process customer can also subscribe promotional mail/SMS from Indian railways. There is optional choice to subscribe in "Subh Yatra" service or apply for a SBI Railway Credit Card. For Future reference it is always recommended to note down your transaction ID and PNR after your online ticket purchase. There are two modes of online booking available in Indian Railway website. They are I-Ticket and E-Ticket.
User profile Management is very simple. Customer can update profile, change password. Master list of passengers can also be created. You can make a master list of all passengers who are likely to travel on the tickets booked by you so that while booking tickets you can easily enter data from this list. As per Railway rules, a maximum of only 6 names can be included in any one Passenger Travel List for a specific journey. You can Print E-Ticket, Cancel E-Ticket, File TDR, see booked history, canceled history, TDR history, Offline cancellation, Banner Auction and in refund status, you can check canceled tickets and failed transactions. In general information, you can cancel your tickets, File TDR Procedure, Track your tickets, see pin codes, popular trains, popular stations, and give feedback.
Indian Railway provides you with the facility of online rail ticket booking by IRCTC. IRCTC also gives the privilege of rail reservation through mobiles using Speech recognition, GPRS and CDMA modern technique available on several mobile Operators. IRCTC also initiated the easiest way to reserve your Railway ticket using just two SMS or e-mailing.
Alternative Approach to Book Ticket by using SMS
SMS (Short Message Service) Based Booking is also becoming day by day. Customer is required to get enlisted in IRCTC website. This can be done by creating his profile or updating with existing profile with his mobile number, mobile operator and mode of payment. Only ICICI is supporting this SMS based payment mode. Customer will need to be recorded or listed to the Mobile Shopping facility offered by ICICI Bank and enter the 'mShop Name' through SMS.The whole process of ticket reservation can be done by simply sending two messages across using IRCTC's short code 7425.