Advance Reservation period for booking reserved train tickets reduced to 60 days from the existing 120 days from 01st May 2013

The Ministry of Railways has decided that the Advance Reservation Period (ARP) for booking reserved train tickets will be reduced from the existing 120 days to 60 days (excluding the date of journey) w.e.f. 01st May, 2013.  The details are as below:

(i)                With effect from 01.05.2013, the Advance Reservation Period will be of 60 days (excluding the date of journey) and booking will be done accordingly.  However, all the bookings done upto 30.04.2013 under the ARP of 120 days will remain intact.

(ii)              Cancellation of the booking made beyond the ARP of 60 days will, however, be permitted.

(iii)            There will be no change in the case of certain day time express trains like Taj express, Gomti express etc. where lower time limits for advance reservations are at present in force.

(iv)            There will also be no change in the case of limit of 360 days for foreign tourists.

Source: Internet

Railways extend advance reservation period to 120 days

NEW PROVISION TO BE EFFECTIVE FROM 10TH MARCH, 2012

The Ministry of Railways has decided to increase the advance reservation period for booking train tickets from existing 90 days to 120 days o­n experimental basis (excluding the date of journey) w.e.f. March 10, 2012.

However, there will be no change in case of certain day-time express trains like Taj Express, Gomti Express etc. where lower time limits for advance reservations are at present in force.There will also be no change in case of the limit of 360 days for foreign tourists.

Source: Internet

Indian Railways new e-ticketing service, Indian Railways New Website

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways is all set to roll out its own e-ticketing service, which will have no room for travel agents and will be reserved for individual users. "Unlike the e-ticketing service of IRCTC, the new service by Indian Railway will have no role of travel agents and commercial organisations. Only individual users will be allowed to book on the portal," said a Railway official. 

Travel agents in the IRCTC service have been accused of blocking tickets to sell them at a premium. Public resentment has also led the railways to bar travel agents from booking tatkal tickets during peak hours on the IRCTC portal.

Under the new railway e-ticketing service, individual customers would need to register themselves for the first time for availing the services. The registration will be free of charge. A maximum of eight transaction per user ID per month will be allowed in the beginning, the official said, adding, the service charges levied will be Rs five per ticket for sleeper class and Rs 10 per ticket for all other classes.

IRCTS charges Rs 10 per ticket for sleeper class and Rs 20 per ticket for all other classes.

The new service will be available on its web portal www.indianrailways.gov.in . Its launch will be announced after necessary clearance for payment gateway transaction, the official said.

The service will be available from 12.30 am to 11.30 pm. "The project was sanctioned with a view to consolidate all the services and information on a single window interface for public," the official said.

He said the service will provide passengers another avenue to book tickets, while easing the pressure from the IRCTC website considerably.

On offer is also a service for booking tickets on the mobile platform.

Customers desirous of utilising the facility and having Internet facilities will have to download mobile ticketing application on mobile phones from Indian Railway's website, the official said.

Tracking facility for freight trains running and parcel status by customers would be among a host of other features that the portal is expected to introduce shortly.

Source: Economic Times 05^th July 2011

Railway e-ticket on mobile; Railways e-ticket on cellphone

Now, get railway e-ticket on your cellphone

New Delhi: Rail travellers can now get e-tickets on their cellphones and that they won’t have to carry print out of tickets. Called m-ticket, it can be booked by passengers having internet facility by downloading the mobile ticketing application on their cellphones from the railways’ new web portal. A passenger can book train tickets through a cellphone and carry the display ticket sent to his cellphone through an SMS. 

The facility is part of comprehensive Indian Railways web portal, www.indianrailways.gov.in, which was launched by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Thursday. The portal aims at consolidating all the services and information into a single window web-interface for the public. On completion of booking and payment formalities, an SMS containing the ticket details will be sent to the user, which is referred to as Mobile Reservation Message (MRM). The facility of booking e-tickets through railways’ web portal will be available from 12.30 am to 11.30 pm daily. TNN