Railways E-Ticket and I-Ticket, Electronic Ticket Railways Internet Ticket

Whenever a passenger books a ticket through railways internet booking facility, he gets his ticket as per his preference selected i.e. either a i-Ticket or E-Ticket.

E-Ticket

In the option of E-Ticket there is no system for handing over a physical ticket to the passenger. After booking a ticket one can take a printout of the ticket and this serves as a ticket for taking up of Journey.  The mandatory condition of E-ticket is that one of the passenger’s named in the ticket must produce his photo ID Card like Voter's ID, PAN Card, Passport, Govt ID Card (if Govt Employee) etc for validation. Failure to do so is treated a journey without ticket as per Indian Railways rules.  

It is not necessary that you have to take the printout instantly as suggested by a answerer, you can take the print out any time after booking by logging in and going to "Print Ticket" session.

I-Ticket 

After booking there is no need for taking out of a print. The ticket is delivered in physical form by Railways through courier in 2 days time. Also there is no need to produce any ID card while traveling.

What is better you E-Ticket or i-Ticket, why?

a) i-ticket – It can be booked in certain number of days before date of journey (presently two days) and railways is not responsible for loss of tickets etc; so why unnecessary risk

b) i-ticket – If due to some reason the ticket is not delivered to recipient address and returned back, in such case to trace the ticket with railways could be a real headache.

c) i-ticket – The ticket could be cancelled at some booking counter only and thus one has to visit and stand in queue and wait; whereas in case of e-ticket again simply you can cancel in net itself.

d) i-ticket – There are certain extra charges for delivery of ticket which is not in case of e-ticket

So, go for e-ticket ... but make sure you have at least one ID proof with you.

How to book Railway’s ticket through websites

Book your ticket using secure internet websites

It is frequently daunted question as to how to book electronic ticket and how much is that secure.  For introducing the peoples to the Indian Railways approved and secured online ticket booking websites, some illustrations are given hereunder.

• Official Website

1. IRCTC Official Online Ticket Booking Site:

IRCTC http://www.irctc.co.in is providing all types of services related to train ticket booking including online booking, Reservation Enquiries, PNR Enquiry, Train Enquiry, Train/Fare Accommodation and Trains between Important Stations. Apart from these services, the IRCTC website also helps for Flights, Hotels, Tourist Train, Holiday Packages and Cabs.  

Before you could book your ticket, you would have to generate your account with the IRCTC. Individual registration is FREE. However, a valid Mobile number and valid email id are mandatory to register as individual user on the IRCTC website. Once the account is registered with IRCTC website the user could go through User Guide provided on the website for familiarizing himself for booking/ cancellation of I-Ticket or E-Ticket depending upon their option of choice. I-Tickets are delivered through courier to the address registered with the IRCTC website account and for that some additional charges are levied per delivery. E-Tickets are more convenient as the print of ticket could be taken at the convenience. The cancellation procedures for the two are slightly different. 

IRCTC has also introduced IRCTC Mobile, Railway Ticketing through mobile phones. One can start using it right away if he is an IRCTC user and have a Java enabled mobile phone or a smart phone with GPRS service activated on his mobile phone. Payments are made by credit card/cash card.

Indian Railways Passenger Reservation enquiries can also be made through Indian Railways website.

It is a very common complaint that the IRCTC site loads slow and navigation through is cumbersome. Such situations however are limited and are normally experienced at the time of start of bookings when too many people’s frequent the website for booking of their ticket or during festival and vacations period when peoples travels across the country. In order to overcome sudden pressure on IRCTC website, Indian Railways has approved some other service providers also. A brief introduction of such service providers are given hereunder:

Cleartrip: To book the ticket via Clear Trip log on the website http://www.cleartrip.com  and then click on the Trains if you have an account else create an account as per instructions on the website and book your ticket. 

ixigo.com: To book the ticket via ixigo.com log on the website http://www.ixigo.com and then click on the Trains if you have an account else create an account as per instructions on the website and book your ticket.

Makemytrip: To book the ticket via makemytrip log on the website http://www.makemytrip.com and then click on the Trains if you have an account else create an account as per instructions on the website and book your ticket.