Railway tickets made easy
September 1, 2006Some 5 years back, I remember going to the railway reservation offices in Delhi and standing in queues for hours to buy tickets. The system at best was inefficient – some times one would wait for hours to find out that the tickets have been sold out. Also, customer service was a tad above non-existent.
And yesterday, Dad told me to go online and book his Rail tickets to Indore. The fact that I don’t have to stand in a queue was reason enough to give their website a try. Managed to get the tickets done after some 100 odd attempts and a total time of 5 hours. But, I would say this was still a lot more efficient and I don’t feel bad about the experience.
why?
The good :
- the website is quite functional with a simple layout.
- there is a lot of information and help text all around.
- You can actually buy tickets in the end! 
The bad:
- The backend can’t support the traffic most of the time. So, you see ‘Unable to get information from the server’ most of the time
- There are many payment options – makes the process confusing.
I would give Railways a pat on the back for going online – they are competing with LCCs and going online will help them be at par on tickets distribution. The surging e-commerce transactions in India will impact their top line and make them sell their tickets more efficiently.
Neeraj, I hate one thing about IRCTC. In case you choose “Middle berth” or “lower berth” as additional preference, and if they can’t match your requirements, the system will not let you know until the payment transaction is completed. Once they debit your card, the system will say “Sorry, we cannot match your requirements. Your money will be credited back within 4 working days.”!!
I guess they should outsource/privatize atleast the “online booking” facility. Otherwise the inefficiencies associated with the public sector will creep into virtual world too!!
So, howz work? Corporate strategy team….I heard about that…Good luck…Try to post more often…will be a definite reader
Bharani,
Nice input – I didnt face that while booking the tickets! I agree with you that railways should outsource their web systems ( I am not sure they already have or not)
Work is rolling on nicely. How about you?
BHopal 23/09/2006 Malva Exe.
I’ve actually had the fortune of buying tickets through IRCTC and then being billed twice for one completed transaction and then having to run after them for at least a month for the refund. The excuse on offer was that the payment gateway at Amex was responsible for the mishap and hence the dispute would be resolved once this was “accepted” and agreed to by AmEx. Though the policy is of crediting back to the customers credit card in 4-12 working days( I got innumerable versions of this IRCTC policy from the 1000 customer care officers I did speak to , hence, I’m not entirely sure of the correctness of this information), this doesn’t happen as is intended.
All said and done, the CS officers seem to be better equipped to handle regular queries and they need someone to train them to offer better service as far as payment related issues are concerned. But then banks in India have customer care centers that leave a lot to be desired, so IRCTC cant be blamed for all evils, can it?
One good thing about the site is definitely the ease of use and the amount of information on offer. It serves its purpose and is a no-frill simple website. It generates huge traffic, so I guess; some issues are only to be expected.
Hope this government-run website stays as is , it’s a good example of how technology can make information (Especially since its government related ,owned, operated) so accessible, usable for a consumer.
Neeraj,
I am a frequent user of IRCTC and my kudos to them, for efficient management, and timely delivery of tickets. However, in my opinion, they suffer from few limitations such as:
1. I am not informed about the availability of my seat preference (as pointed out by Bharni)
2. Clicking on browser back/refresh just cancels your transaction… weird (even icici online banking suffers from this)
3. An iTicket booked online requires you to physically go to the reservation counter for cancellation of the ticket. There should be provision for online cancellation also. (Though it can be misused)
4. Their customer care sucks..!!!
But overall, I find it quite handy over standing for hours in the que.
~Alok
You can try using http://www.90di.com/travel for your train route search. It can help you know what are all the options you have between any two places – you don’t have to know stations in India. Also it can show you the available routes (+ the wait listed ones separately). Do give it a try and see if it helps in reducing the search time at least of your train route.
There are some other benefits too :
1) You can see the train routes graphically on the India map
2) Mixed mode search (Train + Flight). It can show routes which combine a flight and a train journey. On 90di.com/travel: Just mention the from and to place (without stn/airport codes) with the travel mode as “Train + Flight” and it will show you various options involving flights,trains and both.