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New IRCTC website offers 10 features! Here’s how Indian Railways passengers benefit when booking e-tickets

New IRCTC website offers 10 features! Here’s how Indian Railways passengers benefit when booking e-tickets

Wednesday, June 27, 2018 IST

New IRCTC website launched: Are you a frequent train traveller? The new IRCTC next-generation e-ticketing website has just made the process of booking tickets smoother and easier for you! The new IRCTC website, which was launched in the end of May, was first tested as a beta version. After positive feedback from users, Indian Railways switched to the new IRCTC website in the middle of June. For those of you who are wondering what’s better about the new IRCTC website, there are several new features from which passengers stand to benefit. From checking train availability without logging in to being able o predict whether your ticket will get confirmed, here are 10 features that will make passengers happy!

1. Checking train availability without logging in: Planning an impulse trip with friends and family? Don’t have your IRCTC login and password handy? You can still check availability of trains and plan your trip with the new IRCTC website. The first new convenience that the new IRCTC website offers is the facility of checking availability of trains without having to login. It is only when you finally decide to book tickets that the website prompts you to log in!

2. Wait-list prediction: In a first for Indian Railways, the new IRCTC website predicts for users the chances of their waitlisted and RAC tickets getting confirmed. The feature makes use of an new algorithm that tracks historical data of two years. What this effectively means is that if the chances of your ticket getting confirmed are 50%, it may just be better to opt for an alternate train, or the VIKALP scheme of Indian Railways.

3. Catering to several goals: Do you want to search and sort train-wise, destination-wise, class-wise, quota-wise or on the basis of arrival and departure time? The new IRCTC website allows users to filter trains accordingly, hence making it easier to plan their journey. Additionally, information about the train including the train no, train name, originating and destination station and distances between them, arrival and departure time and journey time is now available on a single screen, making it easy for passengers to note details.

4. Handy transactions history: This feature helps you quickly check the date and time of your booked train tickets for an upcoming journey. Not only that, in case you have misplaced your train ticket after completing the journey, the ‘completed journey’ option under ‘My transactions’ helps you keep track, especially when you are filing for your LTC!

5. Changing font size: Another new feature, one that would particularly benefit senior citizens with weak eye-sight is the ability of changing font size throughout the website. This means you don’t need to strain your eyes to read instructions or while booking tickets.

6. VIKALP: In the new system, you can perform multiple activities through booked history. From cancellation of tickets, to printing them, requesting for additional SMS, selecting alternative train by exercising the option of ‘Vikalp’ and changing the boarding point if required.

different trains including specials.

7. Advance booking period: You can now check availability up to the entire Advance Reservation Period i.e. 120 days at present, except for a few trains.

8. Prefilled particulars: Once you have logged in, the facility of prefilled particulars saves time. Also, the format of a “separate card” for each passenger makes it clutter-free, hence reducing chances of an error.

9. Seamless on all devices: Whether you choose to book your IRCTC train ticket on the your desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile, the new IRCTC website allows for seamless transition between the devices.

10. Banking ease: The user can now manage the payment options by marking as many as six banks as preferred banks under the ‘My profile’ section. In the days to come, IRCTC is launching its own payments aggregator – IRCTC iPay. Financial Express Online spoke to officials involved in the project and was told that with iPay the process of refunds will become faster and seamless. Not only that iPay will reduce the chances of payment failure booking while booking tickets and also offer the feature of saving your card to reduce time taken.