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Changes to tatkal rules

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Some changes have been made to tatkal rules. Tatkal booking will now start only 1 day before journey date. Earlier this was 2 days. For example, if you need to book a tatkal ticket for your journey on Nov 17 you have to book your ticket on Nov 16 and not Nov 15th as it was previously. This was announced by minister Dinesh Trivedi on November 12, 2011.There will be no refund on confirmed tatkal tickets.At the time of booking we are required to provide the details of the identity card we would be carrying at the time of journey. The reservation chart will contain the details of the identity card being carried. You can also book only 4 berths per tatkal ticket as opposed to 6 earlier.

These new rules have been introduced to prevent misuse of tatkal by agents and louts. Whether these will actually prevent misuse remains to be seen. The idea of the ministry is to allow only genuine passengers to book tatkal tickets in case of emergency.

If you have booked a waiting list ticket and are waiting for it to get confirmed (or not) to book a tatkal ticket, then the extra one day will help you. Most of the cancellations happen in the last 2 – 3 days before the journey. Now this will make it easier to decide if we want to book a tatkal ticket or not.

The stricter rules also mean that you need to make sure beforehand which identity card you’ll be carrying with you. Previously, booking an online ticket required the user to give the identity card details at the time of booking the ticket. The Railways amended this rule allowing any one passenger to carry an identity card. No longer was the identity card details required at the time of booking. Now we have a situation where the identity card details are required at the time of booking for Tatkal tickets only.

So take extra care when you book a tatkal ticket from now. Do check if you can get the ticket through the general quota.

Update : As per the latest notification in the IRCTC site -

1. The Advance Reservation Period (ARP) of Tatkal scheme is reduced from two days to one day excluding the day of journey from the train originating station. For example, if train is to depart from the originating station on the second of the month, the Tatkal quota booking for that particular train will open at 08:00 hrs on the first of the month from originating station.

2. For booking Tatkal e-tickets, the passenger shall enter the ID proof type and number, which is to be used for travel. These details will be printed on the ERS/VRM as well as in the reservation chart.

3. During the journey, the passenger, whose identity card number has been indicated on the ticket, will have to produce original proof of identity indicated on the ticket, failing which all the passengers booked on the ticket shall be treated as travelling without ticket and charged accordingly.

4. Maximum of four passengers per PNR can be booked on Tatkal e-tickets.

5. No refund will be granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal ticket except in case of circumstance mentioned in para 2 of instructions contained in Commercial Circular no. 53 of 2006 issued vide letter no. 2006/TGI-I/20/P/Tatkal, dated 30.06.2006.

Filed under misc
Nov 15, 2011

Double decker coach introduced by Indian Railways

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Indian Railways has introduced an AC double decker coach on the 12383(Up)/12384(Down) Howrah – Dhanbad Express. It was designed ingeniously by Research Development and Standard Organisation and developed by Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala. The coach can run on a train with diesel engine.

The fully air-conditioned train will have chair car coaches and will start from Dhanbad at 5 am to arrive at Howrah at 9.15 am on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. From Howrah, it will start at 3.20 p.m. on every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and reach Dhanbad at 7.40 p.m.

If the double-decker becomes a hit, Indian Railways will probably release it in other trains as well. The increased carrying capacity could be enormously useful in routes that are crying for more trains such as Bangalore – Kerala route. I believe a lot of passengers will travel in it for the new experience at first and then as they get used to it will appreciate the usefulness as well.

Filed under misc
Oct 3, 2011

Printed tickets not mandatory for tickets booked from IRCTC

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Forgot to print the ticket you got from IRCTC? Not a problem, if you have a copy of the ticket in your laptop or mobile. As per the latest IRCTC notification (emphasis added) -

Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS) – The printout in standard specified Performa containing reservation particulars, and instructions for use which can be used by the passenger along with the relevant authorized Identification, as travel authority for performing the journey.

Virtual Reservation Message (VRM) – A screen-shot of the e-ticket displayed through laptops/palmtops/ Mobile phone is referred as Virtual Reservation Message (VRM).

ERS/VRM along with any one of the eight prescribed ID proofs in original and the indication of the passenger(s)’ name(s) in the Reservation Chart will authorize the passenger to travel.

VRM combined with valid photo-id in original will be treated as an instrument on par with the ERS.

ERS/VRM along with one of the eight prescribed proofs of identity in original will also authorize the passenger to enter the platform on the day of journey and he/she will not be required to purchase platform ticket. ERS/VRM along with original id proof will be required to be produced on demand of Ticket Checking Staff on the platform.

– as per https://www.irctc.co.in/VRM.htm

What this means is that you can show a screenshot or pdf of the ticket from IRCTC along with your ID card in original (which you needed to anyway) instead of a printout.

Save paper, save trees. What an idea, sirjee :)

Filed under misc
Sep 2, 2011

Differences between IRCTC and Indian Railway’s new ticketing service

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I had previously mentioned that Indian Railways plans to introduce a new e-ticketing service like IRCTC. Here are some of the differences noted between the two services -

  1. IRCTC is a separate corporation. Its services will likely continue.
  2. IRCTC has separate logins for agents and passengers. The new service will be only for passengers
  3. A maximum of 10 tickets can be booked per month in IRCTC. Initially at least, this limit will be 8 in the new service.
  4. The new service will be hosted out of www.indianrailways.gov.in . The IRCTC website will continue to be at irctc.co.in
  5. Users will have to create fresh login for the new service

More updates as I get more news. Stay tuned :)

Filed under misc
Jul 5, 2011

Indian Railways to bring out new e-ticketing service like IRCTC

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Indian Railways is going to bring out a new e-ticketing service like the IRCTC, says Economic Times. The new service is meant only for users and not for agents. IRCTC allows both agents and passengers to book tickets from its site. “irctc login” was the most searched term on Google India in the year 2010. The site is often overloaded and unusable. This is particularly so at 8 a.m. on Fridays and Wednesdays. The huge traffic on the site results in a very slow experience while booking. The payment and booking often fails.

One hopes that the new website would go on to be much better than the IRCTC. Of primary importance would be scalability – it should handle heavy load from it’s users and still provide a reasonably fast experience. Improved user experience would also be welcome. Another site that they own – http://indianrail.gov.in/ – is a brilliant example of how a website should NOT be designed.

Here’s to the Indian Railways wishing them the best in their endeavour. Be tuned for more updates :)

Filed under misc
Jul 5, 2011

IRCTC releases new version of its site

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IRCTC has released a new version of its site. This version of its site had been in beta for a while. The new site is easier to use when planning a journey. Watch out for more details here. The new site gives a very good interface if you're going to plan a journey. The new system is problematic for frequent travellers though. With the introduction of captcha in the quick book page things are harder now. Most of the time it doesn't load at all.
Filed under misc
Sep 10, 2010

IRCTC disabled right click

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Many readers of my post on booking tatkal tickets with Firefox's autofill forms extension have reported that IRCTC has now disabled right clicks. Not only does this hamper saving the form, it is also very annoying. I've found a workaround for this. After you fill in the form do not directly go and right click to save the form as a profile. Instead paste this code into the Firefox address bar -

javascript:void(document.oncontextmenu=null) .

This will re-enable the disabled right click. Now proceed as before.

This code can be used on any site that disables right click

Hat tip to this post on "Re-Enable Right-Click When Web Pages Turn It Off"

Filed under code, misc
Jun 9, 2010

What PQWL means on a railway ticket

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PQWL is one of the many Waiting List types that appear on reservation tickets. Practically speaking this is a Waiting List. Technically, there's a difference between PQWL, CKWL, GNWL etc. The total seats available for reservation on a train are divided among different quotas. There's the ladies quota, tatkal quota and general quota. Some trains also have what is called the Pooled Quota or PQ. When you book a ticket to a station for which tickets are issued from the pooled quota, then you get a pooled quota waiting list or PQWL if all the tickets available in the PQ quota have already been booked. This is similar to CKWL (Waiting list on the tatkal quota). The pooled quota is used for a bunch of stations who share a pool of tickets. These are relatively minor stations, at least as far as that particular train is concerned. For eg. if you were to book a ticket from Bangalore(SBC) to Rajamundry(RJY) on the Guwahati Express (2509), then you would get tickets assigned from the Pooled Quota. Waiting lists from this PQ quota appear as PQWL on the ticket.
Filed under misc
May 19, 2010

CKWL status

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I get a lot of queries regarding ckwl status. These involve questions like -
“I got a tatkal ticket of WL 17 in sleeper on train 2833. Today is 24th Feb 2010. and my train is on 26th Feb.?
Total tatkal seats is 229. Is it likely to be confirmed?”

It’s tough to answer such a question. There are different factors to keep in mind.

1. The route in which the train runs. Some routes, like Chennai – Bangalore route, are busy. Cancellations are probably low here. You are more likely to get a CKWL status if you book a train in a busy route.

2. The day for which the ticket is booked. Tatkal ticket bookings are high on Fridays and Sundays. If you look at tatkal bookings in a busy route like Bangalore <–> Ernakulam, you will find that booking is high on Fridays for Bangalore –> Ernakulam and high on Sundays for Ernakulam –> Bangalore.

3. Which train are you travelling on? If you’ve booked tatkal tickets for a train which is at a convenient time for most people (for eg. Island express at 9:45 pm is convenient for those going from Bangalore –> Ernakulam), then the likelihood of getting a CKWL status is higher compared to getting a CKWL status on a less conveniently timed train ( There’s a train at 5:15 train from Bangalore –> Ernakulam. Not convenient because most people can’t get out of office that early).

4. Occassionally the railways add extra coaches to a train when there’s a big waiting list. Chances are high that your CKWL status becomes confirmed in that case. I assume this is more likely to happen during the rush season (summer holidays?).

5. Some people cancel their tickets at the very last moment.

6. Some people forget to cancel their tickets

I have faced situations where a CKWL 11 did not get converted to a confirmed ticket. But I’ve also faced situations where my CKWL 30 ticket got confirmed. My advice to you is that unless you have a very high CKWL status, say CKWL 50, you ought to wait till the last moment. You won’t get much if you cancel a tatkal ticket anyway. It’s worth a shot.

Mind you, this advice is free and does not come with any guarantees. I’m not responsible if you wait for a ticket and it does not get confirmed. YMMV :P

Filed under misc
May 11, 2010

Booking tatkal tickets on IRCTC the supercool way

40 Comments
Update : IRCTC has blocked Quick book from 8 AM - 9 AM. This method will not be useful in such a scenario. This article is a short demo to using Firefox's Autofill Forms extension to book tatkal tickets. First step is to go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4775 and install the extension. You'll need to restart Firefox for the extension to take effect. Now that it's done, head to the IRCTC website and login. Now head to the Quick Book page. You can fill in the details.quick book on IRCTC If you do not know the train number, you can get it from the "Plan My Travel" page. Now that you've filled up all the details you want to, right click on one of the form textboxes. Edit : IRCTC has now disabled right clicks. As a workaround you need to paste javascript:void(document.oncontextmenu=null) into your address bar to re-enable the right click. See my post on IRCTC's disabled right click. Click on the "Add complete form as profile" option.add complete form as profile A new window like this will now open up Autofill forms profile You can close the window and reload the QuickBook page. Press the Alt+j key combination to autofill the form. You can reload the page as many times as you want and press Alt+j to autofill. This post is dedicated to my good friend Dhanya. Edit : OK, I'm giving into blackmail from someone crafty and cunning(not my words) :P
@gjoos : i want my name included in that blogpost if you want me to TRY booking tickets for you tomorrow !!! :P
So, Divya chechi.. this post is dedicated to you as well :P Update : Wondering what CKWL means? Check out my blog post on CKWL status on Tatkal railway ticket.
Filed under misc
Dec 31, 2009

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