Book Tatkal Railway tickets online like a pro in India without agents

There goes an old joke: If you want to commit suicide, try booking a tatkal ticket on IRCTC website by Internet Explorer through BSNL Connection. You will get frustrated and commit suicide.

But jokes apart, the Indian Railways and net connectivity has increased tremendously in last few years and Indian Railways have come with some really helpful and fast railway websites/mobile applications to make your life easier. We Indians love to travel and the best way to travel in India has been Railways. Check out this cool websites/application before you start your journey in holidays.

Let’s see the list of best websites to book Railways tickets without agent

ERail.in (to check availability and other information) :

Before you book a ticket, you need to check the availability of reservation. Here is the official railway website exclusive for this purpose : www.erail.in (also check its android application from here). Unlike other sites which gives list of train for a particular day and availability of one train only, this railway website gives you list of all trains on all days at a glance. What is more, you can check all availability in single window. In addition, you can find out fares, seats in various quotas, route, availability of amenities like pantry etc. from the single window.

IRCTC (to book a railway ticket without agent) :

Now you have checked the availability, it’s time to book the ticket. And the revamped www.irctc.co.in is best place to do so. (click here for its android application IRCTC Connect) Unlike earlier days, this railway website has been made ‘light’ with less ad and other images during pick hours. Also, the timings of normal and tatkal reservation have been changed to 8 AM and 10 AM respectively so there is lesser load on the server. All these have made the railway website really faster. In addition, feature of IRCTC wallet, flexibility to choose coach number, advantage of booking food or taxi etc. has made this a really multi-purpose railway website. The android application remembers your passenger details, so if you are frequent traveler, you need not feed your details again and again. (Note: the android application cannot be used to book ticket during pick hours of 8 AM to 12 PM).

NTES (to know status of your train) :

So now you have booked the ticket and want to know the running status of your train. www.enquiry.indianrail.gov.in is a very handy railway website to help you find the current live running status of your train. (for android application, click here) Unlike other govt agencies, the status shown on the site is absolutely correct & is updated real time while passing through a Station/ cabins as it uses GPS coordinates to determine the exact location of all trains. In addition, it has updated list of all cancelled or diverted trains. So, you can leave from your house knowing exactly when your train is likely to arrive.

Railyatri.in (for knowing everything about railway and its passengers) :

Journey on Indian Railways is not just about reaching your destination but enjoying wonderful scenery, getting to explore various stations on the way. www.railyatri.in is a wonderful railway website full of tit-bits of railway history, details of various trains, stations etc. There are useful blogs on topics like ‘which is the most late train on a route’ ‘which is the best train on a route’ ‘which station has most utilities’ etc. It also has features like platform locator, arrival departure at stations which is extremely helpful to start your journey. So before starting your journey, you may go through this railway website to know your stations better. The other beta feature (under testing) of this site is ‘rail radar’. You may like to go through it just for fun to see various trains reaching a station in radar like view. (for android mobile application, click here )

www.IndiaRailInfo.com (everything about railways by rail fans) :

Only non-government railway website in our list. This railway website is managed by rail fans. It has huge information about Indian railways. You can check everything: your PNR Status, train information, seat availability, information of new trains, cancelled trains, diverted trains and many more. When you search for a train from A to B, the site gives to option of direct trains as well as connecting trains which you can choose by breaking journey in between. Many a times, you may not have reservation available in direct train but by breaking in-between you can get confirm reservation, There is also a feature called PNR Prediction, wherein once you enter your wait listed PNR, the rail fans give their prediction whether it will get confirm or not. Please do remember, it’s just prediction and may be wrong. Also, PNR history feature can be used to check the PNR status of previous years so that you can check a pattern of how much wait list gets confirmed. The train information segment has details of coach composition and platform numbers of each station. So if you are boarding from a small station, you can check the location of your coach from this site and don’t have to rush / ask coolie etc. at railway station.