IRCTC Login for railway reservation in India

IRCTC Login Reservation Explained

The best way to book your railway tickets in India is by booking them online using the https://irctc.co.in which is a website of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) that handles online ticketing along with catering and tourism services.

In this article you will get complete details, step by step, and from start to end, about how to do online railway reservation. In short the process is as follows - a customer do registration and get his username and password. Then he needs to do IRCTC login to access the online passenger reservation system. There user finds 'Plan My Travel' which provides interface for booking railway tickets. In the end user does the payment and receives a message on mobile which contains the complete ticket details like coach number, seat number, train no. etc. A user then is able to board the train, provided the ticket is confirmed, by carrying a valid identity card along with the message in the mobile phone. In the paragraphs below we will elaborate on this process so that you have complete knowledge about how to book railway tickets in India. Please note that internet bookings are not available in overseas trains.

IRCTC Login Steps

Before taking these steps make sure you are using the fast internet connection as this will help you in getting reservation done in one attempt. You don't want to log in again and again as the chances of getting confirmed tickets are greatly affected by it.

Step 1 - Do IRCTC Registration

First step is to register yourself on the irctc website. The registration process is simple and it requires you to provide your personal details like name, address, gender etc. You will also provide your mobile number in this step. Please note that you take care to furnish the correct information only. IRCTC is known to verify your details and if it is found that you have provided garbage or junk values at the time of creating your profile your account might be put into deactivation queue. Your user id, password, and an activation link will be sent to your registered E-Mail id and mobile verification code will be sent to registered mobile number. Individual registration is free on  https://irctc.co.in. Look at the pictures below and you will find out what you need to enter in order to get yourself registered.

IRCTC registration for login - choose security username,security question, answer, first name, last name, gender, date of birth, occupation, Email ID,  mobile, and nationality.

To complete registration on IRCTC provide address, city, stae, pin, zip, country, phone, specify both residential address and office address. Also choose other services like offers from third party like railtoursimindia.com and schemes like shubh yatra (now discontinued) and SBI railway card by selecting yes or no. Then enter captcha verification code and submit the form

Step 2 - Do IRCTC login with username and password

Once registered, the use can attempt to do railway ticket booking. For doing reservation go to IRCTC home page and login by providing your username and password. If you have forgotten your password you can reset/change it by clicking on forget password button. The irctc login page can also be reached at this url https://www.irctc.co.in/cgi-bin/bv60.dll/irctc/services/login.do which also provide links for password retrieval and new user signup.

this irctc login page is shown when invalid username and password is entered by the customer

lightweight irctc login page is shown at homepage of irctc during peak hours

Step -3 Enter Details of Reservation after IRCTC login (Plan My Travel)

Once logged in successfully its time to provide details about the journey by filling in the form provided under plan my travel heading/title.

plan my travel

Here enter the source city name i.e. the city from where a customer wants to commence his journey, in 'To' field enter the destination name, choose date of journey by clicking on calendar pic, choose ticket type (e ticket or i ticket), and finally quota - general, ladies, tatkal (this facility provides confirmed/Waitlisted E-tickets to passengers on payment of premium on ‘first come first served’ basis in all mail/express trains including Rajadhani, Shatabdi,Jan Shatabdi Express trains. Tatkal bookings are not allowed in 1AC. Bookings under tatkal quota are done only at prescribed timings which is 1 day prior to the actual day of journey excluding the day of journey. Read more about tatkal scheme here.). After filling in required data click on find trains button which will list all the trains meeting your requirements as shown below.

train between stations

Step 4 - Select Train ( after checking availability and fare )

Next step is to check the seat availability status and fare for the journey and then if all as per need you can go on and do ticket reservation by clicking the 'book now' button. Have a look at the picture above. Here all the trains available on a date chosen by the user between Mumbai and New Delhi are listed. Also the image below shows the available classes of travel in a particular train. Clicking on class of travel will display tota; fare (along with reservation charges ) and seat availability. For the convenience of users the availability for next few days is also shown.

click on class for availability and fare

Step 5 - Book Your Railway Ticket

When you check the availability (in above step) you will see something (see pic below) like this where you'll also see option to book the ticket.

available seats and fare for a train number in a particular class

Step 6 - Enter Passenger Details in Reservation Form

You will now be on 'Ticket Reservation' page that will display form for entering the details of passengers for the journey. It requires basic information like Passenger Name, Age, Gender etc. to be filled in.

IRCTC Reservation Form in which passenger details are provided

The important fields which need special attention here are 'senior citizen' and consider for 'auto upgradation'. If you are a senior citizen (age above 57 for ladies and 60 for gents) as per railway rules you are qualified to get concessions on fare. You can tell that you are a senior citizen by ticking the displayed checkbox against your name.

In Auto Upgradation scheme a full fare paying waitlisted passenger is upgraded to higher class of travel automatically when the seat is available. Railway started this scheme not only to benefit waitlisted passengers but also benefit the railways in terms of filling up vacant accommodation in various trains. Those who are upgraded are added to upgraded passenger list.

You can also choose to book ticket only if at least one or more lower berth/seat is vacant for reservation by choosing the options.

Also note the mobile number field. This is the mobile number on which IRCTC will send a sms message that can be treated like a ticket provided you show one of the valid identity card identified by railway for travel in train. Here are ID proofs allowed by railways -

• Voter Photo identity card issued by Election Commision of India.
• Passport.
• PAN Card issued by Income Tax Department.
• Driving Licence issued by RTO.
• Photo identity card having serial number issued by Central/State Government.
• Student Identity Card with photograph issued by recognized School/College for their students.
• Nationalized Bank Passbok with photograph.
• Credit cards issued by banks with laminated photograph.
• Unique Identification Card "Aadhaar".
• Photo identity cards having serial number issued by Public Sector Undertaking of State/Central Government, District Administration, Municipal bodies and Penchant Administration.

If possible avoid PAN card for proof of identity as misuse of PAN number is reported in some of the newspapers recently where few people used it for illegal transactions i.e. money transfer. They got the number from the railway reservation charts pasted on the train coach.

Click on 'go' for payment or 'reset' the form to enter the details again. You can also decide to 'replan' the journey altogether with will restart the entire online railway reservation again.

Step 7 - Payment of Ticket Reservation to IRCTC

There are multiple options available these days to do payment. IRCTC accepts credit/debit cards of almost all the banks. You can also pay by internet banking, IMPS, and e Wallet. 

Step 8 - Reservation Done but where's the ticket

You have completed the reservation. But where is the ticket? Don't worry your ticket is safe. After payment you will redirected to https://irctc.co.in where you'll have option to print the electronic reservation slip (ERS). This is not required actually. After few seconds you will receive the sms message on your mobile with PNR number and other details of reservation.

What if you don't get the sms message? No worries, just again do IRCTC login and go to booked history section. There you will see all your booked tickets and option to resend the message.

Source: http://www.irctcloginindia.co.in

And that's it. You have now learned how to do railway reservation in 8 steps. This is also called booking e ticket online or railway reservation online.