The days of tiresome ticket booking for trains are gone. There was a time when to book a ticket one had to stand in a long cue and for hours together. However with the advancement of internet technologies the Indian Railways has adopted them to provide better services to the passengers by online train reservation option. This has provided efficient services to the passengers and has reduced the long queues. This has been instrumental in saving time for ticket reservations. indian railways

The Online reservation facility makes available the easiest and reliable mode of booking tickets without coming to the reservation counters of the railway department. To take advantage of the unique facility, all you need is access to a computer and have online money transfer facility in form of online banking or hold a debit or a credit card.

The popular portals for booking train ticket online are Makemytrip.com and IRCTC and these sites are even used by the foreigners to book ticket online. Information related the train number, fares, rules, and days of departure of a particular train, the route of the train as well as availability of reserved accommodation are available on these websites. One can also check the status of ticket booked to find if it is wait-listed or RAC by providing the PNR number.

If you want to book online train ticket, then you have to log on to the website and provide the necessary personalized information and enter the information about the originating station, destination, date of journey, class of accommodation and number of passengers. After entering this date the system asks for payment. You can make a payment if you hold a credit or debit card or else you can use the online banking facility to pay the money

Two types of tickets that are available, E-Ticket or I-Ticket. For an online booking facility.

The E- Tickets are virtual tickets that appear on the screen and you can take a print out. I tickets are sent to your communication address and are similar to the train ticket provided at a reservation centre. These tickets are booked few days prior to the date of journey and are only for people in India. This facility is not available to the Foreigners .A nominal courier fee is charged against the I ticket.

As the online reservation process charges a processing fee that is the only draw back. However when compared to its benefits, the disadvantages are negligible.