Indian railway reservation - We Salute Thee Seniors And Charge You Less

Indian railway reservation for passenger travel is an important activity in Indian railways operations. With limited capacity available for travel in most of the sections and abundant requirement of travel, advance reservation of seats is the only way to regulate comfortable travel by passengers. Indian railways, which is providing travel facility for 30 million passengers every day, awards concessions in fare to different categories of people. Foremost among them are the Senior Citizens of the country, who are given fare concessions up to 50% during ticket reservations in Indian railways as follows: •Men, who are above the age of 60, need to pay only 60% of the normal farern•Women, who are above te age of 58, need to pay only 50% of the fare. In the initial days, Indian railway reservation was all done through railway counters established in selected railway stations , when reservation was done manually. Now, with the introduction of computerization during the past three decades, the facility for seat reservations has been improved stage by stage, with today’s online booking facilities enabling a passenger to do ticket reservation in Indian railways right from one’s home, with corresponding online payment facilities through net banking or credit card usage. Still Indian railway reservation through rail station counters is the most popular method, although most of the affluent society members choose to do online booking facilitated through Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Company Limited, an exclusive business process operator constituted by the Ministry of Railways for doing ticket reservation in Indian railways. IRCTC, as it is popularly known, charges a fee for online booking, scheduled according to the class of travel and charged per ticket booked. Indian railway reservation facility is also obtainable through Travel agents authorized by the Ministry of Railways and these agents are permitted to charge a small fee for the services, over and above the train fare and reservation charges. During ticket reservation in Indian railways, a certain percentage of seats are assigned for reservation for specific categories of travelers, such as senior citizens, physically handicapped, emergency requirements as decided by the divisional office etc. Likewise, it allots quota of seats for in between stations in a particular route. Indian railway reservation is possible three months ahead of travel in all sections. The reservation and the ticket purchased can be cancelled at any point of time, even after 6 hours of the scheduled departure time. However, the fare refund is reduced according to the time of cancellation, like before 24 hours, a flat fee according to class of travel, 25% if it is within 24 hours before departure, and 50% of the fare if it is within 6 hours of the travel.