I have always been booking railway tickets through either travel agents or by visiting the railway reservation counters personally.
However, recently, I came to know about online ticket reservation through IRCTC ( https://irctc.co.in). So I thought, let me give it a try. Here is my experience:
CONVINIENCE
Extremely convinient. You can do it sitting on your PC. The website response is pretty fast. (They have also introduced ticket booking using mobile phones, but I have not used this).
The site navigation is good and user friendly.
You get to know about all trains for your required journey as well as the availability of seats on particular days.
CHARGES
Rupees 40 per ticket (note - it is per ticket, NOT per person) + charges levied by your bank (typically rupees 10, again per ticket).
Considering the time and effort saved on using this service, as per me these charges are quite reasonable.
In fact, when I was getting tickets booked thru travel agents, I was paying as much as rupees 25 per person.
PAYMENT
- You can pay either thru your credit card or using the direct debit facility of your bank.
DELIVERY OF TICKET
You can either opt for collecting the ticket from their Delhi collection office, or having it couriered to your home/office.
I opted for the courier option. Note that there are NO additional charges for this (included in the 40 rupees per ticket as stated about).
SPEED OF DELIVERY / TRACKING
I booked ticket one day at 8:30 Am in the morning, and the courier guy was at my home with the ticket the very next day at around 11 Am. Excellent speed of delivery.
You can also track the status of the delivery of your ticket either thru the website or by opting to receive emails.
CUSTOMER RESPONSE
- I had some question to ask about my ticket. So I wrote to their customer care email ID. And got a very detailed response within 45 minutes.
OVERALL RECOMMENDATION
Very much recommended.
Saves time (and money too).
Convineint at-your-door delivery.
You get to know the timings/fare/seat availability of all the trains and so can plan your journey accordingly.