Previously, we previewed search and search results and selecting your trains In this final preview of Cleartrip’s online Indian Railways booking service, we’ll go through the steps for booking and making payment for your rail journey.
Booking trains online involves the same simple process as booking flights or hotels. Step 1 allows you to double-check your itinerary and train selection.
Step 2 asks you to sign in to your Cleartrip Account (if you’re already signed in, as I am in the screenshot below, you go straight to Step 3). On Step 3, you fill out passenger names and other details.
Step 4, the final step, is where you make an online payment for your trains.
There are a wide variety of online payment options including Indian and international credit cards; debit cards from ICICI, HDFC, Citibank and more; as well as 16 netbanking options.
We’ve really enjoyed creating a breakthrough product for all Indian’s to book Indian Railways trains online, we hope you love it as much as we do.
WOW… this will go places
I would prefer the identity and the contact information come after I have added the passenger list. That way, insead of saying"adult 1" i can select "navneet" in the list. Also, the contact information and the passenger identity information can be saved for later use, so i dont need to remember my wife’s driving license number before every booking.
A few questions come to mind:
1. IRCTC doesn’t allow bookings for certain times of day – will Cleartrip also follow a similar schedule or accept realtime bookings through the day?
2. If unable to accept bookings all through the day, is there a mechanism to ‘queue’ up your booking after closing hours for automated execution the next morning when booking opens?
3. Importantly, while Indian Railways offers a choice of classes, nowhere does it explain the difference between those classes. Airlines sometimes do a wonderful job of explaining the service and amenities difference between classes. Indian Railways seems to take for granted that everyone knows the difference between First Class and First Class A/C, or 3A and 2A. Do you think Cleartrip wants to be the first to have a crack at this?
Dhruv–good questions, let me try and answer them:
1. Cleartrip is not permitted to operate at hours different from the IRCTC site, so hours when bookings are permitted will be the same
2. We took a quick look at queuing bookings, but we would need to store credit card numbers and that’s a security risk so we decided against a queue system, maybe we’ll look at it in future
3. Great suggestion, was thinking this myself as I have no clue about most of these classes
Wonder how do you ensure that all the passengers are booked in the same in the same compartment. IRCTC does provide an option of these kind during the time of booking.
Or you book only if the all the passengers are accomodatd in the same bogie.
Hrush,
You don’t need to store the card number on file. Simply execute the payment at the time the request is placed. If at the time of actual booking with Indian Rail, the ticket cannot be issued (obviously you would have asked the user whether he wants only confirmed, or RAC or even waitlisted), then just reverse that transaction.
I think you can also alternatively just block off a certain amount of credit on the card at the time of request, and then simply draw that out at the time of actual booking.
Imagine – you would be the absolute first company in the world who could accept Indian Rail bookings even before their 90 day window opens (naturally, there would be much frowning upon)…
I’m pretty sure either of the above are doable scenarios.
"Much frowning upon" may be the understatement of the month…
Hi Hrush,
The second screen shot displays your mobile number.
Wondering if you have noticed!
Rajesh
Rajesh–thanks for pointing that out, have blurred it now.