[ravib]

Any idea what % of tickets are in a train are reserved for Tatkal booking?

To my knowledge, IIRC it was 10% of entire train's seat/berth capacity. Not sure how much it is now.

Remember, earlier when tatkal was introduced there was only one tatkal coach but later on they changed it to % of tickets.

The reason why I ask is, now I see almost 40% of tickets in a train are reserved for tatkal booking. This means more money for Railways but the damage is more people are on normal booking waiting list and don't get waitlisted ticket getting confirmed, because the priority goes for tatkal waiting list.

Anyone noticed this?

-Ravi

[supremeBaleno]

^^^ So how do you think they still stay afloat without increasing fares for many years now ? Tatkal is one of the money-spinners. And ofcourse other stuff like hiking the cancellation fees - for SL, it was earlier 20bucks, now it is 40bucks for a confirmed ticket. And zero refund on tatkal tickets. I can still stand these since it only involved some extra money - what was not tolerable was their adding another berth in the side-seats - not only was getting onto the top-side berth an issue (aged people could not make it anyway), it was so much like lying in a coffin. Being claustrophobic, there have been instances when I have jumped off the top-side berth just to get my breath back. Sick!!! If I could get my hands on the rustic idiot minister whose brainwave this was....

To answer your question, yes, when tatkal was started, a coach (72 berths in SL) were reserved for tatkal. As it stands now, the SL berths reserved for Tatkal in 12623 Tvm Mail is 259 which is like 3.6 coaches, of around 13# SL coaches in the train ie. close to 1/4th. In 3AC for the same train, it is 64 berths ie. 1 3AC coach (of the 4# 3AC coaches in the train ie. 1/4th again). You get the drift. No wonder, a guy trying to book a ticket always sees WL, while in reality, it is an artificial WL created due to keeping away bulk of the tickets for Tatkal.

And like you mentioned, clearing of WL tickets is also biased to tatkal. For every 2 tatkal WL cleared, only 1 normal ticket gets cleared - something on these lines.

[Gandhi]

The other side of the story - We are sensitive to users' pain from congestion on IRCTC website: Rakesh Kumar Tandon - The Economic Times

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Why not just allow the SMS ? One problem with this is, their current SMS format is crap. They have the PNR number and cost, but no details of train# or coach# or berth#. Instead they add marketing spiel crap like, "Raju won a walking-stick, why don't you also try?"

Finally the top honchos at IRCTC hit upon something which has been an obvious solution for us here. Now, all you need to have with you while travelling as ticket proof is the SMS they send to you on your booking the ticket. And they have removed the marketing crap from the SMS and have the content related only to your booking. An eg.

PNR:4357681000, Train: 12696,
DOJ:22-02-12, 3A, MAS TO MVLK,
SupremeBaleno + 1, B4 31, 32
FARE: 1700, SC:20+PG CHGS

Short and crisp, but covers all the relevant information. So, all you need is to show the relevant SMS to the TTE and the ID proof and you are good to go. Bye bye printing. If only they did this from the beginning and avoided tonnes of paper being printed. Anyway better late than never.

[vigsom]

^^ the sms from irctc is an ace move ; but the only snag is the sms does not get delivered at times.

A new problem faced on irctc is its response time - it has become slow and one can feel this even at odd times like 0100hrs.

Perhaps the population explosion is responsible.

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Now, all you need to have with you while travelling as ticket proof is the SMS they send to you on your booking the ticket.

+1
That's better than the screen shot thing, considering the fact that 90% of indian mobile consumers don't use a GPRS or 3G connection.
But the Railway guys should publicize it better, than spend crores on inauguration ads of some useless station in the Politician's constituency.

[supremeBaleno]

Indeed publicity is required. I was also not aware that the SMS is enough and just chanced upon this option while logging onto IRCTC to book a ticket.

[Fillmore]

Quick query on Tatkal.

What is the current rule in terms on how many days in advance does booking open up ?
i..e if I have to travel on 18th will booking open up only on 17th 8am ?

Earlier they had a 3 day buffer, looks like it is gone now.

[faustus77]

Fillmore
Hi
Just one day.
If you want to travel 16th April you can book on 15th at 8 AM.
On 13th April DNA newspaper carried an article about the problems faced by people booking tatkal tickets.In case you are a regular traveller please read the article.
Hope this helps
Regards

[Ford5]

It will help a lot if you can create the master list of passengers ready, which makes it easier to fill in the forms while booking in a hurry in tatkal. This option is available in the user menu.

[thoma]

Thanks for the above tip, but I doubt that will be another server round-trip and might take additional time than typing.

Is other sites like cleartrip.com better than irctc.co.in for booking tatkal? Or do they depend on irctc.co.in ultimately?

Also, can we not use 'Quick Book' for tatkal bookings in irctc.co.in?

[navan49]

The Welcome to Indian Railway Passenger reservation Enquiry has improved. Its Train Running information window is with some modern look. I have checked the train running information with my iphone4S and the screen shot is posted here.

[ramzsys]

The master list of passengers is of no use in tatkal booking because there is no provision to add ID card details.

[Oxy]

Originally Posted by thoma

Thanks for the above tip, but I doubt that will be another server round-trip and might take additional time than typing.

Is other sites like cleartrip.com better than irctc.co.in for booking tatkal? Or do they depend on irctc.co.in ultimately?

Also, can we not use 'Quick Book' for tatkal bookings in irctc.co.in?

You can't use the 'Quick Book' before 9 AM. They have done this apparently to reduce the network traffic.

One advantage that I have is that there's a railway station at a 5 minute walking distance from my home. So whenever I need a tatkal ticket, I prefer to just walk over to the station early in the morning and queue up. I found that this way I always manage to get a confirmed ticket, whereas IRCTC almost always ditches me during such times.

[supremeBaleno]

In a long time, I failed to get a Tatkal ticket today. Infact from 8AM to 8:30AM, I could not even login to IRCTC - tried different browsers, but no use. I was on Reliance NetConnect which is usually pretty good with Net speeds.

@Oxy, How does n/w traffic increase due to QuickBook ? I would think it would be the other way round - with QuickBook, its a single-page access/submit at IRCTC, move on to bank-page and get back. With PlanMyTravel, we need to flit through multiple pages on IRCTC itself before getting to the bank. And what is the whole point anyway when it is a level playing field - QuickBook is anyway accessible to all, so why bar it at all ?