Booking Indian Rail tickets from abroad: A Beginner’s Guide

cristinb

The Citi payment gateway has magically re-appeared! Just booked the last two seats on my desired route. Whew!

mparker

I'm in Canada and want to book the Rajdhani Express from Mumbai to Delhi but IRTC website doesn't take international credit cards besides CitiBank, AmEx, or Diners Club (which I don't have). I'm going to be in Mumbai a week before I need to catch a train. I could just go to the station and buy a ticket. What are my chances of getting a 1AC ticket a week before my train travel? Anyone have any advice on how to buy this ticket? Thanks for any help...

cristinb

I believe there is an option for non-Citibank visa/mastercard on the Citi payment gateway. I didn't try that option when I booked my ticket through the Citi PG, but it's worth a shot.

sssall

If you book an E-ticket online, you can use any international credit card such as visa or mastercard. When making payment for your ticket online, chose the CITI PG option. It will then ask you for your credit card type. Select non-CITI visa or mastercard and continue.

I've used it today and it still works.

Good luck

srirangam99

Hey Steven thanks for this great piece of info. Mainly for the purposes of curiosity, I thought this particular 4006/05 Samastipur-New Delhi Lichchavi Exp. is probably among the rare trains that take around 5.30 hrs. to cover 204 kms. between NDLS and Tundla. I do know it departs at 15.30 from NDLS but did not know it took donkey's ears (or is it years) to reach Tundla!!!!

Thx anyways!!!!

rachelinindia

i've followed the (very useful) advice on this thread to try and buy tickets over the website. i've entered in my card details press confirm and it keeps coming up with this message:

"You Were Trying To Use citibank Payment Gateway And The Transaction CouldNot Proceed Due To Communication Problem .

There was a problem in processing the transaction due to one of the following reasons:
You have used Back/Refresh button of your browser.
You may have processed the transaction from more than one window.
Bank has resent the transaction with the same transaction ID.
To check if the ticket is booked, please click on the "Booked Tickets" link on the left navigation. If not booked, you may proceed to book again. If excess amount is found to be debited from your account, the same will be credited back to your account.
We regret that your Transaction could not be processed"

i have used more than one window or refreshed the page, what the hell does Bank has resent the transaction with the same transaction ID. mean??? it hasn't come up in the 'booked tickets' section either. help! anybody!

oops typo. that should be i HAVEN'T opened it in more than window or pressed the refresh button

machadinha

I can't be sure, but I've seen the message reported here several times now.

I think if you read carefully, they're just giving you three possible causes for your problem:

I'm getting the feeling the latter would be somewhat Hinglish for "Your bank has refused the transaction with the ID number in question." This is reported to happen with some banks, in case of irregular transactions. Anyway it's just an option they list as one possible cause.

Like they proceed to say,

In other words, if after your attempt your ticket doesn't show up as booked, you can try again. By all accounts any faulty transactions will in fact be fairly promptly refunded.

I've never used the system myself (thank goodness), but by all accounts you'll just have to keep trying, possibly at a later time. The problem and its possible causes and solutions gets discussed quite a bit on this thread alone, so scroll back a little on this thread and maybe you'll find your answers.

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rachelinindia

just kept on trying this morning and it worked! yay! maybe the IRCTC does it deliberately as a patience test? if you can't even have the patience to book a train ticket then don't bother coming to india....

machadinha

That's always been my feeling, yes. Imagine what getting a train ticket was like before it (Not so bad actually, compared to all these stories. It just took some, er, patience indeed.)

Anyway: Good for you

mparker

Thanks everyone for the help. i finally got it to work last night, after much ado. India here I come!

Zafar

I thought, with E-ticket, you don't need to do all this described ordering paper tickets and etc., am I right?

arkaren80

E-ticket is a hassle free way to travel. you just book online, pay online, and print your ticket out. Go to the station, ask for the train platform, and wait there. When the train comes, look for your coach and berth and that's it.

The only problem I had was when I asked for a lower berth (I booked 2 months in advance)but when there, I discovered I was given an upper berth. I tried complaining but it's useless since the berth number was clearly indicated, so I had no choice but to climb (with my short legs!). Still an experience though.

That's the thing when you get to india or pretty much anywhere you travel, you can only prepare so much in advance but you should be ready for the unknown (late trains,etc). That's the adventure!

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ploink

Praise e-tickets indeed! (Visa/CITI PG worked for me this time.)

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gulkers

When booking railway tickets abroad I advise people to pick AXIS PG for payment in credit cards. I had problems with other choices but this worked out every single time with no problems

Mary Poppins

Sorry if this is common knowledge, I have looked through the majority of this thread.

I'm in Australia and I'm thinking given my trip is going to be 3 weeks ish to India, over December - and many of our trips will (unfortunately) be relatively inflexible, that I want to get an Indrail Pass (30 day) so that I can book the tickets in advance.

I just wanted to confirm whether there are agents in Australia who I can book this through or if I have to use SK Enterprises in UK and they would ship me the ticket? If the latter is the case I think maybe I'll just book through irtc closer to the date.