train bookings...i give up!!

hi...spent the whole morning trying to book two train tickets....got countless "communication error" messages...

so I have given my requests to the Indrail-approved dealers here in South Africa and they can get me the two tickets as a one-day sleeper class pass (US$19). That's a bit more than I would have paid via internet but I had no option.



looking forward to my India trip!

That site is great when it works. And a real when it doesn't.

Glad you got sorted.

Welcome to India

Lesson 1
The reservation site works only during the Indian official hours.

Lesson 2
You need to be reasonably fast online as the ‘reservation opportunity’ is relinquished to you by the system only for a brief period.

i posted 3pm india time, and i was fast.

the system is unreliable.....it was not me!

BTW welcome to the Republic of Frustration

still don't know what happened...everything was working fine, registration, finding the train....but when it got to me clicking 'book ticket', it refused to go further. I tried maybe 20 times! Everytime logging in again etc.

still, it's fine. I will get my tickets via the agent.

This is my 2nd visit to India, but the first time with a good camera. I am VERY EXCITED!

The web page irtc.co.in works during the day terribly slow and gives ERROR always. The way to book tickets is to do it at 05.00 am indian time that means 01.30 am in my country when they start working, everything goes very fast, I've made few days ago four reservations in 15 minutes, a record for me.

Jorge

thanks Jorge, that is good to know.

I got up at 04:00 this morning to book my tickets, I HAD to have them, so decided to get on the site early.

1 day sleeper class passes are not always available in the UK, the dealer says he never uses them as nobody requests them, he is also reluctant to book tickets less than a month before departure.

Good luck.

YES!!!

the travel agent still has not come back to me so once again I went online and tried booking the tickets.....and succeeded!!! And now I see that the two tickets are actually much cheaper than the one day pass she would have given me.

getting it right is a good feeling!

i've made my first booking

agra to varanassi. Not the berths i was looking for but at least we got two together

it was like pulling teeth but i did it

Steven_ber, have you checked your private messages lately?

Apologies to the OP for going OT!

Regards

Blakey

I well understand your frustration with the irctc booking site. I bought tickets for two trips successfully. Since then I have been trying to book tickets for two weeks! We're talking morning and evening, my time, when they are available. Like you, I got communications errors. Eventually, I got past those, and got stuck in the Citibank gate. Cleared that up with Citibank which had flagged my credit card because of the India traffic. Now it's "just" the irctc, but still no dice! Am currently resorting to asking a local friend to try to do it for me... I think my experience may be a good exercise before our trip to India....

Congrates !wish to you a great time on Indian Railways. We hope to listen your experiences.