Planning a trip requires a reservation with the railways, or else the journey can be really troublesome. With the new rules in travelling without reservation can be a loss as the penalty charge might be actually costlier than the reservation fare.
With an upsurge in travel related websites online booking of seats with the Indian Railways has become really simple. In fact there are websites that accept credit card payments as well. The IRCTC websites takes reservation from 5 am till 11:30 pm. Only registered members can make reservations and secure cards are to be used to make payments. There are E-Tickets and I-Tickets both options available. E-tickets can be printed out and used while I-Tickets are to delivered at the customers place.
There are also attempts in process to provide the train tickets in an image format on the mobile phone. This will for sure make train reservation a task as simple as sending an SMS, however all latest developments have their pros and cons, which shall require a different platform to be discussed. What is noteworthy here is the fact that the railway ministry has developed far sightedness and an appetite to experiment in terms customer service.
Indian railway reservation definitely requires advance booking for all long distance journeys. Online train reservation is extremely user friendly. Makemytrip.com is the leading travel agency of India, and it offers online reservation service via an extremely user friendly interface. There are websites also that offer a dearth of information about travel by train in India.
Thus in conclusion it would not be an exaggeration to say that travelling has become much comfortable these days and making reservation for the journey is much simpler and convenient. However care must be taken as an incorrect reservation can result in loss of money and time because with online reservation no refund of money is possible.