May 31, 2012 09:35 AM
36168 Views
I have been a IRCTC user for more than 5 yrs now. Over this period of time, I have seen the ups and downs of IRCTC service. But of late (at the time of writing this review), the IRCTC service has touched a new low, especially for Tatkal booking services. Maybe the fact that this is peak travel season with school vacations and all is also adding to the woe. I will try to break down the process and share some tips that I have found useful over time.
Here is a typical pattern that I have experienced for Tatkal bookings
Login into the IRCTC website at exactly 8:00 AM (synchronized with worldtimerserver.com), If its before 8, the website will give you error message. If its after 8, the website will be very slow in responding, and may also report "Service Unavailable"
It takes around 2-3 minutes to reach the "Plan my travel" page, where one enters the SRC, DEST, Date of Travel and Quota.
After filling in this information, you need to wait a random amount of time till the train information is fetched.. (I have experienced wait time from a few seconds to upto 10 minutes here)
Please make up your mind beforehand at this stage about which class you want to travel. Run time decisions here may cost you time (and eventually the ticket). Ideally the SL class has the highest quota, and hence the highest probability. (its )
If you are lucky, you will get some seats available for your choice of travel. In that case, you move to the next step for booking your ticket.
Remember that during this process also the tickets are getting booked by other folks in the background. So dont linger too long on this page. Ensure that you get the captcha (the text image) correctly put in.. It will be a shame if after all the toiling, you dont get the captcha correct.
The real cliff hanger is the time taken in the process of payment. There are so many variables in this equation that it will take a super computer to come up with an ideal scenario where ticket is booked without hassles. Your bank's (or credit card company's) authentication process, the communication channel between IRCTC's payment gateway and your bank, the number of users simultaneously trying to use the payment gateway.. etc, etc.. The worst case scenario is that the Bank deducts the payment, and IRCTC module times out.. In that case you are strung out without a ticket from IRCTC, and the bank having thrown your hard earned money into some black hole. (eventually you will get refunded for this transaction).
At this stage, either you have a ticket, or you dont. If you have a confirmed ticket, you are one of those lucky ones who have experienced first hand what "pressure" is and have come out with atleast a prize (the ticket). The joy is no shortof surviving a gauntlet and coming out unscathed.
If you dont have a ticket, well.. at least you are now a more knowledgeable person than 15 mins ago..
Coming back to my observation..
If you notice the pattern of how the servers respond, it can be easily figured out that by the time the user gets to the booking page, its almost 8-10 minutes into the timeslot (Clock time around 8:10 AM), and most of the tatkal tickets have been usurped by the Agents on the booking counters.
If you are traveling on a route segment which falls in the middle of the train's itinerary, then the chances are that the tatkal quota for that section is very less. This also adds to the odds.
Overall, I feel that using the tatkal reservation using irctc feels like undergoing a cardiac test without the treadmill.
Here are a few tips that may help
Its helpful to know the Station codes before hand, rather than allowing IRCTC to fetch the code for you. This will save around a minute
Once the train information starts getting loaded, wait for a while till the page has stopped loading. If you start clicking the buttons (for SL, 3A, etc ) before the page loads completely, it does not recognize your selection, and you may have to unnecessarily wait wondering why nothing is happening.
On the information entry page, it helps if you have a passenger list pre-loaded into the irctc. If not, atleast keep all the other information handy, especially the id proof details.
If you are using net banking as an option, just ensure before 8 AM that the Netbanking site is working for you. Seldom banks pull down the site for maintenance, and it would be frustrating to come to know that when you are trying to make payment.
Hope the above was informative!
P.S. I am only recommending this site because pitifully, we don't have any other option (unless if you want to stand in night long Q's outside the reservation counters)
