Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Indian railway should shut down their web sites

I think Indian railway should shut down their web sites (all), but specially www.irctc.co.in a web site where you can book your ticket.

This is the worst web site I ever came across. if you think that in place of booking ticket at railway reservation center and wait for hrs in a queue, lets book a ticket online to save all this time, then I will say you are wrong its better to book a ticket at reservation center than a web site

First of all this web takes long time to load, then again long time more than a 1-2 min to login, then you need to search your train, there it again takes time..., then you need to select a train and check the availability, if it available then say book ticket and then enter the name of passengers and also identity details of one passenger, then confirm that and then say book, then it will redirect you to payment page and again you need to select different payment gate way and then do the payment... and then take a print , big thing if you do not have a printer connected to your machine then ... ??? since there is no option to save the ticket. :( only print

You must be thinking that above process must be taking not more that 5 min? yes you are right this should not take but since this is a India railway web site it take more time... like for every post back it take more than 1-2 min, so calculate the post backs and multiply it by 1.5 (average) its more than 30 min

The most horrible thing I face in this is Session Expiry , I don't understand what are their session expiry policies, within a min or 2 the session get expire and you need to login again to web site and .... Start you process again from first step (login), means if you are in between the process of confirm the ticket and do the payment if your session get expire or timeout occurs for the post back event then...; you will get a nice Error message and ask you to go to home page where you need to login again and again start the entire cycle

Let me tell you in my last 2 years use of this web site I never able to book a ticket without getting any error and in less than 1/2 hr for a ticket.

Other things I you can notice that the looks are also not so good , see the image quality of the top banner its so bad...

One more important thing I forgot to mention, this is not a 24 hr service , after 11:00 PM you can not use this web site for booking

I do not understand where is problem is ? in technology ? server capacity ? or the system architecture? answer is NO.. then ?

why a big organization like Indian Railway which is own by the Government of India can't have a simple plain web site where one can book a ticket in 5 min, can search the train easily, can get accurate time table for trains ???

the Answer is YES they can...

but only problem is THEY DON'T WANT THAT...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I feel that the entire website is made of different services maintained by different companies :). They are not in sync with each other. For example if you plan a trip and it shows available, the moment you go ahead and book the ticket, a message of non-availability pops up. Now when you go ahead and check the availability status again, it shows available :)

Similarly when you are planning to book a ticket for a senior citizen, it is a reaal pain..Don't believe!! Check it out and let us know if you turn out to be the lucky one!!

Lalooo jii..kidhar ho?

Vadivel said...

I have booked railway tickets numerous amount of times via this site and till date I haven't faced any major issue!

Yes as always there are scope for improvement but I don't think its that worse to shutdown the site!!!!

Let's not glorify issues and make it look big lol

Best Regards
Vadivel

MVP SQL Server

చక్రవర్తి said...

I'm also a happy customer for IRCRC. the better way to manage your plan is ..

First) Check your availability at eRail.in
Second) Book your ticket with out doing again the seat availability search

Then you would find that much quicker than the preivous experiences.

BTW, Please remove the word verification.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I have been using the IRCTC service since last 2 years, without any problems. Yes there are a few points that can be improved.
I would like to point you to a few helpful things, of whcih you might not be familiar with:
1. There is QuickBook facility, that allows you to book a ticket in a go.
2. Regarding "Save Tickets", you can take a print of your ticket, any time, from the "Booked Ticket" history.

Also, a non techie guy is least bothered about the so-called 30 postbacks.

I would suggest that go through the help, before commenting. If you feel that there's a genuine problem, you can take up the issue with IRCTC.

Happy IRCTC Booking !!

Anonymous said...

The official website to search all the Indian railways trains. First it has lot of pop-ups and advertisement which make the user uncomfortable. This site does not show the passenger and express train which do not have a reservation coach. Here a user must know the train name or number and also station code without this information he cannot search the trains. they have given the link for searching the station code but if the user does not know the correct spelling of the station name he cannot get the station code. one more think is for each entry you will have to go to get it from separate page. if you does not know the date of running of the train then also you are not able to search the trains.

pros: official, show the current seat availability

Cons: Bad Presentation, Not user Friendly, Pop-ups, Advertisements , Very slow,

http://www.indiantrains.org/

I have not seen such a good site which has so many features in a single page. The better way to search Indian trains looks great and it open fast, no pop-up, user friendly. Every information in a single page. This concept is good and some of the features like calendar, train running day has not come in a single website in this reviews. the most important features i have seen in this site that if the user does not know the station code then also he can see all the trains and it is only website which have a drop menu box for the important station from where you can choose the station name and also it has a date calendar from you can choose the date and it show the running day of the train so that you can know which day of the week this train is running. the other most important feature I have seen in this website that it show the train which does not have the reservation coach for the benefit of the user and they are showing the passenger train also which is also not available in any website. This site will enable the users to search train route and compare fares of most of the trains in India.

Cons: Unofficial

Pros: all the features which user need, open fast, user friendly, good look and interactive, update data regularly, new features

Anonymous said...

Anyone facing a problem with IRCTC booking with Vista? I've used this site for over 2 years without too many hassles but ever since I switched to Vista, I'm unable to go beyond the 'Make a payment' screen. It just logs off saying I've either double-clicked an option or kept a wiondow open too long. Net result is that after planning my travel, I get stopped at the payment stage everytime. I've enabled active scripting in my settings so that is not the issue? Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Agree with you on some points. There is scope for lot of improvement in the irctc site. Having said that, the site is still extremely useful with all its pain cos it helps me avoid standing in a queue for some donkey hours.

I have recently posted a entry on same on workarounds to irctc
on www.paritosh.in

Bhanu said...

Hello,

Thanks for posting such a great information on India railways, but I think the main issue with IRCTC is the REFUND.
The refund policy is very bad, it may take more then 3-4 months even after many followups via emails and even send a written complaint to the GM of Indian Railways.. This is the only drawback, our Govt. should take some action and improve the refund policy so that customer do not face at least refund problem.