Worried about wait-listed ticket confirmation? IRCTC to help you now

Refurbished IRCTC website will go live today. Know top 5 facts about the new IRCTC website that will help commuters struggling to book train tickets

Passengers may not get confirmed berths each time they book a train ticket, but now, thanks to a predictive service on the IRCTC website, they will get to know their chances of getting one, officials said on Monday. Come midnight, when the new, refurbished IRCTC website will go live, it will let the passengers know the probability of confirmation of wait-listed tickets, based on a new algorithm developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS).

"According to the new feature of wait-list prediction, one can predict the chances of a wait-listed or an RAC ticket getting confirmed on the basis of booking trends. We will mine our own data of passenger operations and booking patterns for the first time," a senior official in the Railway Ministry said.

The idea, the officials said, came from Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who had given a one-year deadline last year to complete the process of inducting the predictive service on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website.

The algorithm will take into account last 13 years' data to arrive at a "robust, workable model", the officials said.

While predictions have been used by private players, the officials said that the Indian Railways system would be more reliable as it would have the advantage of the database of the national transporter.

Nearly 13 lakh tickets are booked on the IRCTC website every day against a reserved accommodation of 10.5 lakh berths, the officials said.

Here are some features IRCTC has introduced

— Check trains without logging into your IRCTC account: With the new IRCTC e-ticketing system the can check trains and availability of seats without logging in. A user need not even log in to the new website to enquire or search for trains and check on availability of seats, while the older version only allowed access to the registered users.

— Fare break-up and other user friendly layout: User-friendly layout for modification of journey details, availability lookup for other days and fare break up have been provided by IRCTC and Indian Railways.

— ‘Waitlist prediction’ feature has been provided

— Use of 'Vikalp' for changing boarding point: The users can also perform multiple activities like cancellation, printing, request for an SMS, selection of an alternative train by exercising the "Vikalp" option and changing the boarding point, if required.

— IRCTC user cards: "While booking tickets, separate cards for each passenger have been provided to fill in their details. Pre-filled particulars will ensure a quick booking experience. The user can manage the payment options by marking six banks as preferred banks under the 'My Profile' section," an official said.