Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday, 31 December, launched a completely revamped IRCTC website, along with the Rail Connect App.
“The Railways is committed to serving the nation, and constantly working to augment its services to further improve the rail travel experience. This upgraded e-ticketing platform for booking of online railway tickets will enhance passenger convenience,” said Goyal.
“IRCTC should continue to work towards constantly improving the website and ensure that is second to none in the world as per the Digital India mission and vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Goyal added.
The Railways launched the next generation E-ticketing (NGeT) system in 2014 to provide seamless e-ticketing services - higher booking loads and better user interface, through the IRCTC.
According to the Railway Ministry, the upgraded e-ticketing website and application will provide the next level of services and experience to the rail users. Customer experience has been the focus for revamping the features.
"Novel user personalisation features linked to user log in, have been incorporated for the first time ever, along with customisations for seamless travel experience, one stop train selection for booking, and integrated booking for meals and accommodation with tickets," the ministry added.
New features like the booking of meals, retiring rooms and hotels has been integrated and can be directly along with the tickets, thus providing a one stop solution for the needs of the traveller.
Even predictive entry suggestions using artificial intelligence to be given to the passenger when he is entering the station or passenger.
"This will greatly reduce the hassle in searching stations and also save time in ticket booking," it said.
Even simpler checking of the refund status at the user accounts page has been given, which was not easily accessible earlier.
Other features like 'regular' or 'favourite' journeys can be booked easily by automatically entering relevant details, while train search and selection has been simplified by putting the information on one page - including availability for all class are displayed along with respective fares for all trains - to reduce the time used by passengers and enhancing the booking experience.
Earlier, each train seat availability and fares could be seen only after clicking on that train individually.
The new website also includes the feature of 'cache system' in the backend to provide availability status, to avoid delays in loading availabilities.
"In case of waitlisted tickets, its 'confirmation probability' is displayed, which was earlier checked for each waitlist status separately," it said.
Keeping in mind the safety of the rail users, the website has in-built features for enhancing cyber security by using appropriate captchas.
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