www.irctc.co.in

Background:

The IRCTC or Indian Railway Catering and Ticketing Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian Railways. It is in charge of catering services on trains and on railway stations, but is better known for the radical change it bought about in the booking of railway tickets in India. An initiative of the Indian railways, which did not (and still does not) have any direct competition; it bought a huge relief to millions of people who earlier had to queue up for hours to get a reservation. Other services like holiday packages, hotel and rent-a-car were added to its ambit in various phases. It would be an understatement to say that it been quite a success story, with estimated gross sales of Rs. 3400 crores for FY 2008-9, with approximately 2000 registered users being added every day.
I had logged onto the portal to book a ticket for my younger brother using my credit card.



Prior Expectations:

1. Convenience of booking tickets online without waiting in long queues.

2. Safe and secure transactions.

3. Fast response of the online portal.

4. Ease of use/navigation on the website.

5. Information relating to availability of options for my travel.

6. Swift availability of help in case of any problem.


Portal (factual) description:


1. Logos of Verisign, Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode displayed clearly on the first page. Gave me confidence about the security of the transaction.

2. 24x7 customer care numbers displayed on the first page, acted as an assurance that help if needed would be just a call away.

3. Website rates very high on ease of navigation.

4. News updates like fare revision, ID card requirement clearly runs as a scroller on the first page.



Experience on the website:


1. The website refused to open initially. It opened in the 6th or the 7th attempt. A similar problem was faced during logging in and information fetching. The portal was very slow to respond. Every process, right from logging in to ticket reservation took loads of time. Became very irritating at times.

2. The website uses station codes for origin and destination. A menu used to pop up as soon as the first few letters of the city were entered making it easier has no codes had to be remembered or cross referenced from any index.

3. IRCTC had relaxed the rule of punching in the ID card number of the passenger during reservation. It became easier for me to book the ticket as no specific information was needed.

4. While making the payment, the portal got stuck. This caused the reservation fares to be deducted from my credit but the reservation was not made. I tried calling up the 24x7 customer care numbers but they were true to the ‘sarkari’ reputation and nobody answered my call. In the meanwhile I received an email assuring me that since the transaction got stuck in between, my money would be refunded in 4 working days.

5. Finally on my second attempt at reservation and making the payment, the transaction went through and my ticked was booked.


The website is a huge improvement from the queues at the reservation counters. But despite the fact that a service fee is charged from the users, the website is not as smooth and streamlined as it should be. In fact, a bank report and success rate statistics file available on the portal shows success rate of transactions ranging from a dismal 37% to a highest of 80% with an average of 75%. Though a large part of this might be due to issues at the bank’s or the payment gateway’s end, it is a major area where improvement is needed as a customer is not concerned as to whether the problem lies with IRCTC of the bank/payment gateway.


The slow and sometimes non-responsive nature of the site makes life difficult for people who’re banking on it for making their bookings. Smooth running needs to be insured by improving by the IT infrastructure in use for the portal to ensure seamless transactions.
But since, the railways do not have any competition, it is a commendable step voluntarily taken by the railways to increase customer convenience.


Overall, for this particular experience, I would give the portal a 7/10.