Train Seat Availability | Image Resource : trackmystatus.in
Indian Railways is the premium travel service provider in India, which offers customized rail travel solutions to millions of people in India. It is fairly easy now to check for train seat availability through a variety of offline and online modes. Now the online option is to log on to IRCTC website and search for the train and click on it to see the updated reservation status.
Centralized reservation system
Unlike olden times, where the tickets were allocated to each station on the basis of the quota-based allocation system, now ticket reservation is made advanced. The ticket allocation for Indian Railways is now done through an advanced technological centralized reservation system, through which all tickets booked from all locations are centrally allocated.
Train seat availability
Now, you can check for train ticket availability through online at the IRCTC portal. At first, you can check for the availability of seats in different classes on travel and the reservation status. Check for confirmed tickets first to immediate go ahead and complete the reservation before it is sold out.
If there is no confirmed ticket available, then you can check for the options of RAC – reservation against cancellation and if not the WL-waitlisted tickets. With RAC ticket, you can get on to the train even if it is not confirmed, but you may not be having access to a confirmed berth.
There is a fair chance that the RAC tickets will get confirmed against cancellations, which are very likely to happen before the final chart is prepared. On the other hand, with WL tickets, you cannot board the train until it gets into RAC or getting confirmed before journey.