Booking tickets via IRTC had always been challenging. While that has improved in the past few years, earlier you were not allowed to book tickets during the time span of 11:30 PM to 5 AM. It was inline with physical ticket counters, but then what’s the point of online booking. IRCTC has changed this, and in this post, we are looking at IRCTC Online Railway Ticket Booking Timings.
The good news is that IRTCT Ticket booking timings have been extended for 23 hours a day. You can book your Indian Railway tickets at any time of the day except for 11:30 PM to 12:30 AM. That means the new timing for the booking is 12:30 AM to 11:30 PM. The one hour break is used for maintenance work, and its best not to book any ticket when after 11:15. These timings are applicable to Regular E-tickets. Earlier, IRCTC online ticket booking time at night wasn’t possible, not it is.
Tatkal E-ticket can be booked for selected trains one day in advance excluding the date of journey from the train originating station. It can be booked on an opening day from 10:00 hrs for AC class (2A/3A/CC/EC/3E) and at 11:00 hrs for Non- AC class(SL/FC/2S).
One thing you should keep in mind that Tatkal Booking opens based on the day when the train starts. If a train is starting on 2nd August, but your boarding station is on 3rd August, you will still need to book Tatkal on 1st August. Since the booking of tickets open based on the date and time of the source station, make sure you follow that.
This is a great step taken by the Indian Railways. It will definitely help people to book their tickets more easily. 23 hours a day is almost as good as a 24 hours service. Looks like the Ministry of Indian Railways has made a well-planned move. Imagine, if this non-booking span was at some other point of time during the day, and then the extended timing would have failed to make an appeal, isn’t it?