The IXIGO IRCTC app was a life saver for us when travelling through India. We have travelled thousands of miles through our IXIGO train app bookings (notably from Jaisalmer to Jaipur, a very long train journey)! Travelling by train in India is definitely the best mode of transport when you’re trying to budget, which is why we did it a lot. That said, it’s so much more complicated than it has to be!
The IXIGO app however, makes things a LOT easier. As long as you know how to interpret the availability status’ then I’m confident you’ll find it just as simple as we did.
Whether you are an Indian national or travelling around India from abroad, I would 100% recommend getting the IXIGO train app and using it to book your trains. As British tourists, I can tell that booking trains in India for us was a very different (and near impossible) task before a very kind lady in Jodhpur recommended it to us.
This is our guide to using the IXIGO train app:
Before you start trying to book a train though, there’s a couple of things you should do.
Things to do before you book a train using the IXIGO train app
Make an IRCTC Account
You’ll have to do this at the end of the booking anyway if you haven’t. But it makes things a lot easier if you already have an account before starting your train search.
Make sure you note down the username you’re allocated when you receive the confirmation email of your account. That way you can just put in your username to complete the booking.
Know Your Indian Train Carriages
If you haven’t already read our post on how to book trains on the Indian railways, we explain what each of the carriages and classes mean.
It’s good to know which carriage you want to book beforehand, so you can check the availability straight away.
Aside from those two things though, you can pretty much start the booking straight away!
How to use the IXIGO IRCTC train app
1. Download the IXIGO IRCTC app
The app is available on the App Store and Google Play Store. Alternatively, just use the online version!
2. Start Your Search
Assuming you’ve already made an account with IRCTC, just start searching!
All you need to do is type in your start destination in ‘source’ and end destination, then select the date you want to travel and tap ‘show trains’.
If you know the train number you want to get already then just tap the ‘by number’ option to the right instead.
3. Choose Your Time
If you scroll up and down this screen there’s normally plenty of times to choose from. You can choose which time best suits you, choose the class, and check the price and availability on this screen.
At the bottom of the page there are options to filter the trains and sort them to make it easier to find the best train for you.
4. Interpreting Availability
On the image below, the top train has green writing underneath, reading ‘AVAILABLE 158’. This means there are 158 seats left still on the train.
The next train however has red writing reading ‘RLWL36/WL22 (93%)’. This means that there are no seats available and if you choose to book then you’ll be added to a waiting list. In this case it says WL22. So, unless 22 other people cancel their ticket then you’re not guaranteed a seat/bed on the train.
If you’re desperate to get on a particular train and it’s unavailable then try looking through the other classes. If you can be flexible with timings, you can also click the ‘availability’ button. It will show you the exact train you’re looking at but on different days.
5. Click ‘Book’
After clicking ‘book’ you have the choice to continue booking through Facebook or Google. In spite of this though, you will still be asked for your IRCTC username to proceed to the rest of the booking.
Put your username in then proceed.
6. Add in Passenger Details
Type in the name, age, and gender of the first passenger, then tap ‘add traveller’. Choose which berth you would like to have. On most trains there is a single 2-tiered bed on the side, and the 3-tiered bunks on the right (main compartment).
You’ll have the option to add more passengers if necessary, or add travel insurance. Add in your mobile number and then click ‘proceed’.
7. Payment
Now you have the opportunity to give everything a check over and make sure you’ve got the right train. There will be a 10 minute count-down for you to fill out the payment information. You can pay by card or by items in your wallet such as Amazon pay.
Don’t worry about the long figures, rupees can seem like a LOT more than they actually are. Just use a currency converter to check the price in your currency.
8. Confirmation
So that’s it! That wasn’t so hard was it?
You should get a confirmation email shortly after booking. Make sure you have your ID and booking confirmation with you when you get on the train. The ticket collector will ask you for it.
When you get to the train station, you’ll be able to see which carriage you need to be on by reading the sides of the carriages. The train is usually there way before it’s due to leave, so my advice is get there a bit early just in case.
With any luck (and following the steps in this blog post!) Indian train travel should be a breeze. If you’re planning to travel a lot around India and hoping to have a stress-free trip, feel free to get in touch with us for more recommendations! We’ve spent many months here over the years and would be happy to help you out wherever we can.
One of the founders of People of the Planet. Psychology graduate, digital marketer, and lover of travel and exploring new places!
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