Best apps on railway easy to acess.

Indian Railways is the most used mode of travel in the country. According to estimates, more than 24 million passengers use it daily but in the absence of right information at the right time, the rail travel and the planning could turn out to be a pain.  In the article, we will be recommending some of the best Indian Railways related Android apps that can make your travel (and planning) better.

Official IRCTC Connect app

IRCTC has released its official train ticket booking app in Google Play. Known as IRCTC Connect, the application offers basic features but is expected to get more functionality in the coming versions. The app can be used to search and book train tickets or cancel booked tickets. It also provides upcoming journey alerts.

The IRCTC Connect application uses IRCTC.co.in account credentials to operatate, however new users can create accounts directly in the application.

ixigo indian rail & trains

This railways app from ixigo is undoubtedly one of best and most comprehensive. It offers almost all features that one would need while planning for your next rail travel or travelling. The user-interface is decent and it looks good. If you were to install one app for Indian Railways related stuff, I would recommend this.

From my personal experience, this works great with another app from the developer – PNR Status, about which we will be talking a little later.

ixigo indian rail & trains app features:

• Search for trains between destinations
• Check Train availability 6 days prior and post the desired travel date
• Real-time availability for over 2500 trains
• Looks for trains with train numbers and names
• Trains running status
• Check out routes of multiple trains to choose the most convenient and best option
• Get PNR status updates
• Seat/berth maps to find convenient seats or look for the location of you booked berth
• Get real time running status of trains
• Redirect to IRCTC Official app for bookings

App update frequency: Regular

ixigo PNR Status -Train Flight

In addition to the quite useful Indian rail and trains apps, ixigo.com has also released a specific PNR status app, which although offers only a single function but is quite intelligent. The app automatically identifies the PNR of your next rail travel (or flight) by scanning your inbox for SMSes from IRCTC (or other travel sites). You can tap individual PNRs for more information and current status. If also gives a direct link to the IRCTC SMS, so you don’t have to browse your entire inbox to find that inbox while showing it to the Railways TTE.

The app intelligently divides all of the PNRs present in your inbox into upcoming and past trips to avoid any confusion.

ixigo PNR Status app features:

• Automatic trip PNR identification from text messages
• Review your travel status
• PNR Status alerts (waiting to RAC/ confirm, RAC to confirm etc.)
• Train Delay alerts
• See all your PNRs in one screen

App update frequency: Regular

Rail Yatri – Indian Railways

Stelling Technologies has come up with great app in the form of Rail Yatri – Indian Railways. Unlike other IRCTC/ Railways apps, this includes some nifty features like new trains available at your closest station, route changes, GPS train locater, and crowd-sourced data about railway stations.  In addition, it also comes with the usual ones like PNR status, time table, and travel alerts for stations/ trains.

Rail Yatri app features

• Alerts for travel disruptions like cancellations, route change, and delayed starts
• GPS Train Locator to see your train’s running status in real time
• Share trip delay status
• Station related information and crowd-sourced tips
• Train time-table
• PNR status
• Add favourite routes, trains, stations for future access

App update frequency: Regular

Indian Train Alarm

Ever wasn’t able to sleep half of your travel because you didn’t want to miss your destination station at 3:00AM, well I have. Who doesn’t like a nice sleep and to help you with that, here is a simple app from Anagog India. The Indian Train Alarm app allows you to set alarm when you train is 5km or 25km from a specified station.

Indian Train Alarm app features

• Set location based alarms for railway stations
• No need for internet connection for the alarm to work
• Error margin of around 1/2 km
• Low battery consumption

App update frequency: Regular

Cleartrip for Android

Thanks to IRCTC’s stubbornness, there are hardly any other way to book Indian Railways tickets online or on mobile apart from IRCTC.com. Thankfully, IRCTC has a partnership with Cleartrip, so you can use their website or in this case, their Android app to book rail tickets during a fixed time interval.

There is no official IRCTC app for Android right, so apart from opening IRCTC website on your smartphone, you can only use Cleartrip app to book tickets. Apart from the first two hours of Tatkal booking timing (i.e. 1000 hours and 1200 hours.), the app will work just fine for any railways ticket booking.

Cleartrip app features for rail travellers (there are other features as well)

• Find trains, check seat availability
• Get train schedules, train timetables, fares
• Check PNR status and track PNRs for status change
• Check seat availability on Indian Rail trains
• Look for arrival and departure schedules of all trains between any two stations