Indian Railways is repainting select coaches on its train network. The Northern Railway – which caters to one of the zones served by Indian Railways – has painted seven different colour schemes on sleeper coaches, according to a statement. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday visited the newly-coloured coaches at New Delhi Railway Station. Indian Railways has been taking steps to revamp its network across the country and improve passenger experience. “(Railway) passengers may expect a complete makeover of coaches for a more pleasing travel experience in near future,” Northern Railway said on microblogging site Twitter. (Also read: Indian Railways Mega Recruitment Drive)

Here are 10 things to know about the Railways’ drive to paint select trains in new colours:

1. The seven colour schemes have been applied to sleeper class coaches of the Northern Railway, according to an official statement.

2. “These vibrant and innovative colour schemes” have been developed by National Institute of Design-Ahmedabad and Indian Railways, it noted.

The Government Railway Police or GRP personnel in Bihar’s Siwan district are banking on a “tantrik” or occultist to crack a case of theft, a police officer said on Wednesday.

Instead of using high-tech gadgets and conducting a scientific investigation, the GRP has sought the help of a local tantrik called “Ghoda Baba” to solve the case.

According to the district police officer, a case of theft was reported in the house of one Anil Kumar Srivastav in the railway colony of Siwan last week. But as the GRP personnel failed to make any breakthrough, in-charge of the GRP Police Station Nand Kishore, along with the tantrik, visited the house of Mr Srivastav.

After inspecting the site, the tantrik instructed Mr Srivastav to perform some rituals at night to ensure arrest of Siwan thief.

The tantrik, along with some GRP personnel, again visited Mr Srivastav’s house in the railway colony on Wednesday afternoon and asked him to visit his place in nearby Mairwa town at night to solve the case.

In the online recruitment drive involving 2.5 million candidates, Indian Railways is set to save paper sheets equivalent to 10 lakh trees. According to a senior Railways official, for the pen and paper based examination, recruitment boards would have required 7.5 crore paper sheets or the equivalent of 10 lakh trees. Now, the exam is completely online, this large amount of paper is not needed and as a result of this, the process is is not only providing thousands of jobs, it has also resulted in saving about 7.5 crore paper sheets and 10 lakh trees approximately, reported IANS.

‘One applicant generally requires three-four paper sheets of A4 size to write the examination. So with the whole exercise going online, the Railways has saved a significant quantity of paper sheets,’ the official said.

‘This is not only providing thousands of jobs, the whole process has also resulted in saving about 7.5 crore paper sheets and 10 lakh trees approximately,’ he further added.

Indian Railways had begun the recruitment process for close to 90,000 jobs (assistant loco pilot, technician and group D posts) in March through CEN 01/ 2018 and CEN 02/ 2018 advertisements. While online registration for the exam has been over, the railway recruitment boards are yet to announce the exam dates.  ‘The exam will be held during April and May’ as per the official notification released by Indian Railways. While many portals claim that the exam will be held in July/ August, candidates are suggested to wait for the official update. Meanwhile, aspirants should prepare vigorously for the exam as it is going to be one of the biggest recruitment exam ever conducted.

The exam will be held at 300 centres nationwide.

Railway, which currently employs 1.3 million people, has made special arrangements to ensure that the website does not crash during the examination. The site was earlier able to handle the traffic of the online application process.

Ten lakh trees have been spared the axe. Thanks to the Indian Railways for taking its recruitment process online. The move has saved at least 7.5 crore sheets of paper, or the equivalent of 10 lakh trees needed to make paper, a senior railway ministry officer said. Some 2.37 crore people had applied against 88,000 railway posts.

The railways have replaced bulky, multi-lingual question booklets with online tests for various positions — ranging from assistant loco pilot to technician, trackman, gateman and pointsman.

“There are 62,000 posts involving track inspection crews and others related to improving safety, while more than 26,000 posts relate to engine drivers and technicians; for these, more than two crore people have applied,” said the officer who is involved in the recruitment process.

The online examination will be held at 300 centres for which the railways are working out the finer details. One of the reasons why the Indian Railways have switched to online tests is due to alleged question paper leaks.

“One applicant generally needs three-four paper sheets of A4 size to write the examination. So with the whole exercise going online, the railways have saved a significant quantity of paper sheets,” the officer said.

The officer claimed the railways test is the “largest online recruitment drive in the world”. “It is not only providing thousands of jobs, the whole process has also resulted in saving about 7.5 lakh paper sheets and 10 lakh trees approximately.”

The exam fee has been kept at Rs. 500 for general category applicants and Rs. 250 for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to keep out non-serious applicants who apply but do not usually turn up for the test.

The general candidates will get a refund of Rs. 400 after the exam, while SC/ST candidates, women, people with special needs, ex-servicemen and those from economically weaker sections, will get the full refund.

“We are expecting a maximum number of applicants to appear and only about 5-10 per cent absent at various centres this time,” the officer said.

The Indian Railways employs 1.3 million people. It has strengthened its online infrastructure to ensure the website does not crash during the high-volume exam. The website did see some glitches in accepting the huge traffic during the application phase, which ended on March 31.

On the last date of registration, some candidates, however, felt the brunt of technical glitches on the registration portal. As reported by The Hindu, candidates applying to RRB Chennai were not able to register successfully as they could not receive the OTP (one-time password) on time. For some candidates it was difficult to upload the application on the website as it did not move beyond the registration stage.

Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are less than nine months away from getting the country’s first two state-of-the-art “airport-like” railway stations. The two stations — Habibganj in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal and Gandhinagar in Gujarat — are part of the government’s ambitious one lakh crore rupee station redevelopment program to speed up modernisation of the Indian Railways.

SK Lohia, the Managing Director and CEO of the Indian Railway Station Development Corporation or IRSDC told news agency PTI that “Habibganj station will be ready by December this year and Gandhinagar station will be completed by January 2019.” He also confirmed that the Gandhinagar station will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi before the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2019.

HABIBGANJ STATION, BHOPAL – FACILITIES AND AMENITIES

Enlisting some of the facilities and amenities of the Habibganj station, Mr Lohia said, “The station will include 600 comfortable waiting benches, clean and hygienic toilets, and large retail areas (similar to airports).” He went on to say that “The Railways is also exploring other ideas such as lounges and video-game zones, as well as virtual museums for these stations.”

The retail space, he said, would include shops, cafe’s and fast food restaurants. The stations would also have free and secure WiFi available to all passengers.

The Habibganj railway station will also have an entirely new building, which will have a massive glass dome-like structure to give it a futuristic look. There station will also have a plush waiting lounge comparable with any of the leading airports, and will have a dedicated food plaza and cafeterias, he said.

COST TO DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN THESE STATIONS

Mr Lohia also explained the costs involved to develop the Habibganj and Gandhinagar railway stations, and what it will take to maintain them.

“The entire responsibility of maintenance and revenue generation from these railway stations lies with the IRSDC (Indian Railway Station Development Corporation), and we have to make sure that these stations are revenue surplus and to the extent that it can be invested back in the maintenance and development of the station in the future,” he said.

Once fully ready, the cost of maintenance of the Habibganj station will be in the range of 4 to 5 crore rupees, he said. The estimated revenue will be between 6.5 and 7 crore rupees per annum, with a planned increase to more than 10 crores per annum, he said.

The overall redevelopment project of Habibganj Station is expected to be 450 crore rupees. Of this, 100 crores would be spent on station redevelopment and 350 crores on commercial development, Mr Lohia said.

GANDHINAGAR STATION

The Gandhinagar station, which will have similar facilities as Habibganj, will be completed in a record two years, Mr Lohia said. The foundation stone was laid by PM Modi in January 2017.

“42 per cent of the civil work has already been completed and it will be ready in time to hold the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2019,” he said.

The Gandhinagar station is being redeveloped at a cost of 250 crore rupees. It is being jointly developed by IRSDC and the Gujarat state government. Apart from the station, the project will include a 300-room five-star hotel.

The hotel will be the central attraction and will be located right above the tracks. The ground floor of the hotel will be 22 metres above the railway tracks and will have three arched buildings combined to give it the shape of petals.

New Delhi: Buoyed by its success with senior citizens, the Indian Railways is set to extend its ‘Give it up’ scheme to include other concession holders to offset its nearly Rs. 33,000-crore subsidy burden in annual passenger fares.

The decision was taken after figures showed that following the introduction of the scheme last year – by which senior citizens can opt to give up 50 per cent of their fare subsidy, more than 19 lakh people gave up the concession, resulting in a saving of more than Rs. 32 crore between July 22, 2017, and March 31, 2018 for the railways.

“We realised that in 2016 when we were telling people to give up their concession by 100 per cent, many did not do. In 2017, when we gave them the option of giving up 50 per cent, many came forward,” a Railway Ministry official said.

“This is completely voluntary and now we’re preparing a campaign to encourage more such concession holders to come forward,” the official said.

Railways extends passenger fare concessions in 53 categories, which include passengers with disabilities, cancer, thalassemia, heart and kidney patients, war widows students and others, incurring a loss of about Rs. 33,000 crore annually.

As part of its campaign to encourage people in these categories to give up their subsidy, even if in parts, the railways will send each senior citizen, who gave up their subsidy, a personalised letter by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.

In total, since August 2016, when senior citizens had the option to give up 100 per cent of their subsidy, until March 2018, 40 lakh of them have given up their subsidy, allowing the national transporter to save around Rs. 77 crore.

The four stations of Central Railway’s Matheran Hill Railway in Maharashtra’s Raigad district have turned “green” with the installation of solar power and wind energy plants, an official said on Friday.

Sunil Udasi, the Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway said in a statement that on the installation of Green Energy System, the generation capacity of each system at four stations – Jummapatti, Waterpipe, and Aman Lodge is 75-80 kWh, while at Matheran, it is 680-690 kWh per month.

All these four stations are now provided with a solar power plant of capacity 500-1000 Wp and windmill of capacity 6.1 KWp at Matheran including energy efficient LED lights and fans.

The electric supply from the renewable sources will bring down the hill railway station’s power bill drastically resulting in savings of Rs. 2.07 lakh per year, besides reducing its carbon footprints.

The Matheran Hill Railway is narrow-gauge heritage railway in Maharashtra.

A delight to the tourists, the line covers a distance of 21 km, cutting a swathe through dense forest in the Western Ghats from Neral to Matheran.

Thousands of people around Berlin’s central railway station were evacuated on Friday as bomb disposal experts began defusing an unexploded World War II explosive unearthed on a building site.

Trains, trams and buses were halted or rerouted as the operation to dispose of the British 500-kilogramme (1,100-pound) bomb found more than 70 years after the war got underway.

Authorities have declared an exclusion zone with an 800-metre (yard) radius around the site located just north of the central railway station, a transport hub that on a normal day is used by 300,000 passengers.

Arriving from Leipzig on a day trip to Berlin, Japanese tourist Yamamoto looked bewildered as he was told of the operation at the railway station.

“We didn’t know anything about the bomb,” he told AFP.

The exclusion zone covers the train station, an army hospital, the economy ministry, an art gallery and a museum as well as part of the BND intelligence service’s new headquarters.

Many thousands of residents and employees have been ordered to stay clear of the area and not return until police give the all-clear.

Police have however stressed that the bomb was “safe for now”, reassuring nearby residents that “there is no immediate danger”.

“Do not risk your lives.” That was said by IRCTC or Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation to train passengers, warning them against unauthorised food suppliers aboard trains. IRCTC, in a post on microblogging site Twitter, has named 11 such unauthorised food suppliers. Railyatri, Khanagadi, Khanaonline, Travelzaika, Trainfood, Travelfood, Travelerfood, Food in train, Food on wheel, Railrasoi and erail are “not authorised to deliver food in trains. Do not risk your lives by ordering through them,” said IRCTC, the ticketing arm of Indian Railways.

Here are five things to know about IRCTC’s food delivery service, ‘E-Catering’:

1) IRCTC is the only authorised agency to take and deliver orders through e-catering in trains, the Indian Railways’ e-ticketing arm said.

2) IRCTC currently offers mobile app Food On Track on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

3) The e-catering scheme aims to provide quality and variety in food to railway passengers, according to IRCTC’s website.

4) IRCTC is the official agency for the e-catering scheme which it runs through its authorised partners.

5) IRCTC currently offers its e-catering service at several railway stations in major metro cities. These include Mumbai Central (BCT), Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal (CST), New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS), Old Delhi Railway Station (DEL), Bangalore City Junction (SBC), Chennai Central (MAS), Kanpur (CNB), Allahabad Junction (ALD), Varanasi (BSB), Lucknow (LKO), Itarasi (ET), Bhopal Junction (BPL) and Vijaywada (BZA), according to IRCTC.

How to order food via IRCTC’s e-catering service

Train passengers can book onboard meals through four modes: Online (through website www.ecatering.irctc.co.in), mobile app (through ‘Food On Track’), telephone (by dialing ‘1323’) and SMS (by sending MEAL to ‘139’), according to the IRCTC e-catering website.

Who can order via IRCTC’S e-catering service: Any passenger having a valid reservation ticket can book the meal through website. This facility can be availed by passengers having a valid reservation ticket including e-tickets or tickets taken from reservation window.

The CBI today filed a charge sheet against former railway minister Lalu Prasad and others in connection with alleged corruption in handing out a management contract for two IRCTC hotels to a private company, officials said.

Former Bihar chief minister and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s wife Rabri Devi, and their son Tejashwi were also among the 14 people named by the CBI in the chargesheet file in a court here.

The agency had recently questioned former Rabri Devi in connection with the case, they said.

The case pertains to allegations that Lalu Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotels, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a prime plot of three acres in Patna through a benami company.

The FIR alleged that the RJD leader abused his official position for extending undue favours to the Kochhars and acquired a piece of “high value premium land” through the benami firm, Delight Marketing Company

As a quid pro quo, he “dishonestly and fraudulently” awarded the contract to them for the two hotels, the FIR had alleged.

Want to know in detail about Indian Railways reservations? Do you love to travel and take a tour of the country via trains and simply prefer rail transportation over others? Checking out online information related to train schedules, train movement, seat availability and wishing to get confirmed reservations in the desired train? Well, if you go and plan everything in a strategic way then it could be possible not only to book your tickets but also stay away from any last time trouble and be all set for the travel. The foremost thing that you can do is to plan a bit advance your rail trips and vacations so that you have enough time to do the bookings. Train travel is undoubtedly known to be cheering, fun and memorable for all and people are fond of rail excursions in India and spend some lovely moments with friends and loved ones. Recognized to be cost efficient means of transportation as compared to other modes, if you take care of few things, this is for sure that people can get reservations on confirmed basis.

Planning and booking tickets process gets open about 120 days in advance and last minute planning and booking is very frustrating and troublesome. Irrespective of the fact that you have so many days in advance to book the tickets, this is true that as the counter gets open, people book tickets crazily and the seats get filled so quickly that it becomes impossible for everyone to book the same. And at the time of summer holidays, festival season and other peak times, the situation simply gets worse and to avoid and stay away from everything, it is always advisable to plan out your excursions in advance and in case, some emergency comes up at the last minute, you can cancel your tickets and get your refund back in the account. Also, people have the option to even go for Tatkal booking process that opens a day or two prior depending on the train along with the travel date and try out to get tickets in the same. Well, it is mandatory in such situations to be just all set and ready with your laptop about 5 minutes in advance before the counter gets open so that as soon as it gets open, people simply try out as fast as could be possible from their end to get confirmed bookings. Along with this, it becomes important for people to keep a check on the seat availability criteria and accordingly plan out your journey and it could be done simply by either getting logon to the official site of Indian Railways or other reputed sites like of pnrstatuslive.com and feed in the train name or number or the source and final destination station names and get details about all the trains and by particularly selecting on a specific train, it could depict all the details related to seat availability and more. There are different quotas and classes of travel in which passengers can opt to take a tour of and for different classes, counter opens at different times. Just for an example, for general class bookings, counter gets open from 8 AM to 8:30 AM, for tatkal bookings, counter gets open from 10 AM to 10:30 AM, for non AC tatkal bookings, counter gets open from 11 AM to 11:30 AM.

Maybe you have to travel extensively between two stations, or you want to view the time table of trains between couple of stations that would be required for your tour. In such instances, modern day passengers have to use the Internet to search for train time table. But, what if you are from the old school, who believes that mobile data is just wastage of money or a luxury that can be avoided? What if you find all the data plans too costly for comfort and like using the Wi-Fi networks at home and office? Though mobile Internet has spread to every part of India, but not many of the average commuters have access to this technology yet, for a variety of reasons.

But this does not mean that people without mobile data plans do not need the Indian railway time table. They need it as much as others.  You can take a quick look at trains between your saved lists of stations anytime. Though, if you intend to access the high-end features, then appropriate Internet connectivity is necessary. With the offline time table of trains, you can avoid the data and roaming costs, while getting relevant information at your fingertips.

pnrstatuslive.com has been designed and developed keeping the user interests in mind. This is why the site provides a list of helpful information under its various sections.  The offline train time table feature comes in really handy in many emergency situations.

Indian Railways has been a mixed blessing for us Indians. There was a time when the railways timetable booklet was referred to as the ‘joke book’ of Rail ministry. Waiting at the station for hours for the train to come was a regular incident.

And booking tickets was a matter of real drudgery. Long queues, unreliable information and frustrating behaviour were all part and parcel of train travelling.

Until recently, the situation remained almost unchanged. In the era of high-tech speed, we had to go to physical centres to book tickets. We had a website, but there was always a chance that it would not work properly.

Today, fortunately, things are changing. Now, e-ticketing is a reality. Along with this and other facilities, SMS booking has been launched, and for sure, this is going to change the experience of Indian Railways forever.

• The Initial Stages –

Previously, the Indian Railways website could only book a meagre 2000 tickets per minute. When the site crashed under excessive passenger traffic, the Ministry of Railways took initiatives to re-launch the site. The new site can book 7200 tickets per minute. Last year along with the new site launch, the SMS ticket booking and information system was also launched. Now obtaining any news regarding the Indian Railways is a matter of sending an SMS.

• The Process –

Before you press the send button, there are a few steps to cover. Let’s look at the process:

1. The process works on the foundation of Immediate Payment Service or IMPS supported by banks. You need to have an account with a bank, which supports IMPS. Currently, almost all banks do that. You also need to have the Mobile Money Identifier or the MMID code of seven digits for the transaction.
2. You have to create your own IRCTC account. When you need to enter the phone number, please enter the number, which you have registered in the bank through which the payment will be processed.
3. As you are done with the IRCTC account and your bank’s MMID, a One Time Password or OTP will be sent to you from your bank.
4. Now send the SMS to 139. It should read like BOOK (Train number) (Train code) Passenger name passenger gender, etc. you can book up to six seats through the SMS.
5. IRCTC will send an SMS with fare and seat availability as well as the transaction ID.
6. Send PAY IMPS IRCTC user ID to 139.
7. As the confirmation message arrives, just show the message while you board the train or the checker comes. There is no need to print anything.

At the first go, the process may seem a bit complicated. But just think about standing the lines or the frustration in case of internet failure, soon you will get accustomed with this process. And considering a meagre fee of Rs. 3 per SMS and a lot of ease, booking tickets through SMS is really the dream of any Indian Railways traveller.

• Other Services –

Other than booking tickets, the Indian Railways SMS service is a complete information hub. Passengers can get a number of important answers from the service. The most common are:

1. SMS Railway to 57886: This is for Indian Railways overall information like schedule, timetable, PNR status, search seat availability, etc. The return SMS would have all the options from which the sender will again choose and send.
2. SMS IRTRAIN (Train Name) or IRTRAIN (Train No.) to 57886: This will show the time table of the train.

Another number, which has the same facility, is 139. By sending the right SMS, you can avail the right information;

1. SMS PNR (10 digit PNR number) to 139 for any PNR enquiry.
2. SMS AD (Train number) (Station STD code) to 139 to know the arrival and departure times.
3. To know the seat accommodation, please SMS SEAT (Train number) (date of journey) (Station from: STD Code) (Station to: STD Code) (Class) (Quota) to 139

PNR number is being used daily by many passengers across the world for obtaining the details of their travel. Thus, there is high search volume for Indian Railways PNR Status Enquiry every day and many people look for various convenient ways for getting the desired information.

See https://pnrstatuslive.com/   There are many ways of getting the PNR status including checking PNR status online on IRCTC site,  by telephone, by mobile using SMS, or by using services of various travel websites like Cleartrip or Rediff on the mobiles using internet.

There are many different ways of checking the Indian Railways PNR status by using mobile phone.

Some of thepopularways of finding PNR status using mobile phone are mentioned below.

(1) Checking PNR status using 3 Digit SMS Short Code 139:

Passengers can check the PNR status by using 3 Digit SMS short code which is officially provided by IRCTC service; however passengers need to make payment for premium SMS charges.

Process of fetching PNR status:

Send an SMS with text PNR followed by the PNR number (without any spaces) to 139.  For ex.: “PNR1234546453” to 139

(2) Checking PNR status using short code of Indian railways 5676747

Passengers can check the PNR status by using alternate short code 5676747 which is officially provided by IRCTC service.

Process of fetching PNR status:

Send an SMS PNR <space><10 digit PNR number> to 5676747

For ex.: “PNR 1234546453” to 5676747

(3) Checking PNR status by sending SMS to 10 digit regular mobile number

Passengers can check the PNR status by sending the SMS to a 10 digit Indian mobile number. This service is provided by Google and is very useful for those passengers who need to check their PNR status for about 3-4 times a day at certain time intervals.

It is useful alternative to other services where passengers are billed at premium rates for sending SMS to 3 digit short codes.

Process of fetching PNR status:

Send an SMS by mentioning only the PNR number to “9773300000”

For ex. SMS: “1234546453” to 9773300000

(4)    Checking PNR status by using GPRS enabled phone:

Passengers, who have an active GPRS enabled phone, can check the PNR status by connecting internet. They need to browse the Indian railways site at www.indianrail.gov.in and insert their PNR status on the “Check PNR” field. The PNR status with the relevant details will be displayed on the screen.

(5)    Checking PNR by making calls to Indian Railways Helpline:

In case passengers are not comfortable with sending SMS and accessing Internet, they can get the PNR status by making calls to Indian railways helpline at 139 and follow the instructions offered by IVRS (Interactive Voice Response) for checking the PNR status.

By sending SMS using mobile is one of the quickest and simple ways of checking the PNR status. Moreover, there has been sharp increase in the internet booking of the railways tickets using the IRCTC website all over India. As India’s internet user base is growing quickly, passengers are using internet services for checking the PNR status.  One advantage of using Internet over SMS for getting PNR status is that one can save on premium SMS charges

All of us have travelled with the Indian Railways at least once and been in many situations that arise before the departure. We wish to know the PNR Status of our ticket if it is in Waitlist or RAC, when would a Train arrive or about its Departure Enquiry and what not.

We do know that Railway has a centralized call centre for all our queries but sometimes we may not prefer to make any calls and wish that our query be solved by an SMS. And so thinking about the convenience of user, Indian Railway has listed the SMS Codes using which users can make use of multiple services by just sending an SMS

139-Rail Sampark”, the national enquiry for Indian Railways has been in operation for around 5 years now. The services on this number i.e. 139 handles enquiries pertaining to PNR Status, Current Train running position, Accommodation availability and Fare Enquiry.

Apart from voice enquiry on IVRS, the above mentioned services are also available through SMS. Passenger can get the desired information by sending SMS to 139 in the following format.

The details of SMSs services available and the format are as under:

1. For ticket status Enquiry:

SMS “PNR <10 Digit PNR Number>

For example: PNR 4341568666

2. For Train Arrival/Departure Enquiry:

SMS “AD <Train number> <STD code of Station>”

For example: AD 12012 011

3. For Accommodation availability:

SMS “SEAT <Train number> <DOJ**ddmmyy> <Station from: STD code> <station to: STD code> <class> <Quota>***

For example SEAT 12561 010712 0542 0571 SL G

4. Fare enquiry

SMS “FARE <Train number> < DOJ**ddmmyy> <Station from: STD code> <station to: STD code> <class> <Quota>***

For Example: FARE 12561 010712 0542 0571 SL G

5. Time table:

SMS “TIME <train number>

For example: TIME 12561

6. Spot/ Locate train:

SMS “SPOT <train number> or LOCATE <train number>

For example: SPOT 12561 or LOCATE 12561

7. Train Name/Number:

SMS “TN <train number> or SMS “TN <train name>

For Example TN 12724 or TN AP EXPRESS

8.      Getting all syntaxes

To get the above all mentioned syntaxes, SMS HELP or RAIL to 139

Note: Quota is optional field. For example, please enter G for general, CK for tatkal

For CLASS field, please enter 1A for First AC, 2A for Second AC, 3A for third AC, SL for Sleeper, CC for AC Chair Car, 2S for Second Sitting

The service is also available on USSD for Reliance, Uninor, Docomo and Vodafone Telephone Service Providers. Just dial *139# to avail the USSD facility for enquiry of PNR, Arrival/Departure etc

IRCTC has introduced the latest initiative for checking the Railway ticket PNR status, train fair, seat availability, arrival or departure, train running status and train name/number/time using a single window information through universal number called 139-Rail Sampark.

In other words, you may obtain information regarding the PNR status, train running status for both arrivals and departures, Accommodation Availability Enquiry on Trains till Departure, Details of train Fare, Train Schedule /Timetable and train Name/ Number enquiries etc. on your mobile phone through SMS facility.