Train journeys are a way of life for many and thanks to the initiatives of the Indian Railways, the entire system of booking train tickets has become a lot more accessible to travelers. There was a time when there were only two avenues one could book their tickets. The first option was to walk into a railway station or a reservation center and stand in line too book tickets for a train journey, sometimes for hours. The other was to approach a travel agent and cough up the amount that he quoted for a ticket. Both alternatives caused a considerable amount of distress for passengers as in the first case, valuable time was lost and in the second instance, valuable money. The advent of the Government of India enterprise, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited has however brought in a breath of fresh air into the system of ticket booking. Today all it takes is an IRCTC log in and tickets can be booked in a jiffy.

The world is a busy place these days and no one really has the time to waste waiting in long queues at the railway station anymore. Thanks to the system that has been set in place by the IRCTC as well as travel portals, a train ticket can now be booked from the comfort of a traveler's home or office or even on a laptop in case the person is already on the road. Smart phones too have come into the picture to make things easier and one can book their tickets through special apps that make the entire process a cakewalk. The issue of grabbing confirmed tickets is what keeps travelers on tenterhooks though and this is something that is entirely dependent on one factor, timing!

The earlier one books the ticket, more are the chances of grabbing a conformed seat. The bookings for most trains open even a few months in advance. Yet, the high demand for train travel ensures that all the seats are booked within days, and in the case of popular routes in the holiday season, even in a matter of hours. Even a few days from the date of opening of bookings, the bookings sport a waiting list, even though the date of journey is still months away! One should however realize that even if their tickets do show up on the waiting list, the plenty of time that lies between the booking date and the date of journey is sufficient to hope for other cancellations that eventually lead to tickets on the waiting list being confirmed. Thanks to the option of the IRCTC log in, all this can be handled from the comfort of one's home and office now!