PNR status - Check Indian Railways / IRCTC PNR Status

 PNR status - Check Indian Railways / IRCTC PNR Status

Indian Railway introduced the simplest way to check your Railway ticket status using SMS messages. Just send an SMS on 57886 through your mobile phone now to get any information on Railways.  Now all the enquiries like Train Alert, PNR Status, Train Status, Seat Availability, Train Schedule, Train Information, Train Time Table, Train Fare etc offered on the web site www.indianrail.gov.in are available on your mobile phone through SMS facility. For more information on the mobile service providers and the key words to be used on the mobile, please click here

First Indian Railway train was run in 1853 between Mumbai and Thane. Mumbai and Thane are western coastal districts of Maharashtra. Current Indian Railway trains are the result of gradual development in technology. Today it runs thousands of daily express and local passenger trains. Railway has categorized these trains according to their average speed and number of halts on their route. 

Below are the list of train types:

Metro Trains: These trains are equipped with latest technologies and facilities. It currently runs in few metro cities of India like Delhi and Kolkata. Such metro trains are in demand and government had planned its expansion in other metro cities as well. Metro Rail tickets do not generate unique PNR number because one can not reserve a seat in these trains. These are moderate in speed and generally runs on their scheduled time.

Suburban Locals: They run only in few big Indian cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. These are also examples of trains for which seat reservation is not possible and hence one can not get pnr status for tickets. These are further divided into slow locals and fast locals. Slow locals halt on every station while the fast ones halt only on main important stations.

Passenger Trains: Passenger trains can also be further classified into slow and fast passenger trains. They run between important small distanced cities.Slow passenger trains have stoppage at every single station in between their route. Reserved tickets are not available and hence unique pnr number generation is not done for tickets.

Express & Super-fast Express: These trains are relatively faster than the above mentioned. They run across long distances and one can book a reserve ticket in these trains. As tickets are reserved, booking system generates unique ten digit pnr number on each tickets to identify the traveler. PNR status checking facility are made available for non reserved train tickets.

Shatabdi and Janshatabdi Express Trains: These are high speed trains available in Indian Railway to connect moderate distanced important stations. They do not have sleeper coaches. They only contain seats for seating. Main difference between Shatabdi and Janshatabdi trains is that Janshatabdi trains have both AC and non AC coaches while Shatabdi trains are fully air-conditioned. Seats can be reserved and pnr status can be checked.

Garib Rath: These trains have AC 3 tier coaches and ticket price is relatively lower than the other air conditioned trains. 

Rajdhani Express: These are fully air conditioned trains and connects major cities of India. They are high priority trains and generally runs on their scheduled time. They have very few stoppage in between their route. Seat reservation facility is available in these trains. One can check Rajdhani Express pnr status on this website.

Duranto Express: These are source to destination train service started recently by Indian Railway. From source to destination means, these trains do not stop on any station that comes in their route.

What is PNR Status: PNR is abbreviation for Passenger Name Record. In the context of Indian Railway Reservation System, it is a unique ten digit number that is associated with a ticket. This unique number is automatically generated by Computer Reservation System (CRS) which is like an indexing number in the database where the details of the passenger or group of passengers are stored. This database details also include important information about the passenger’s current reservation status which continuously get updated with every cancellation if ticket is unreserved.

Where to find PNR number on ticket: PNR number is generally printed at the top left corner of the printed tickets (tickets that are taken from railway station booking window). In case of the E – Ticket (tickets that are booked online or through IRCTC website), it is mentioned at top in separate cell.