Buying tickets for Indian trains: classes and quotas

Indian trains are probably the most convenient, fastest and cheapest way to get around India. In this article we will tell you about the tricky system of classes and quotas on Indian trains, and also about how to buy tickets for Indian trains online over the internet.

The system of classes and quotas on Indian trains

As everyone probably knows, there are a great many people in India, and they have a natural need to travel around the country. There are also a lot of trains in India, but not so many that everyone who wants to travel can be carried without problems. That is why there is a system of different classes and quotas for train tickets.

Classes of Indian trains

Division into classes of seats is a familiar thing and raises no questions. As a rule, each separate car of a train is given over to one specific class. Indian trains have the following classes:

1. General (GN) is a ticket class without a seat, in a general car. There is no limit on the number of tickets sold. General tickets cost pennies, and it is impossible to buy them online. The ticket shows only the departure station, the destination and the validity period, i.e. you can change trains along the way. As a rule, ticket inspectors (the so-called TTI, Travelling Ticket Inspector) do not visit the general cars, and as a result many passengers do not buy tickets. All in all, buy one if you have no other choice, or if you want to immerse yourself in the culture of the country.
2. Sleeper (SL) is an open-plan sleeper car with three tiers of berths on one side and 2 opposite, the best-value class for budget travel on Indian trains. An iron car with bars on the windows and a bunch of fans on the ceiling. In the daytime everyone sits on the lower berth according to their seat number, and the seats are numbered horizontally. In the evening the middle berth is folded down and vertical numbering is used. The best places are Side Lower and Side Upper, the lower and upper side berths: here you will be most comfortable, especially if you are traveling as a couple. And from these places it is very easy to chase away the illegal Indian passengers.
3. AC 3-Tier Sleeper (3A) is essentially an air-conditioned Sleeper with glass windows, a separate vestibule and closed doors. It costs 2 times as much as Sleeper.
4. AC 2-Tier Sleeper (2A) is a rare class of car. The same as 3A, only, as you have already guessed, with 2 tiers of berths.
5. AC Chair Car (CC) is a bus-style seating car. It is far from available on every train, and only on short distances.
6. First Class AC (1A) is the highest class of car. It costs as much as a flight. Traveling in this class makes no sense whatsoever.

Quotas on Indian trains

Besides classes, Indian trains have several types/statuses of ticket reservation, or quotas:

1. Confirmed is the status of a finally confirmed ticket. Only with a ticket of this status can you count on a legitimate place in the car.
2. Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC): you have half a place in the car on a lower berth. If other passengers cancel their bookings before the train departs, there is a chance that you will get a full place. Otherwise, you will have to squeeze in. But there will be only two of you in one place, so it is no big deal :)
3. Wait List (WL) is the most unpredictable quota. It means that at the moment you have NO place, but if enough already confirmed bookings are canceled before the train departs, you may still get a place. When you book a ticket with Wait List status, you get a queue number like WL99. Gradually this number goes down and, if you are lucky, you get a Confirmed ticket. Otherwise, the booking is dropped and you will have to get your money back.
4. Foreign Tourist Quota (FTQ) is the tourist quota, a pool of tickets set aside for foreign tourists. Such a ticket can be bought only in the following places:
   

   KOLKATA	CHENNAI	BANGALORE	AHMEDABAD
   SECUNDERABAD	JAIPUR	JODHPUR	VARANASI
   NEW DELHI	AGRA-CANTT.	MUMBAI

   At the station in one of these places you need to find the International Tourist Bureau. There they will issue you a ticket under the dedicated tourist quota. 1 hour before the train departs, the remaining seats in this quota go into the general pool. I would like to dispel any ideas you may have about who travels on this quota: it is by no means a car full of white European tourists. Burma, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal are foreign countries too.

5. The Tatkal quota is a special quota with a surcharge of 50 to 400 rupees. Sales of tickets under the Tatkal quota open at 10:00, 1 day before the train departs.

For a deeper understanding of how the quotas work, let me explain that first the free seats in the main quota are filled, and their happy owners get tickets with Confirmed status. What remains are the seats under the RAC, Tatkal, FTQ and WL quotas. Once the main quota is full, people are seated under the RAC quota, 2 people per place, and when that quota runs out too, people are put in the Wait List (WL) queue. FTQ is filled by tourists separately and only at the tourist bureau, Tatkal likewise separately, the day before departure. In parallel, some Confirmed bookings are canceled, and their places go first to the RAC holders, and only after all of them have a separate place are places given to the Wait List passengers.

Buying tickets for Indian trains

There are 2 ways to buy tickets for Indian trains:

Buying an Indian train ticket directly at the station

Cons:

• Most likely you will be buying the ticket in advance, so an extra trip to the station is needed. Stuffiness, lines.
• You will have to deal with an Indian ticket clerk. You may not understand each other.
• You will not see a clear train schedule with prices, classes and seat availability.
• This is so last century :)

Pros:

• Some kinds of tickets (for example, under the tourist and General quotas) can be bought only at the station, at a special window.
• You get a ticket in your hands and with it a sense of stability and confidence that you have a real ticket, not some digits on a phone screen.

Buying a train ticket in India online over the internet

Cons:

• Booking online is impossible between 0:30 and 6:00 a.m. The reasons for this outrage are unknown.
• As mentioned above, tickets of not all classes and quotas can be bought online.

Pros:

• You see all possible trains from station to station, with free seats broken down by class and quota, for any date.
• You can conveniently plan several journeys across the country.
• Payment online with a bank card.
• A refund for an unconfirmed ticket goes back to the bank card automatically.
• Mobile app: book and get information from anywhere.

And while even a child can buy a ticket at the ticket office, the second option takes a bit of figuring out.

How to buy a ticket for an Indian train online over the internet?

First of all, you need to register on the website of Indian Railways, irctc.co.in. To complete the registration you will need to receive a one-time password by SMS to an Indian mobile number starting with +91... If you do not have one, you need to request the one-time password by email at care@irctc.co.in, attaching to the email a copy of the main page of your international passport.

After registering, you theoretically get the ability to book and buy tickets for Indian trains online on your own.

But,

• first, this website is terribly unfriendly and buggy.
• second, back then it did not have a mobile app (as of October 2026 there is an official one, IRCTC Rail Connect).
• third, the original website irctc.co.in accepts payment only by bank cards of Indian banks, which you and I most likely do not have.

And while the first 2 points are not critical, because of the last one you will most likely have to use intermediary services that, for a small fee, let us pay for tickets with a card from any bank. The best known and most popular are:

ClearTrip.com

MakeMyTrip.com

Both sites charge a fee of 10 rupees per ticket. Both services have mobile apps that let you buy tickets for trains in India and track the status of your bookings. I liked ClearTrip better: it is more convenient and less buggy.

Both sites use the Indian Railways website irctc.co.in as the basis for searching and booking tickets, so before you can buy tickets, you will need to link your account from irctc.co.in to the intermediary service, for which a one-time password will be sent by SMS to your phone again, or through support email.

After all these steps, you will be able to search for and buy tickets for Indian trains online over the internet on the website or using the mobile app. You will also be able to track in real time changes in ticket statuses such as Wait List and RAC. And if a WL ticket is not confirmed, the money is automatically refunded to the bank card in full.