Indian Railways Enquiry Apps For Windows 8: Which One is Best?
Booking a railway ticket Online is a laborious task that you have to do in one time or other. Before you can book a ticket, you will be needing all the details about the available train between source and destination, Station Codes, availability etc.
While you can get these details easily by visiting Indian railways official website. However if you are working on Windows 8, you can get these details directly from your Home Screen. Here, we will be reviewing two Indian Railways Windows 8 applications that will help you in performing tasks quickly.
Indian Railways Apps for Windows 8
1. Rail Enquiry
This is a very simple app. With Rail Enquiry you can get Train, Station and PNR information instantly. You can select the information field and enter data at left side of the application, while the results are displayed on the right. When you open the application, by default it loads up with information about Express trains, Special trains etc. running across various stations.
If you want information about any train on the list, just click on the train tab and the detailed information will be shown including each station from source to destination with times. Now lets take a look on how this application handles the queries.
Train Search
In trains, you can find a train by its name or even directly with the train no. The result will be listed in tiles, click on the tile to get more details about the train.
Train details include train schedule, days running on, availability and current status. To know the present train status click on the tab beneath train status with the present date.
Rest of the detailed results will appear below current status. Also you can see that the stations already covered by the train are indicated by different color.
Checking Availability & Fare
To check availability of seats in any train first of all you have to select the train. Once you have entered the train info screen, right click on on blank space. You will see the availability option will appear at bottom of the screen.
Thing to keep in mind is that the fare and availability is for the particular train you have opted to see the details. The source and destination will vary within the train’s station range. So this is all about looking for train information, fare and availability.
Station Search
To search any station, you can use the station code directly if you know it or use the station name to select from search results. Clicking on the appropriate search result will show list of all the trains scheduled from that station in 2-4 hours. You can also get live position of trains on Google Maps using Rail Radar.
Good thing is you get information about Express trains as well as Passenger trains. What I really like was the detailing of each tile.
PNR Status
The PNR status check option is quiet handy and simply gives you the details of your booking. Just enter the PNR number and click the search button.
Features I like in Railway Enquiry
[alert-success]- It is very simple to use.
- All the information given are detailed.
- Information about trains halting at any station in duration of 4 hours.
- Current train running status and delays.
- Availability & Fare are shown in single query.
Things I didn’t like
[alert-warning]- No option to search trains between two stations, that’s a big miss. I was wondering why this feature was missed! Else this could be the perfect Indian Rail Information App.
- The search bar does not take “enter” as an input, so every tie you have to click on the search button.
2. Indian Rail Enquiry App
This is a less featured app but stands useful due to particular reasons. It has got train search feature between stations. With the Auto complete search feature its handy if either you do not know the station code or the correct spelling of the station.
Train Search
The interface in not so brilliant and you will be disheartened to see the result after using the previous application. The train list just seem like image without any further information.
It shows the availability of the train in days of the week. There is no option to know the seat availability. The only good thing is as I said earlier that with this app you can see the trains available between stations and select according to your convenient day.
Time Schedule
The train schedule is shown in horizontal array. It takes from the source to destination stations with the time of arrival and stoppage duration. So now if the train travels long distance and numerous stations are covered then you will have a hard time scrolling through them.
On a good note, the distance between the stations are given. So its a good addition to one’s general knowledge.
Train Fare
This is where the creepiness of the app crawls in. It works in its own mood, sometimes the results are displayed otherwise you have to keep waiting for it. At times, I have also noticed that the fair is calculated for the stations you have provided currently but the text appears for the previous search.
The best part it you have no choice in selecting the class for fair calculation. For the search I made, it showed fair for AC coach. What if I do not want to travel in AC. I want fares for specific coach and not anything else.
PNR Status
It does what it is meant for. Just enter the PNR number you want to check status for. Result is displayed instantaneously.
Booking Tickets
If you wish you can book your ticket directly from within the application. Literally it is of no use as it will just open IRCTC webpage within the app. In my personal opinion I am better off relying on browser for booking general or online Tatkal tickets. There are also other 3rd party booking sites available but we all know that ultimately they all refer to worthless big daddy, “IRCTC”.
- Book Confirmed Tatkal Tickets from IRCTC
Features I liked in Indian Rail Enquiry App
[alert-success]- You can get list of Trains between two stations.
- Distance between Stations is displayed.
Things I didn’t like
[alert-warning]- Overall interface. Specially the manner in which results are displayed.
- Fare calculation is not convenient.
- Seat availability not shown.
- Very poorly detailed information.
- No information on current running status of train.
Conclusion
Well, we see there are few drawbacks in both the apps. The one still preferred is Rail Enquiry app as it is dynamic and provides way more details. I hope in future we will have better apps which combine all the features at one place.
The only workaround for now is either use both this apps; One for train information and other for details or use browser. Rail Enquiry otherwise excels on my choice list.
This was about Windows 8, while I prefer Indian Rail Info app on Android.
Download Indian Railway Apps For Windows 8
Search “Rail Inquiry” and “Indian Railway Enquiry” in Windows 8 App store to download and install them on Windows 8 PC.
