IRCTC Rave
Indian Railways online ticket booking rocks. I've always been a fan of train travelling since I've been a kid and ever since I moved to Bangalore, I have been reasonably frequent in travelling between the two cities, raking my train miles up.
However, the one thing I despise is to stand in the long queue that takes forever to reach the counter, and that by itself is so putting off that on the few occasions that I actually managed to get myself to get to the train station in Bangalore / Mysore on saturday mornings / monday mornings respectively, the serpentine queue had me put off no end and there have been occasions during which I've then changed my mind to ride on the INR 190 volvo bus.
Now the air conditioned Airavat volvo bus to Mysore costs INR 200, since about March 2008.
I had noticed quite a few people on trains resorting to online booking, which, in my opinion was a superstud way of avoiding the rush, and I had signed up for an irctc account as well, in order to be able to do this. However, for some strange reason, my bank's debit facility would always conk off when I was making payments, thereby rendering me stranded and unable to use this feature.
I decided to travel by train this weekend to Mysore, because paying INR 200 both ways was not really worth it, especially considering how painful it would actually be to take four hours to get to the Mysore bus stand after departure from Bangalore's Majestic bus stand at any time except before 0700 and after 2200.
In addition, I would always feel like I paid more on the way back from Mysore to Bangalore, and I'd probably feel this way because I would alight about 12 km before the actual bus stand, and that would make me feel short-changed.
I now have to pay INR 10 extra for the online booking of my tickets, but I end up spending only about INR 136 as opposed to INR 400, and the Chamundi express train that I am planning to take each way to Mysore and back to Bangalore, should in all probability not be delayed too much. Savings of INR 264.
Meh....NOT!
Up with train travel, and up with online ticket booking!