IRCTC Alternatives for Railway Ticket Booking in 2023

If you're fed up with the ticket booking experience on IRCTC, there are thankfully other popular options to buy tickets (sometimes at lower prices due to offers) from these websites - 

1. Redbus / RedRail
2. MakeMyTrip
3. EaseMyTrip
4. goibibo
5. Yatra
6. ixigo
7. RailYatri.in
8. AbhiBus
9. Amazon.in
10. Trainman.in (acquired by Adani Digital Labs in June 2023)
11. Paytm

Most of these sites (there are ~28 authorized B2C partners) may have agent charges but occasionally provide a few additional benefits like ₹0 convenience fee, ₹0 Payment Gateway fee on payments via UPI (IRCTC charges ₹20) & lower cancellation charges.

You will need a pre-existing IRCTC account though to buy tickets through these sites and deal with the limitations enforced by IRCTC. The maximum number of bookings allowed per month is12 and maximum number of passengers booked per ticket is 6. So, a maximum of 36 passengers can be booked in a month with an IRCTC account.

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