Checking Seat Availability at Indian Railway Website
Then click on Seat Availability Availability. It is the middle option on top menu. You can also open that page by directly visiting the page through this link: http://www.indianrail.gov.in/seat_Avail.html
A page will open exactly like image shown below:
Fill the form given. Choose your journey date. If you don’t know Station code Click here to find out. You can also find out the Train Number here. Under Quota Options you can find different quotas. Here is what they mean:
| SNo. | Code | Tatkal Quota |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DF | Defence Quota |
| 2 | DP | Duty Pass Quota |
| 3 | FT | Foreign Tourist Quota for those holding valid Visa |
| 4 | GN | General Quota(by default you fall in this) |
| 5 | GNRS | General Quota Road Side |
| 6 | HO | Head quarters/high official Quota |
| 7 | HP | Physically Handicapped Quota(you need to have certificate for this from a doctor) |
| 8 | LB | Lower Berth |
| 9 | LD | Ladies Quota |
| 10 | OS | Out Station |
| 11 | PH | Parliament house Quota |
| 12 | PQ | Pooled Quota |
| 13 | Quota | Description |
| 14 | RC(RAC) | Reservation Against Cancellation |
| 15 | RE | Railway Employee Staff on Duty for the train |
| 16 | RS | Road Side |
| 17 | SS | Female(above 45 Year)/Senior Citizen/Travelling alone |
| 18 | YU | Yuva |
Now you can click on the Get Availability button to find the seat Availability. Now the second part.
Checking Seat Availability On IRCTC Website
Checking seat availability on IRCTC website is easy if you IRCTC user id. All you have to do is IRCTC login. After login you will see a form Under Plan My Journey Tab. The best part is you don’t need to remember station codes for this. As you enter your full station name it will show you the station code. See the example IRCTC form image below:
Then Enter your To Station. Enter Journey Date. Select ticket type for online ticket it is e-ticket and for offline ticket it is i-ticket. Click on Submit. A list of trains will be shown to you as illustrated in image below:
Select the quota for which you want the availability to check. Then In front train for which you want to check the berth availability click on the desired train class. This will show you the available seats on a particular day in a specific train of your choice.
The best part is that you get to know availability for different dates and also get to know about the train fare.
That’s all for checking seat availability online from both the sites. If you have any questions you can ask me in comments below.