Indian Railways — rail e ticket booking

Address:

700084

MY OBSERVATIONS, GRIVEIANCES AND SUGGESTION ON BETA VERSION OF IRCTC NEWLY LAUNCHED WEBSITE:
I AM A SENIOR CITIZEN OF 66 YEARS OF AGE AND RETIRED. I AM NOT A TECH SAVY PERSON AND USE COMPUTER FOR NORMAL REQUIREMENT OF MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
My suggestions are:
A. Restrict the captcha to one time,
B. Allot even number of berths in each coach for senior citizens/eligible woman passengers avoiding split of passengers,
C. Do not effect payment if preferred berths are not allotted which attract more work with refund issue for both
My explanations of the above are enumerated below:
While booking of tickets in the new website of IRCTC I observe certain areas which, in my opinion, are to be taken care of:
1) CAPTCHA :
There are three (3)areas where one has to fill the captcha to book tickets:
a) First, at the time of login,
b) Second, at the time of booking, and
c) Third, at the time of payment.
By these, what you want to prevent?-- Restricting agents or people who are booking their own tickets? Agents, Cyber cafe people are mostly young generation who are well conversant in computer and first in typing and they can complete the process much faster than general public and senior citizens like us. Moreover, what captcha prevent is not clear to me. Still, if this is to be used it should be only at the payment page to prevent hacking of customers deta.
2) ALLOCATION OF BERTH FOR SENIOR CITIZENS AND ELIGIBLE LADY TRAVELLERS ( IN ODD NUMBER IN ONE COACH):
Earlier, this facility was given to the passenger of above category when travelling alone. Presently, this has been done away with and maximum two (2) passengers ticket can be booked under the above category . Here, lies my observation. So far my knowledge goes, presently, three (3) berths are allotted in each coach of 3rd AC and 2nd AC. Why this is so? Why not even number of berths allotted in a coach instead of odd number. When, you are giving this facility to two(2) passengers then there is all possibility that a pair of passenger will be allocated in split coach. This actually happened to me in recent 2/3 travels and last time I have to negotiate with a passenger requesting his upper side berth (3AC) in exchange of my lower berth to accommodate me to my wife's coach as both o[censored]s are not in good state of health. This also happened in booking of tickets of one of my relatives. They are 72 years and 66 years age couple and has been allotted in two different coaches.
My suggestion is please allot all the berths in one coach under this category or at least even number of berths in one coach so that there is no instance of split coach allotment.
3) EFFECT OF PAYMENT WITHOUT PREFERRED BERTH:
At the time of booking, some preferences are appeared in booking screen: i.e. i] book if all tickets are confirmed, ii) if, at least, two lower berths are allotted, iii) if, at least, one berth is allotted in lower berth etc .
After, clicking any of these, again one screen appears " DO YOU WANT PROCEED WITHOUT THESE" CLICK YES OR NO. If no is clicked and any of these conditions are not fulfilled the passenger will come to know only after making payment. So far my knowledge goes, this is different in case of counter booking and online booking. In railway booking counter, if the preference are not fulfilled the gentleman in the booking counter generally ask whether he should proceed or not. This facility should be at per with counter booking system. Passenger should take decision before making payment. With the present system passenger has to follow up with the refund and many a times no information of refund comes.

I request you to go through with the above and make necessary changes in your website so that people gets benefit from this.
Thanks and regards,
PIYUS KANTI SARKAR, mob-[protected], [protected]