Online ticketing has forever changed the way many Indians book railway tickets. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has seen a phenomenal growth in transactions on its online ticketing site irctc.co.in. In October of last year, the site had an average 1.25 lakh transactions every month (up from about 85,000 transaction in May 2004). This growing appetite for booking railway tickets online is reflected in a survey of online users by Internet and Online Association of India. It was the third most popular category of products after books and electronic items. 39% of respondents had bought railway tickets online and 48% were planning to buy this in the future.

The popularity of online booking is encouraging IRCTC to introduce new methods such as e-ticketing and mobile ticketing. "We have just made it more convenient for people to book railway tickets. What we had to achieve is change mindsets and attitudes. People needed to check it out, see if it works, absorb this new experience. Ultimately, if you give people a service that works and make it convenient for them to access the service, they will use it," said Amitabh Pandey, Group General Manager (IT Services), IRCTC, in an earlier interview with IOA Bytes.

Railway ticketing is a perfect example of an increasingly popular self-service economy. Airline, cinema, hotel bookings are all going online. Online ticketing benefits both provider and user. The provider benefits from lower infrastructure and people costs, while users get a convenient way to transacting.

According to the IOA survey, those in the 26-35 age group are the largest purchasers of online tickets, accounting for 47% of all age groups. Those under the 'Married with kids' category accounted for 51% of the transactions across groups based on marital status. Sales of railway tickets are highest in Mumbai (25%), followed by Delhi (21%), Chennai (8%), Bangalore (7%), Ahmedabad (2%) and Kanpur (2%).

Here's a breakdown of the demographics:

Gender

Male: 40%
Female: 35%

Age Group
18-25: 33%
26-35: 40%
36-45: 42%
46-60: 42%

The future of ticketing is bright. And IRCTC is keen on improving the service to get more and more people to abandon queues at railway stations and instead click to book. "We plan to offer friendlier and more payment options. That is something most people need. And two is to offer more ways of accessing our applications and extend the ways in which people can book tickets," Amitabh Pandey said. That is already happening with e-ticketing and mobile booking.