What is the difference between e ticket and i ticket

The advantage here is that you need not have to physically go to the railway station counter, but rather book it from the comfort of your home. It is particularly useful for those who are unable to physically go to a railway booking counter to book the train reservation.

In case of i ticket, the booking procedure remains the same as booking an e ticket. However, it doesn't get sent to your mailbox. Difference between e ticket and i ticket Booking Time-Frame: While e tickets can be booked at any time till the final chart is prepared on the day of travel, i tickets must be booked atleast 3 days in advance.

That's because IRCTC requires a minimum of 3 days to deliver the ticket to your doorstep via courier service. Cost: The cost of e ticket is inclusive of actual fare plus service charges.

So the cost of i tickets is slightly more than e tickets. Tatkal Facility: Tatkal quota tickets can be booked as e tickets, however the tatkal facility can't be availed with i tickets as the tickets are required to be booked atleast 3 days in advance. Getting a duplicate i ticket is a difficult task. One has to visit the railway reservation counter and provide the PNR details to get a duplicate copy of i ticket. Duplicate i ticket also attracts additional charges.

Waiting List Tickets: Unconfirmed e tickets which are in the waiting list at the time of chart preparation automatically get cancelled. So one can't travel with waiting list e tickets. In case of i tickets, there is no automatic cancellation for wait listed tickets. So if you need to travel at any cost, even in unreserved compartment, then opting for i ticket makes sense. Online cancellation facility is not available for i tickets.

For trains starting up to 12 noon the chart preparation is usually done on the previous night. You can log on to www. However if the Identity Card holder in the original ticket is selected for cancellation, all the passengers in the ticket would be cancelled and a fresh reservation will have to be made, duly including the ID particulars of another passenger.

Cancellation would be confirmed online and the refund would be credited back to the account used for booking as for normal Internet tickets. If there is any partial cancellation of ticket please ensure that the modified ticket Electronic Reservation Slip is printed separately.

Modification on e-Tickets such as change of boarding point, change of Name is not permitted. I-ticket is like PRS ticket and E-ticket is line on line ticket. I-ticket required physicaly couriered to U whereas copy of E-ticket can serve the purpose. Go to Mobile site. YOU are responsible for independently confirming the validity of information through other sources.

India Rail Info Privacy Policy. Rake Reversal at Any Stn. With RSA. Rake Reversal at Dep Stn. The most direct consequence for this is the difference between the booking date and actual travel date. With an I-Ticket, you need to book at least two days before the actual date of travel to give time for the tickets to be mailed to you. You should also make sure that the address is easy to find and that there is someone there to receive the ticket.

Since you just print the E-Ticket, there is no associated delays. You can even book on the day of travel and just bring the printout with you.

But to ensure that the person bringing the E-Ticket is the one that booked it, you need to bring the identification papers you supplied when booking. This is used to confirm your identity. With an I-Ticket, you need not present identification papers as the tickets would serve that purpose. You also need to consider that an I-Ticket is more expensive due to the cost of delivering the ticket to your location. The only additional cost of an E-Ticket is the cost of printing it which so small to be considered significant.

In general, given the same destinations, an E-Ticket would usually cost less than an I-Ticket. Lastly, you need to consider the situation where you might need to cancel the ticket for whatever reason. With an E-Ticket, cancellation is very easy and takes effect instantly. Not so with an I-Ticket, especially when the tickets have been sent.