The chances of getting a confirmed ticket on a long-distance mail or express train may improve, if a new feature being rolled out by a travel portal claiming to predict the sellout time of available tickets proves to be accurate.
Noida-based RailYatri portal has added a feature that claims it can predict how soon tickets will get sold out for each train. The feature, rush-o-meter, predicts the sellout time of available tickets using historic data, booking rate and deep-data analysis.
For example, if there are 43 seats left on a particular train, the feature will tell you the hours/days by which these seats be sold out, determined based on the booking rate (speed) of this train.
“While there are many who predict ticket confirmation, this feature will tell you the speed of ticket booking on trains and help you book the tickets at the right time,” according to Manish Rathi, CEO and co-founder, RailYatri.
Nearly 50% of the long-distance trains get filled up within two weeks after booking opens.
While in some trains tickets will be available for months, there are many trains for which tickets get sold out within five to six hours.
On high-demand ‘supersonic’ trains, tickets get sold out within the first 12 hours. Trains on which tickets get sold out within 6-7 days are called ‘subsonic’ trains. Also, there are trains for which tickets are available for much longer, and these are ‘chuk chuk’ trains.
The time for advance booking of tickets is 120 days and it is not always possible to make travel plans four months in advance.
The rush-o-meter could increase the chances of getting a confirmed ticket, since travellers will know by when the tickets would be sold out.
The feature also shows when RAC available tickets will turn to waitlist.