Use RailYatri app to predict seat confirmation ahead of booking

NEW DELHI: This Rakshabandhan, Indian Railways will treat its passengers with the free all-in-one train app ‘RailYatri’ to predict, plan, track and share passengers’ train trip in a simpler and in a more organized manner.

Manish Rathi, CEO and Co-founder, RailYatri.in said, “For every brother and sister, living away from home, Rakshabandhan is the most awaited, missed and loved event of the year. Every brother wants to spend Rakshabandhan with his sister. Ticket bookings start months ago to ensure a confirmed ticket. Unfortunately, the excitement of going home and spending the festival with the siblings starts fading away when one is faced with endless unanswered questions such as which train to take, which class to book, would leaving on Friday be better or Monday. In the end, the desperation of getting a confirmed ticket makes one book tickets in many trains and therefore, looses time and money in the process.”

Offering a solution to this dilemma is RailYatri app, with waitlist prediction, which can be downloaded directly from Google Playstore or by giving a missed call on 08080809551. RailYatri’s ‘Seat Availability Forecast’ predicts the future of a train ticket based on historical ticket confirmation trends. These predictions help train travelers be smart and plan the train trips better. “We use over 2 million PNR data points, largest compared to any other prediction system and we add more data points every minute,” explained Rathi, who has over 20 years of engineering experience.

How does it predict seat confirmation probability? “The app analyses ticket confirmation data for similar tickets, trains in the past. Past ticketing trends predict future seat confirmation chances. “We use data analytics for the predictions. The predictions maintain confirmation thresholds such as rush timings and rush days of the week, class of travel, busiest stations for on-boarding and off-boarding and performance of the train,” answered Rathi.

How can users save time and money? “Users don’t have to ask around for the confirmation chances and save their time by just looking at the RailYatri prediction. In the desperation of getting a confirmed ticket, users tend to book multiple tickets and sometimes spend more than an air ticket,” quips Rathi. “Our prediction algorithm helps users to make informed and confident decisions.”

How to look for PNR prediction in the app? Rathi explained that it can be done in 2-3 simple steps.

1. After downloading the app by giving a missed call on 08080809551, click on ‘Seat Availability w/Forecast’ from the main menu on the top left corner.
2. If you know the train, enter the train number or enter the on-boarding and destination station along with the date and class of travel to get the seat availability prediction.
3. The app has a helpful notification/alerts mechanism which keeps notifying the users of any change in the PNR status.

The slightly over-a-year-old app has already amassed over 12 lakh downloads, with 95% users returning to the app for more information. “Since its launch a year ago, over 5 million confirmation queries have been answered by RailYatri,” commented Rathi.

RailYatri is the brainchild of Kapil Raizada, Sachin Saxena and Manish Rathi. According to them, RailYatri is changing the ecosystem of train travel in India. Not only PNR prediction, the next-gen app also helps share real-time trips with family and friends so they know how their journey is progressing by checking their location in the app or on the browser.