ClearTrip has launched train booking and is the first OTA to offer this service.
The site is neatly done (of all the web players, it won’t be wrong to say that CT has the best UI) and what’s really commendable is the presentation of information. For instance:
- A single search provides users with train fares, routes and schedules simultaneously.
- Displays multiple stations from a city instead of forcing users to search for specific stations;
- Instantly compare fares from multiple classes such as AC 2-Tier and AC 3-Tier, letting them upgrade to a higher class of travel if they choose [ct blog]
Quick stats on Indian Travel Industry
Flight
- Domestic air travel has registered a steep fall of about 40% during the last one year
- Passenger demand growth fell to 3.8%,
- Passenger load factors dropped to 77.6% – [Read oore on Threat to Indian OTAs]
On Booking: - 90% of booking is done via the agents.
- Around 35,000 agents and sub-agents will be forced to shut shop, because of commission erosion (starting October 2008).
Train
- 9,000 passenger trains/17 million passengers travel daily by train
- One of the most trafficked railroad networks in the world–over 18,000 trains operate daily – source
- In the month of Aug’08 – IRCTC website recorded transactions worth Rs. 453 crores ! – details.
The equation is quite clear – OTAs need to expand into other modes of travel (“flight booking is just not taking off!“) – and be the travel planner (and not just a transactional site).
The monetization will come from services and of course, package deals – challenge remains the commoditized nature of this industry.
Whats your opinion?
Recommended Read: Indian Postal Department launches Ticketing Distribution – Threat to OTAs?
France-based Sprice enters India
Sprice has launched India portal – http://www.in.sprice.com/ that offers information on air fares, hotel rates and traveller reviewed hotels – though the current implementation shows only hotel reviews.
Rediff too in this game
http://indian-railways.rediff.com/index.php
An very interesting addition to Cleartrip, but i feel now ppl would use this facility more for the ease of search and finally perform the booking through the irctc website…..Will wait for results of revenues from the transaction fees!!
I just checked out their site. Very nice. Just yesterday I was suffering through the Indian Railways site – frustrating. I was able to get the info I needed at cleartrip within minutes. Way to go Cleartrip!
I have been using cleartrip for my flight bookings. I like the fact that they provide the final price after taxes right at the booking time and their prices are generally lower than others (maybe only Rs 50 lower, but still lower)
Just checked out their train offerings and really liked the way they have presented the information. And their ticket prices are actually around Rs 10 cheaper than irctc. Which is phenomenal considering some part of the price goes to irctc.
At the same time, this also means that there own profit in train bookings is negligible (They can earn much more by placing ads). The only advantage they can get through train bookings is higher traffic and better branding. It would be interesting to see how they grow from here.
I am not sure where and how did you find cheaper fare, because today i checked the ticket price in Bangalore – Bhopal route and i was surprised that AC3 fare is Rs200 more than IRCTC and AC2 fare is Rs262 more than what is quoted on railway website.
If i can get tickets by paying Rs30 on IRCTC as commission, why would i go for cleartrip who are charging Rs262?
I believe trains are for budget travelers who are more sensitive about this huge commission, so only those who are in hurry of booking tickets might fall in this trap.
Anyways, congratulation for the clean and clear interface! If they can provide tickets on the IRCTC rate, i would be more than happy to buy from Cleartrip because IRCTC website is big pain in A**.
@shashank
Thank you for visiting cleartrip trains.
I just checked Bangalore-Bhopal fares and could not find the difference in the fares(apart from cleartrip service fee difference).
These are the searches I performed
http://www.cleartrip.com/trains/results?from_city=Bangalooru&to_station=Bhopal%20%20Jn&class=3A&date=01-10-2008&adults=1&children=0&male_seniors=0&female_seniors=0
Sampark Kranti (2649)
Cleartrip fare Rs. 1,304
IRCTC Rs. 1261 + transaction charge = Rs. 1,284
Karnataka Exp (2627)
Cleartrip fare Rs. 1,373
IRCTC Rs. 1329 + transaction charge = Rs. 1353
Rajdhani Exp (2429)
Cleartrip Rs. 1,863
IRCTC Rs. 1810 + transaction charge = Rs. 1,843
I took the transaction service fee mentioned here http://www.irctc.co.in/cgi-bin/bv60.dll/irctc/services/faq.do#Q5 at irctc.
I did the same for 2A and found the difference to be the same i.e. cleartrip service fee.
Moreover on the search page itself we show the price down to the last rupee , leaving nothing to imagination/calculation!
@Piyush,
yesterday i have checked fare for 19th Nov and AC2 fare was 1962 instead of 1771, which is in fact the fare on 20Nov(Train route differs) so i thought fares are disproportionate. But today i checked it and it is looking fine
I wish that was my mistake but i don’t think that was.
Shashank, thanks for checking again. I think you are looking at the fare for “Sampark Kranti”. Like you mentioned above, this train runs on two different routes bearing the number 2629 on tuesdays and thursdays; and with 2649 on rest of the days of the week.
For train number 2629, the fare is always displayed as Rs 1962 and for 2649 its Rs 1771. Irrespective of when we do a search, these fares would remain same. The possibility of a fare mix up due to same train name is rather unlikely as they are treated as two completely different trains (owing to the different train number).
And thanks for the appreciation, it means a lot to all of us here.
Since confusion is cleared now, once again Kudos to cleartrip team for providing me much easier interface to book tickets. lets see how makemytrip and other OTA will implement it. As always i am sure that you guys will be the winner if rated in terms of usability.