Possible Client for Orbitz
I was in the New Delhi train station this afternoon buying tickets, and it was a very interesting experience.
As a prequel, it took me most of a days worth of pondering the Indian rail system before I felt comfortable enough to begin ordering tickets. Once you “get it” it is actually pretty straightforward, but it is very different from my previous ticket ordering interactions with amtrac or airlines, and until I was familiar with how things were arranged, it was very intimidating.
A major source of the confusion stemmed from the India rail website, which inexplicably only lists schedules for immediate connections between two stations. You cannot put in start and end stations and have it figure out the middle. So, for example to get from Delhi to Shimla, you had to already know that it requires a train change in Kalka. For you to even begin to think that Kalka is on the way from Delhi to Shimla, and thus might have a role to play in your travel plans, you need to have a better knowledge of Indian geography than I had... You can quickly see how the way things are set up makes it difficult to travel between places you do not know. Rather than rant further about the Indian rail website, let me just say that if it were like Orbitz.com, in which you enter start and end destinations and let it make suggested routs, then I’d guess 2/3 of the travel agents in India would be out of a job.
Okay. Back to the train station ticket counter. It was very crowded, with about 7 or 8 bank-teller like windows in front of which rows of 15-20 people were lined up. The teller windows have written on the wall above them helpful purchasing advice in English and Hindi. “Do not purchase tickets from touts, such reservations are not guaranteed” and so forth.
To purchase a ticket you must wait in one line, “the enquiry line” to get a “Reservation Requisition Form” from a bored looking elderly man. You then fill it out with your travel plans, and then wait in front of one of the bank-teller windows in order to have the information typed into the computer by another bored man, who also accepts money for the ticket.
As a prequel, it took me most of a days worth of pondering the Indian rail system before I felt comfortable enough to begin ordering tickets. Once you “get it” it is actually pretty straightforward, but it is very different from my previous ticket ordering interactions with amtrac or airlines, and until I was familiar with how things were arranged, it was very intimidating.
A major source of the confusion stemmed from the India rail website, which inexplicably only lists schedules for immediate connections between two stations. You cannot put in start and end stations and have it figure out the middle. So, for example to get from Delhi to Shimla, you had to already know that it requires a train change in Kalka. For you to even begin to think that Kalka is on the way from Delhi to Shimla, and thus might have a role to play in your travel plans, you need to have a better knowledge of Indian geography than I had... You can quickly see how the way things are set up makes it difficult to travel between places you do not know. Rather than rant further about the Indian rail website, let me just say that if it were like Orbitz.com, in which you enter start and end destinations and let it make suggested routs, then I’d guess 2/3 of the travel agents in India would be out of a job.
Okay. Back to the train station ticket counter. It was very crowded, with about 7 or 8 bank-teller like windows in front of which rows of 15-20 people were lined up. The teller windows have written on the wall above them helpful purchasing advice in English and Hindi. “Do not purchase tickets from touts, such reservations are not guaranteed” and so forth.
To purchase a ticket you must wait in one line, “the enquiry line” to get a “Reservation Requisition Form” from a bored looking elderly man. You then fill it out with your travel plans, and then wait in front of one of the bank-teller windows in order to have the information typed into the computer by another bored man, who also accepts money for the ticket.
posted by Linton at 2:19 PM
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