If you had tried using the online reservation facility with Indian Railways the most common setbacks that you witness are below.

  1. Steep service charges
  2. Payment Gateway charges
  3. Daylight robbery in case you chose to cancel the tickets.

A petition to this effect to rationalize the charges was sent to the office of Prime Minister on 20 March 2017 vide PMOPG/E/2017/0154217 and a response was obtained on 3rd July 2017 as below.

1. Railway has already withdrawn the service charge of Rs 30/- applicable on transactions against Credit and Debit Cards for purchasing journey tickets w.e.f. 18/05/2016 in case of PRS tickets and 22/12/2016 in case of unreserved tickets. However, the service charge collected by respective banks on use of cards is not under the control of Indian Railway. 2. Cancellation of tickets involves two transactions, namely, one for booking and another for cancellation. Clerkage and cancellation charges are levied to cover the cost of service for issuing and cancellation of tickets which include cost of staff, heavy investment for providing booking/cancellation facility through internet and providing PRS counters even at smaller stations, maintenance cost of the systems, etc. Cancellation charge has been kept high to prevent and curb the malpractice of overbooking and hoarding.