How to Use NTES to Know Live Running Status of Train?

By: Monika kumari | onMay 29, 2021

Indian Railways operate 13169 trains to ply 23 million passengers daily. To help the people, Indian Railways launched the National Train Enquiry System, NTES.

Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) launched NTES in 2014. It uses various interfaces like website, mobile app, touch screens, display boards and unique rail enquiry number 139 for providing train-related information.

If you are planning a journey having information about trains between stations, train timetable, and live station status is crucial. Read on to learn about NTES in detail and how you can use it for your travel purpose.

What is NTES in Railways?

NTES is the Indian Railways National Train Enquiry System that helps passengers with useful information. It provides near real-time information about the live running status of trains, train schedules, live station, and more to the public.

Spot your train is one of the most useful features of NTES that gives information such as the current location of the train and its expected time of arrival at a station. Travellers can access train information through the NTES website and mobile Apps.

NTES Mobile App

The NTES app supports Android, iOS, and Microsoft devices. You can download the NTES app from Google Play Store, iOS App Store and Microsoft website. In addition, the NTES app receives regular updates from CRIS, the IT wing of Indian Railways.

The official Indian Railways NTES App offers the following features:

Spot your train on the map
Live station
Train Schedule (timetable) with save option
Trains between stations
Rescheduled trains
Cancelled trains
Diverted trains
Manage favourites

To use the NTES app, you need to have a smartphone, iPhone, iPad or a Windows laptop with an internet connection to use this app.

How NTES Works

Presently, NTES work on manual input of data by railway workmen. Whenever a train leaves a particular station, a train controller, upon receiving apprise from the station master, updates data into the National Train Enquiry System.

Recently, the Indian Railway has tie-up with ISRO to develop a system for real-time tracking of trains movement. It will involve fitting a GPS device in the train. Further, the data from this device will be fed to the NTES database automatically. Introducing a satellite-based NTES system would be a breakthrough as this will be more precise, up to date and live.

How Do You Use NTES?

Using NTES is very easy. Follow the steps to know the live running status of trains in India:

Download and install NTES App.
Click the “Spot Your Train” tab
Enter the train number or name and click on the search icon.
Select the train you want to spot from the search result.
Next, choose the Journey Station and Journey Date.
Finally, click the tab “Show Status” to see the result.

NTES is a great resource for travellers using Indian railways for holiday trips, official tours, or daily commute.

NTES: List of All Features

Live Station – You can use NTES live station to know about trains arriving/departing from a station to another railway station on a day.
Train Schedule – Enter the train number or name and journey date to get complete information about the schedule of that train.
Trains B/w Stations – Use this NTES feature to know trains running between two stations. You can also apply the filter to get custom results such as special trains, summer special, double-decker, Garib Rath, Rajdhani, MEMU, Duranto etc.
Exceptional Trains – NTES also provides information about exceptional trains like cancelled trains, rescheduled trains, and diverted trains, if any.

Besides spotting the train, it also provides the expected time of arrival (ETA) and expected time of departure (ETD) in the next 2, 4, or 8 hours at a railway station. Furthermore, you can also get current information about all the 49 Heritage trains of Indian Railways.

What Is Technology Behind NTES?

The train running status, schedule, and other data are compiled and replicated before the actual train running status is available to the public through various NTES interfaces. These data are first updated at 4 NTES sites in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. These sites update data of their defined region to the centralized database through the Sybase replication server. In case of system down/failures on a particular site, train schedule/running information is made available through the rest of the active sites.

So next time, when you use NTES enquiry to know where is my train, keep in mind the technology behind this useful train enquiry system.

Also Read:How to Safely Travel by Train During Pregnancy?

How Accurate Is NTES?

Indian Railway is constantly working to provide accurate information through NTES. However, passengers might get inaccurate information about train running status due to irregularity in manual updating of data by railway staff.

To overcome this problem, the railway has started to update the arrival and departure of trains at stations with an electronic device called data loggers. Furthermore, Indian Railway is developing a satellite tracking system for trains in collaboration with the Indian Space and Research Organization, which will make NTES much more precise and accurate.

Difference Between NTES and ITES

In Oct 2007, Indian Railways launched Integrated Train Enquiry System (ITES). This launch was an innovative step to provide basic services to passengers such as PNR status, seat availability, and arrival and departure of trains. ITES also included train helpline no. 139, SMS service for PNR (56300) and Tatkal seat availability.

Whereas CRIS develops the NTES, and it is an advanced level of ITES. With NTES, passengers can check the schedule of any train in advance. Additionally, it offers cross-platform functionality and will soon render the live running status of trains through satellite tracking.

With the sharp rise in internet users, usefulness and dependency on NTES system have increased tremendously. Also, the new interface is convenient and provides quick access to essential information. In addition, NTES mobile app has helped railways reduce the queue size at enquiry counters.

Though NTES is a good app, there is yet another app, RailMitra, for all train-related enquiries. Passengers can use it 24 × 7 to know train running status, train schedule, PNR status, and even order food in train. Keep on with us to stay informed with all the latest news about Indian Railways, which is modernizing every day.