Best railway apps for Windows Phone

Whether you’re learning your way around a new city or commute via rail every day, don’t forget to pack your Lumia and these Windows Phone apps before catching the next train.

Say goodbye to waiting at the ticket window for your train tickets or weeding through your payment cards when paying for your intra-city or cross-country trip with these helpful apps for your Lumia.

IRCTC (free)

If you’re a frequent train traveler across India, you probably know that Indian Railways is one of the world’s largest railway networks. But did you know that it transports more than 23 million passengers daily?

Making all of this easier is the official Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) app, available exclusively on Windows Phone!

The app features a fluid user interface and lets you plan your journeys with just a tap. To use the IRCTC app, sign in with your IRCTC password or TPIN for online bookings, or sign up as a new user.

The Plan my travel option lets you see train routes and train schedules and tells you about the availability of tickets. After you’ve booked your train ticket, view your reservation status with the Check PNR Status feature. You can also view your Booking History, save your journeys under Favorites, and cancel your booking by swiping over to the Cancellation option. Also a recent update to the IRCTC app sends you notifications as toast messages.

So, whether you’re planning a train trip across India or just visiting friends or family in another city, have fun booking your train tickets right from your Start Screen.

thetrainline.com (free)

For our readers in the UK, thetrainline.com app helps you plan your journey easily. One of the UK’s leading independent train ticket retailers, thetrainline.com offers tickets up to 10 minutes before you travel for all train companies to all national rail destinations.

You can easily buy tickets on the go and collect them later from more than 1,000 stations. View train schedule and ticket prices at any time, along with platform numbers. You can also check for possible delays.

There is also an option to save journeys as favorites for future trips. Additionally, make full use of the next train home feature to find a station near you and see a list of next available trains to your home station.

The built-in reminder feature makes use of the Live Tile functionality and alerts you to collect your tickets before starting your trip.

Amtrak (free)

Indulge in hassle-free travel across the United States with the official Amtrak app. The app lets you book one-way and roundtrip tickets, check train status and search for station information, among other features.

You can show your eTicket, multi-ride or monthly passes via the app and Amtrak conductors can scan them just like paper tickets. There is also an option to save trip information to your phone calendar and load your eTicket into Passbook.

Have you used these apps before? Are there similar apps available in your country? Let us know in the comments below.