Tier 2/3 cities are on digital track

A recent Paytm report on the rail booking trends has confirmed the notion that non-metro India has adopted online train ticketing as a preferred option over booking train tickets across the counter.

The study revealed that more than 70% of all train tickets booked on Paytm are from Tier II and Tier III cities, cementing IRCTC's position as the single travel service provider in India with the widest reach.

The study was conducted basis data from more than two million rail tickets booked on Paytm over the last year.

It was found that while the average ticket price in Tier I cities is Rs 530, in Tier II, it's only Rs 350, pointing at semi-urban and rural India's price sensitivity.

Interestingly, 70% of women booked their train tickets more than a week in advance, while the same was applicable for a mere 30% of men.

Here is the list of the 10 most popular train routes this summer:

New Delhi - Lucknow

Visakhapatnam - Secunderabad

Secunderabad - Visakhapatnam

New Delhi - Kanpur

Chennai - Bengaluru

Bengaluru - Chennai

Ahmedabad - Surat

Lucknow - New Delhi

Kanpur - New Delhi

Pune - Solapur

Commenting on these findings, Abhishek Rajan, Vice President - Paytm, said, "Our study on rail bookings for the Summer has unlocked some very interesting insights on consumer behaviour. At Paytm, we are committed to enabling the most convenient rail booking experience for our users across India along with customer-centric features like instant refunds, availability alerts and exciting offers like zero service charge and payment gateway fee waiver. Our goal is to make rail booking process extremely simple and more accessible for every Indian."

Paytm is the first horizontal e-commerce major to enter into Travel business, a domain that has hitherto been dominated by vertical players. In recent months, Paytm has witnessed exponential growth in travel with more than 10 million tickets sold in FY 2017. This year, the company is aiming to be the country's largest destination for all travel booking needs.

-ANI