Indian Railways maintains a separate website for showing train running information to public. The portal serves train related queries like time table, current status, scheduled/expected arrival/departure and other information.
Recently the site has appeared in its new avatar though it is still in beta phase for a long time. With the new interface it is much easier to find any piece of information about a train.
This portal has nothing to do with project SIMRAN which at present is covering only GPS equipped Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains originating from New Delhi.
Finding the Current Location for Exp/Mails
The new interface has much more easier user interface, but it lacks in displaying much information about the train. Mobile users may not find it very useful. However older interface is much more rich in displaying the route with latest running information. So I am mentioning both ways, so that you can choose what suites you best.
1. With the new interface
Directly head on to trainenquiry.com, enter your keyword in the search box e.g. train number, train name, source, destination or a combination of these will serve the purpose. A list of all possible trips that matches your query will populate as soon you type there. Click the appropriate one from the list and it will ask you for the journey starting date in step 2. select one from them and wait for few seconds while it fetches data to present you.
2. With the classical style old interface
As I told you, the older interface is much more information rich but may not be so conventional. Steps involved are: Go to the same site and click on Go back to www.trainenquiry.com button at the top right corner. Now click on Train Time Table on sidebar, put the train number or at least three consecutive letters of the train name and click Go. In the next page manually enter the journey starting date and proceed. It will show you the proposed time table for that particular train. In this page there is another button View Running Status below the fold, which on clicking will show you the current status of the train in tabular format. The ETA/ETD tag in rows shows that the particular station is not yet crossed by the train.
But to view this table we have navigated 4-5 times, and every time you try to find status for a train. But you can bookmark the address and then it will be just a click away to update for any train. And also while using mobile devices. Lets see how.
Bookmark Funda
Observe the URL that serves the route chart with timings. It is
http://www.trainenquiry.com/o/RunningTT_Display.aspx?drop_sel=12163&date=02%2f09%2f2012&queryDisplay=CHENNAI+EXPRESS%2c+12163
You might have guessed my target by looking on highlighted numbers. These are train number and journey start date. The train name doesn't affect the results and it is mere used for displaying purpose. It is better to bookmark this URL for future use.
http://www.trainenquiry.com/o/RunningTT_Display.aspx?drop_sel=xxxx&date=xx%2fxx%2fxxxx&queryDisplay=
Put the applicable parameters in place of x to make it work for you. Save it in your mobile too.