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RailRoute for AI assistants

RailRoute publishes a Model Context Protocol server, so an assistant can plan a real journey instead of guessing at one. Ask it how to get from one Indian city to another and it searches trains, flights and the combinations of both, with live seat availability. It does not book anything.

Last reviewed . Figures on this page are measurements with the sample size and date stated beside them, not forecasts.

Important

RailRoute is an independent service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Indian Railways, IRCTC, or any Government of India entity. Train names and station codes are used for identification only.

RailRoute does not sell tickets and never takes a payment. Fares are estimates and seat availability changes continuously; the exact fare and the actual booking are confirmed on IRCTC.

Connect it

The server endpoint is:

https://www.railroute.in/api/mcp

  1. In Claude, open Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector and paste that URL.
  2. Leave the client ID blank and leave the header fields empty. The server supports automatic registration, so your assistant creates its own credentials.
  3. A RailRoute page opens asking you to sign in and approve the connection. Check that the app name and the site it returns to are the ones you expect, then choose Allow.

Any client that speaks MCP over Streamable HTTP with OAuth 2.1 works the same way; nothing here is specific to one assistant.

Signing in

Access uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE. Your assistant never sees your RailRoute password — it receives a token scoped to what you approved, and you approve it on a RailRoute page rather than inside the assistant. Three permissions exist:

  • Search journeys, timetables, routes and fares — the same information the website shows to anyone.
  • Check live seat availability — a paid lookup, so it is rate limited.
  • See and change journeys saved to your account — your own saved journeys and waitlist watches, and nothing belonging to anybody else.

Tokens expire after an hour and refresh silently. You can revoke a connection at any time by removing it in your assistant; RailRoute can also disable a misbehaving application for everyone without a release. Tell us if you see one.

Things to ask it

  • “I need to get from Rewa to Pune on the 14th — what are my options?” Plans direct trains, journeys with a change, flights and mixed trips together, ranked by total door-to-door time.
  • “The Vaishali Express is waitlisted on the 20th. Is there any way to book it?” Checks live seats per class and looks for a split ticket, an earlier boarding station or a later alighting station that is bookable when the through ticket is not.
  • “What leaves Kanpur Central after 6pm, and does the Delhi train run on Sundays?” Reads the departure board and the day-by-day service calendar for a route.

What it can do

  • find_place — turn a city or station name into somewhere the planner can search.
  • plan_journey — every practical way to get between two places on a date.
  • check_train_options — live seats per class, and the ways to book a waitlisted train.
  • train_schedule — every stop of a train with scheduled times.
  • station_departures — what leaves a station, in order.
  • journey_calendar — which days a route runs over a span of dates.
  • nearby_stations — other stations within reach of one.
  • list_saved_journeys and watch_waitlist — your own saved journeys, and an email when a confirmed seat appears.

Every tool is read-only except watch_waitlist, which creates or stops a watch on your own account. None of them books, pays for, or cancels anything.

How to read the answers

  • Times are scheduled times. Nothing here predicts a delay.
  • Seat status is a snapshot from the moment of the search and moves constantly. Confirm it at IRCTC before you pay. What the statuses mean.
  • Fares are estimates for rail and the lowest observed price for air — never quotes.
  • RAC is a ticket, not a waitlist. It carries a right to board.
  • An empty answer and a failed lookup are different, and the reply says which.

Limits

240 tool calls an hour per account, and 30 live seat checks an hour because each one is a paid lookup. Journey planning and timetables keep working when the seat budget is spent. These are sized to stop a runaway loop rather than to ration ordinary use; if you have a reason to need more, get in touch.

What RailRoute records

One row per tool call: which tool, whether it succeeded, how long it took, the account the token belongs to, and the name the calling application reports for itself.

The arguments are not recorded. Where you are going and when is not written down by the MCP server. Saved journeys and watches are stored because they are the feature, and they are yours — deleting your account deletes them.

These records are used to keep the service running and to see which assistants people use. They are not sold, and they are not shared with advertisers. The Privacy Policy governs them in full, and the Data Processing Agreement covers business use.

What it is not

RailRoute does not sell tickets, take payments or reserve seats, and it is not affiliated with Indian Railways, IRCTC or any airline. An assistant using this server can tell you which journey to take; you book it yourself. About RailRoute and the Terms of Service state this in full.