The railways has reduced the advanced ticket booking period from 120 days to 60 days, it announced on Thursday.
Passengers will now be able to book train tickets up to 60 days in advance, instead of the previous 120 days.
The change will come into effect on November 1.
Till October 31, passengers can book tickets 120 days ahead of their journey, the railways said.
“With effect from 1.11.2024, the ARP (advanced reservation period) will be 60
days (excluding the day of journey) and booking will be done accordingly. However, all the bookings done up to 31.10.2024 under ARP of 120 days will remain intact,” said a communication from the Railway Board.
Some other highlights of the announcement:
- Cancellation of an earlier booking, made beyond the ARP of 60 days, will be permitted
- There will be no change for certain day-time express trains like the Taj Express and the Gomti Express, which have a smaller advanced reservation window
- The limit of 365 days for tourists from abroad will remain unchanged.
“The ministry of railways has announced this change... for train bookings by Indian travellers in order to promote genuine passengers.... It was being noticed that about 21 per cent of reservations done for 61 to 120 day periods were getting cancelled. Further, 5 per cent of passengers were neither cancelling their tickets nor were they undertaking the journey. This no-show trend was also one of the factors behind the decision, which will help Indian Railways in better planning of special trains during peak seasons,” a statement by the Press Information Bureau stated.
