Bhubaneswar, November 1: The Indian Railways has implemented a reduction in the advance reservation period for train tickets from 120 days to 60 days, effective from today onwards. This change aims to provide greater flexibility for travelers planning their journeys.
While the new 60-day advance reservation period will apply to most train services, certain daytime express trains, including the Dhauli Express, Jan Shatabdi, and Inter City trains, will continue to operate under their existing shorter booking windows. This ensures that these popular services remain accessible for spontaneous travel plans.
Additionally, the 365-day advance reservation limit for foreign tourists remains unchanged, allowing international travelers ample time to plan their visits to India.
This revised advance reservation policy is designed to meet the evolving needs of passengers, offering them more options and flexibility in booking their travel. Railways committed to enhancing the overall travel experience for all it’s customers.”
The new policy is expected to streamline the booking process, making it easier for passengers to secure their seats closer to their travel dates, while still maintaining service availability for long-term planners.
For more information about train schedules and ticket booking, passengers are encouraged to visit the official Indian Railways website or contact their local railway station.
Benefits of 60 days reservation period:
○ 120 days was too long for planning, resulting in high cancellations and wastage of seats/ berths because of passengers not turning up for journeys.
○ Currently, there is about 21% cancellation and 4 – 5% passengers don’t turn up (no show).
○ Issues with No-show: In many cases, it is seen that passengers do not cancel their tickets and do not turn up for journeys. And this leads to frauds – such as impersonation, railway officials taking money illegally etc. Now, this can be prevented.
○ With longer periods, there was a greater chance of some people blocking the tickets. Shorter periods will encourage more tickets by genuine passengers.
○ There is no impact on General class tickets as they are purchased just before the journey.
○ With better visibility of demand due to lesser cancellations and no-show, railways can plan more special trains well in advance.
