Revises Ticket Refund Rules-Indian Railways

The Ministry of Railways revised and amended ticket refund rules on Tuesday, which will be effective from 1 July.

Accordingly, passengers need to cancel their confirmed tickets 48 hours ahead of the journey instead of the existing 24 hours to get maximum refund on the travel charges.

"Railway Passengers (Cancellation of ticket and Refund of fare) Rules, 1998 have not been substantially revised in the last 15 years during which period a large number of changes have taken place in the ticketing system of Indian Railways," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the revised rules, if a confirmed ticket is cancelled between 48 hours and upto six hours before the departure of the train as against the existing 24 hours and upto four hours, passengers will get a refund with cancellation charges of 25 percent of the fare. The ministry decided to revise the rules in an attempt to prevent booking agents from selling tickets at higher prices as well as to give more time for wait listed passengers to decide about taking their trip, Read More at http://indianrailways-help.blogspot.com/p/refund-rules.html

New advance rail ticket booking period to be reduced to 2 months from 1st May 2013

The advance booking period for train tickets will be reduced from existing four months to two months from Wednesday as part of the Railways' efforts to prevent touts to corner bulk tickets.

"The reduction of advance reservation period to 60 days will be a deterrent for touts who book bulk tickets in advance. We hope the reduction of booking period will help genuine travelers " a senior Railway Ministry official said.

However, all the bookings done up to April 30 under the existing advance reservation period (ARP) of 120 days will remain intact.

In order to prevent touts from booking bulk tickets in advance, Railways have already increased the cancellation charges by Rs 10 to Rs 50 per ticket.

"It has been found that passengers generally book their tickets two months in advance before the journey," the official said, adding "so the reduction of advance booking period from 120 days to 60 days will be beneficial for rail travelers."

Cancellation of the booking made beyond the ARP of 60 days will, however, be permitted. There will be no change in the case of ARP limit of 360 days for foreign tourists.

Stepping up its action on touts, Railways has also modified the Tatkal booking system to ensure that genuine passengers get train tickets. No agents are allowed to book tatkal tickets from 10 am to 12 pm over the internet.

Railways also conduct regular raids at rail stations to keep a check on tout menace.

Quick PNR Check

Quick Pnr Status Check

India's Most Fastest Way to check the IRCTC PNR Status.

New Time Table

Here is the link of all important Changes and features in New timetable by Zonal Railways.



All India Time Table Book

Train At A Glance



South East Railways



Central Railways



East Coast Railways



Eastern Railways Non-Suburban



Eastern Railways Suburban



North Western Railways



Northern Railways



South Central Railways



South Eastern Railways Non suburban



South Eastern Railways Suburban



South East Central Railways



Southern Railways



South Western Railways



Western Railways

Holiday Special Trains

HOLIDAY SPECIAL TRAINS BY INDIAN RAILWAYS
Indian Railway have announced more than 150 holiday special trains across India for the convenience of travelers.
CLick Here to read more........

Provision of ID proof

Provision for carrying of ID proof during journey on reserved tickets.
1.    At present the passengers with Tatkal ticket and e-ticket are to carry original proof of identity during the course of railway journey. With a view to preventing the cases of travelling on transferred tickets, now it has been decided that any one of the passengers/the passenger booked on the tickets issued from computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRs) and internet (i-ticket), undertaking journey in AC-3 tier, AC-2 tier, 1^st AC, AC Chair Car and Executive Classes, will also have to carry any one of the nine prescribed proofs of identity (in original) during the journey and produce the same as and when required failing which all the passengers booked on that ticket will be treated as without ticket and charged accordingly.

2.    The list of valid proofs of identity are as under:-

Ø  Voter Photo identity card issued by Election Commission of India.

Ø  Passport.

Ø  PAN Card issued by Income Tax Department.

Ø  Driving Licence issued by RTO.

Ø  Photo identity card having serial number issued by Central/State Government.

Ø  Student Identity Card with photograph issued by recognized school/College for their students.

Ø  Nationalised Bank Passbook with photograph

Ø  Credit Cards issued by Banks with laminated photograph.

Ø  Unique Identification Card ”AAdhaar”

3.    CRIS will make necessary provision in the software for indicating the message on this account on the ticket issued in the above said classes through computerized PRS/I-ticket.

4.    These instructions will come into effect from 15.02.2012.

5.    Wide publicity may be given by zonal railways through all possible means on this account for the information of general public.

6.    Necessary instructions may be issued to all concerned particularly Ticket Checking Staff so as to educate them about the revised provisions.

SMS Enquiry

A passenger can also check the status of IRCTC reservations through mobile phone and landline phone. Checking IRCTC PNR status via SMS is undoubtedly a handy and quick way. Indian Railway introduced the SMS service to provide a simple way to check IRCTC PNR status using mobile phones. All a passenger needs to do is send an SMS on 57886 through his/her mobile phone to get any kind of information on railways.

The SMS facility provides various ways to perform enquiries like train alert, IRCTC PNR status, train status, seat availability, train schedule, train information, train time table, train fare etc offered on the Indian Railways website. Now one can view such information on a mobile phone through SMS facility.

To receive a list of available SMS commands, simply send TRAIN to 5676747. You will get a reply similar to, "Welcome to railzone. Reply with PNR - PNR Status, TL - Train List, TA - Ticket Availability, e.g sms PNR to get PNR status." Now to check your IRCTC reservation status, send a SMS "PNR <your PNR number>" without the double quotes to 5676747. For example, PNR 1234567891. You will get a reply similar to, "PNR No. 1234567891 , 1. RAC 33, 2. Confirmed AS2 34, 2952 Mumbai Rajdhani, New Delhi - Kota, 17 Aug".

For more information on the mobile service providers and the keywords to be used in SMS, you can visit one of the pages below:

• SMS 54959
• SMS 57886
• SMS 5676747
• SMS 139

Alternatively you can call 139 from your BSNL, MTNL, Airtel, Vodafone etc landlines. Most telecom service providers support 139. If you have internet connection at home, you will probably prefer to go online to check IRCTC PNR status of your railway reservation. The advantage is that you do not need to pay any SMS or call charges. Another advantage is that you can quickly print / email the reservation status.

PNR Status Explained

It is easy for railway passengers to confuse the different legends that appear on their reservation tickets or PNR status. The table below explains the various legends used by Indian Railways to communicate PNR status in brief.

Symbol	Description
CAN/MOD	Cancelled or Modified
CNF/Confirmed	Confirmed (Coach and berth number are assigned after chart preparation)
CK	Tatkal quota
CKWL	Tatkal waiting list (different from normal waiting list, which when moves up goes to RAC category, whereas a passenger gets a confirmed berth when a CKWL moves up)
RAC	Reservation against Cancellation
WL #	Waiting List number
RLWL	Remote Location Wait List
GNWL	General Wait List
PQWL	Pooled Quota Wait List
REGRET/WL	No more booking is permitted
RELEASED	Ticket not cancelled, but alternative accommodation provided
R # #	RAC coach number and berth number

Useful Links

Click the below links to check:

Indian Railways (Official website)
IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System

India Rail Info
Clear Tip
Make My Trip
E-Rail
Yatra
Via.com