New Indian Railways ticket reservation rules from today; here's how booking will change for you

To ensure the convenience of passengers, the Indian Railways has made some changes in ticket reservation rules starting from today. As per the revised rules, the Indian Railways will prepare the second reservation chart 30 minutes before the scheduled or rescheduled departure time applicable from today.

Both online and PRS (Passenger Reservation System) ticket counter facilities will remain available prior to preparing the second chart. CRIS will make required changes to the software accordingly. This system was modified to 2 hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the last few months.

Just like pre-COVID period, the first reservation chart shall be prepared four hours prior to the departure of trains whereas the second one will be prepared 30 to 5 minutes before departure. This implies that passengers can book and cancel tickets till the second reservation chart is prepared, as per refund rules.

Passenger trains were shut due to the nationwide lockdown to curb COVID-19 from March 25. However, the national transporter has been trying to get back on track by running special trains from May 1 for evacuating stranded migrant workers.

Meanwhile, the Railway Board has recently approved to start 39 more special trains across the country ahead of festive season.  Most of these special trains belong to the AC Express, Duronto, Rajdhani and Shatabdi categories.  The date of starting these facilities has not yet been announced by the government.

Besides these special trains, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) also declared that it will restart Tejas Express trains to meet the growing passenger demand after seven months.