Railways to release the reservation chart 8 hours before departure

To reduce uncertainty for waitlisted passengers, Indian Railways will now prepare charts 8 hours ahead of train departure with phased rollout starting this week

In a bid to reduce uncertainties for passengers whose tickets are on the waitlist, Indian Railways will publish the passenger reservation chart eight hours before the train’s departure, it announced on Sunday.

 

“Currently, the reservation chart is prepared four hours before the departure of the train. This creates uncertainty in the minds of passengers. Wherever passengers are coming from a nearby area to catch the train, this uncertainty can cause serious problems,” the Railways said.

 

To remove this uncertainty, the board has proposed preparing the reservation chart eight hours before departure.

 

“For trains departing before 1400 hours, the chart will be prepared the previous day at 2100 hrs itself. The Railway Minister agreed with this proposal and directed the board to start implementing this in phases so that there is no disruption,” it said.

 

Previously, the ministry had intended to replicate a pilot model undertaken by the Railways’ Bikaner division, where it published charts 24 hours before departure. Officials did not clarify the reason behind reducing the window to eight hours. 

 

This announcement comes amid a review meeting on passenger facilities conducted by Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, where he also took stock of the progress on the new passenger reservation system.

 

Announced in 2023, as part of a Union Budget plan to overhaul the Railways’ information technology system, the new tech upgrade will enable over 1.5 lakh ticket bookings per minute—nearly five times higher than the current capacity.

 

“The ticket enquiry capacity will jump ten times, i.e., from 4 lakh to over 40 lakh enquiries per minute will be possible. In the new PRS, users will be able to submit their seat preference and view a fare calendar,” the ministry said.

 

Vaishnaw, according to the ministry’s statement, also instructed officials to broadbase the authentication mechanism for Tatkal bookings, which will be enforced starting Tuesday.

 

Authentication should be carried out using Aadhaar or any other verifiable government ID available in the user’s DigiLocker account.