Train Tickets

The Railways Ministry has raised eligibility thresholds, tightened subcontracting norms, and introduced stricter checks to improve project execution and curb delays

There will be no refund for cancellation of train tickets up to eight hours before departure, instead of the existing norm of four hours, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said while announcing reforms in the sector on Tuesday. The new refund rule will take effect between April 1 and 15 this year. Other refund slabs have also been revised: a cancellation between 24 and eight hours will incur a 50 per cent deduction from the ticket cost. This is currently 12 to four hours. Similarly, the Railways will deduct 25 per cent of the ticket cost for cancellation between 72 and 24 hours before departure. A full refund -- except a flat cancellation charge per passenger -- will be given for cancellations made more than 72 hours before the train's departure. Under the existing policy, cancellations made between 48 and 12 hours incur a 25 per cent deduction of the ticket cost, while a full refund will be given for cancellations made more than 48 hours in advance. Vaishnaw said the refund rule

This was not the first time the IRCTC platform has faced technical issues, outages and glitches have long frustrated travellers, particularly during peak travel seasons

With RBI's in-principle nod for IRCTC Payments, the rail PSU plans to process transactions in-house, cut costs, and expand payment services beyond railways

Revised fares for passenger, express, and premium trains take effect from 1 July; suburban fares and other charges remain unchanged as Railways updates ticketing systems

Suburban train travel and second-class travel for up to 500 km have been spared from any fare hike. However, 0.5 paise per kilometre hike will be implemented for distances more than 500 km

The Railways Ministry said allowing only Aadhaar-authenticated users for Tatkal train tickets will help ensure the Tatkal scheme's benefits reach genuine, common users

Indian Railways has made Aadhaar verification mandatory for Tatkal bookings to stop bots and scalpers, giving verified passengers priority access

Travel booking major MakeMyTrip on Monday launched Seat Availability Forecast, providing a predictive view of when seats on a selected train are likely to sell out. The Gurugram-headquartered firm said its data shows that nearly 40 per cent of users book train tickets across multiple sessions, often over several days. Among these users, close to 70 per cent end up booking waitlisted tickets, simply because confirmed seats are no longer available by the time their plans firm up. Reserved train tickets in India open for booking 60 days ahead of departure. However, most travellers only finalise their plans much closer to the date, MakeMyTrip stated. "With demand patterns varying significantly from week to week, the window for confirmed bookings keeps shifting. In April, most high-speed trains were sold out around 13 days before the departure date. By May, due to rising demand, they were typically booked out more than 20 days before departure," the NASDAQ-listed company said. For ...

IRCTC faces criticism as 70 per cent fail to get Tatkal tickets; passengers increasingly rely on agents and call for reforms amid widespread booking issues

The Railways' all-in-one app offers secure login, bookings, parcel and freight tracking, live train status, Rail Madad, and more, now officially available on Google Play

If you are on the waiting list and have not got a seat, you must not board a train

Budget 2025: Indian Railways heavily subsidises train fares, particularly for senior citizens, students, and people with disabilities-but by how much?

Downdetector, a service that tracks online disruptions, showed a surge in outage reports, with over 2,500 users affected

The Indian Railways clarified that the bookings made under the current 120-day ARP before October 31 will remain valid

The ticket normally priced at Rs 2,900 went up to more than Rs 10,000 after Indian Railways' new 'dynamic pricing system' was employed. User shared screenshots of the price breakup on Reddit

The Indian Railways offered a subsidy of Rs 59,837 crore on passenger tickets in 2019-20 and the concession still continues, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Vaishnaw shared the information in response to a question by Congress MP Anto Antony from Kerala regarding restoring pre-Covid concessions for different categories of railway passengers. "The Indian Railways always strives to provide affordable services to all strata of the society and gave a subsidy of Rs 59,837 crore on passenger tickets in 2019-20," the minister said. "This amounts to a concession of 53 per cent on an average to every person travelling on Railways. This subsidy is continuing for all passengers," he said. According to Vaishnaw, concessions beyond this subsidy amount are continuing for many categories like four categories of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjans), 11 categories of patients and eight categories of students. About 18 lakh patients and the

Attacking Opposition, Puri said that the philosophy of some political parties is that all such services should be made free

The Railway Board said that the fares have been reduced to optimise the occupancy on several routes

The company in a BSE filing said that the share purchase agreement has been signed for a 100 per cent acquisition in the Stark Enterprises, which is an online train booking and information platform