The Indian Railways provides online reservation of tickets facility through its e-ticketing arm - Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation or IRCTC and railway reservation offices & authorized travel agencies (for offline bookings). The Indian Railway management reserves berths, seats, compartments, & carriages in line with the rules and conditions published in the coaching tariff, as per the Indian Railways' website, www.indianrailways.gov.in.
The advance reservations are done generally up to 120 days (3months) in advance for all the classes as well as trains. According to the Railways website, the period of advance reservation (ARP) is exclusive of the day of departure of the train.
There are many important things that a person traveling by train must know about Indian Railways' ticket reservation rules:
1. The very first thing, accommodation cannot be reserved without booking or purchasing required journey ticket. According to the Railways, no reservation of accommodation is made on temporary basis.
2. Accommodation allotment is made by the computer according to a pre-defined sense or logic. It tries to provide compact accommodation to individuals booked under the same passenger name record (PNR) on a first-come and first-served basis.
3. In order to avail concession, the minimum age must be 58 years for women senior citizens and the concession given is 50 % in basic fare only. For male senior citizens, the minimum age to avail the concession of 40 % in basic charge is 60 years.
4. Ticket reservation charges or prices differ for different booking classes. Miscellaneous charges like reservation fee, catering charge & GST (Goods and Services Tax), wherever valid, are levied additionally to the base price, as per the Railways website.
5. The departure time mentioned on the ticket is indicative hence the traveler must find out correct timings from the railway station on the day of travel.
6. Any one of the traveler booked on a PNR for undertaking voyage in any class is required to bring a identity proof (ID) in original during the journey.
7. When berths are reserved for people, the intention is to give sleeping accommodation from 9 pm to 6 am. And if required between 6 am to 9 pm hence the passengers concerned must make space for other people in compartment up to its carrying capacity, as per the Railways.
8. The passengers whose names come under the Reservation against Cancellation (RAC) category are given reserved sitting accommodation at first. Such passengers are likely to get berths because of last minutes cancellation of reservation of travelers not turning up in time before departure.
9. The reservation requests at the reservation counters are accepted up to 4 hours prior to the scheduled departure of the train. After that, the reservation can be made at the current counters only at the stations up to 1 hour before the planned departure and after that by the ticket collector on the platform depending on availability of vacant berths or seats.
10.If by chance, passengers with reserved seats or berths do not turn up within ten minutes before the departure, the railway management can cancel the reserved accommodation and assign them to the passengers on the waiting list or RAC list accordingly on priority.
