Train reservation period

● History : Railway advance reservation period has undergone changes from time to time. Advance Reservation Period has varied from 30 days to 120 days. Based on the experience of various periods, 60 days Advance Reservation Period has been observed as the optimal period from passenger point of view.

Period Advance Reservations

April, 1981 to January, 1985 120 days
01.02.1985 to 31.08.1988 90 days
01.09.1988 to 30.09.1993 60 days
01.10.1993 to 30.06.1995 45 days
01.09.1995 to 31.01.1998 30 days
01.02.1998 to 28.02.2007 60 days
01.03.2007 to 14.07.2007 90 days
15.07.2007 to 31.01.2008 60 days
01.02.2008 to 09.03.2012 90 days
10.03.2012 to 30.04.2013 120 days
01.05.2013 to 31.03.2015 60 days
01.04.2015 to 31.10.2024 120 days

Benefits of 60 days reservation period:

○ 120 days was too long for planning, resulting in high cancellations and wastage of seats/ berths because of passengers not turning up for journeys.

○ Currently, there is about 21% cancellation and 4 – 5% passengers don’t turn up (no show).

○ Issues with No-show : In many cases, it is seen that passengers do not cancel their tickets and do not turn up for journeys. And this leads to frauds – such as impersonation, railway officials taking money illegally etc. Now, this can be prevented.

○ With longer periods, there was a greater chance of some people blocking the tickets. Shorter periods will encourage more tickets by genuine passengers.

○ There is no impact on General class tickets as they are purchased just before the journey.

○ With better visibility of demand due to lesser cancellations and no-show,railways can plan more special trains well in advance.