NewzVille Desk
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today announced reform on ‘Ticket cancellation and refund’ and ‘Change of Train Boarding Point’ for Passenger Convenience.
Ticket cancellation and refund
The Union Minister said reform on passenger convenience to curb misuse of ticketing systems and improve access for genuine travellers.
He said ticket black marketing and misuse of the Tatkal system had been a major concern. To address this, the Railways introduced technology to detect bots and fraudulent software.
Further technological interventions curtailed the ability of agents and touts to book tickets immediately after the Tatkal window opens, alongside the introduction of Aadhaar-based OTP verification.
A detailed data analysis led to the identification and removal of nearly 3 crore fake accounts from the IRCTC system, resulting in a significant improvement in ticket availability.
To address this, the earlier cancellation time windows of 48, 12, and 4 hours before departure have been revised to 72, 24, and 8 hours, aligned with the advance preparation of reservation charts which now happens 9-18 hours before departure instead of 4 hours. This will be done at no extra cost from passengers.
Advance reservation charts improves passenger convenience by reducing uncertainty, enabling better planning for waitlisted travelers, and supporting passengers from remote locations.
Early charting allows alternative travel arrangements, optimizes vacant berth utilization, and boosts transparency. These changes are aimed at removing incentives for last-minute speculative bookings and ensuring tickets are available to genuine passengers.
The Union Minister also announced that soon counter tickets can now be cancelled from any railway station across the country, removing the earlier restriction of cancellation only at the originating station.
He said the requirement of filing a Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR) for e-tickets has been removed, and refunds will now be processed automatically upon cancellation.
In another passenger measure, passengers can now upgrade their travel class up to 30 minutes before departure, whereas earlier changes were restricted to before chart preparation.
He said these reforms are expected to further improve transparency, reduce misuse, and enhance passenger experience in railway ticketing.
Change of Train Boarding Point
The Union Minister said passengers can change their boarding station digitally up to 30 minutes before departure of the train from its origin station.
He explained that earlier, passengers could change the boarding point only before chart preparation. Under the new provision, if a passenger is unable to board from the original station, they can select the next convenient station and board the train without losing their confirmed seat.
