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Keep these in mind while booking the ticket

  • Tatkal reservation can open 2 or more days in advance: Tatkal reservation opens 1 day in advance at 10 am for ac class and at 11am for non-ac class. But if the train departs from your boarding station one day after it begins its journey from its originating station, then tatkal reservation will open 2 days in advance for your journey. For example, the tatkal ticket from Delhi to Mumbai in Punjab Mail (12138) opens 2 day in advance because the train departs from Delhi on 2nd day of its journey! Similarly, advance reservation period in this case is 121 days and not 120 days. For more tips on booking tatkal tickets on IRCTC go to Tatkal Booking Tips.
  • Get a confirm berth in Lower Berth (LB) quota: If a female passenger above age of 45 or a male passenger above age 60 is travelling alone, the system would automatically place them in vacant Lower Berth (LB) quota where he/she can get a confirm berth, even if the status for same journey is waiting list in general quota. Please dont confuse it with Senior Citizen concession applicable to male (60+)(40%) and female (58+)(50%).
  • Get a confirm ticket by extending destination city: If you are getting waiting ticket for your origin-destination pair in a train, then change the destination to a station which comes 2-3 stops after your alight station. Sometimes you might find confirmed ticket in this case. Or if not confirmed then you might find a better waiting list quota. For example, if you have to go from Delhi to Surat in Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani (12952) you get a RSWL from Delhi to Surat (which has less chances of confirmation), but if you book ticket from Delhi to Mumbai you might get a confirmed ticket or a GNWL waiting list (which has much better chances of confirmation). And you can still alight the train at Surat! To know about different types of waiting list, click here.
  • Take care of date if departure is after 12 midnight: In cases where train departure time at passenger boarding station is after 12am (say 12:30am), then you should keep in mind to put journey date as the next day.
  • Break Journey: If a passenger wishes to take a break at an intermediate station of his journey, he can do so if this intermediate station is more than 500 kms from the origin of his journey. He can stay at this station for a maximum of 2 days before continuing his journey. For more details go to indian railways break journey link. This facility is not allowed on premium trains such as rajdhani, shatabdi and duronto.
  • Circular Journey: If you wish to go on a tour where no. of destinations is between 4 and 8, you can opt for circular journey tickets. For this ticket, journey should begin and end at the same station. These tickets give the benefit of telescopic rates which are considerably lower than regular point-to-point fare. For more details go to indian railways circular journey link.

Keep these in mind while boarding the train

  • Do not board train if all passengers are in waiting list: If you have a waitlisted e-ticket and it remains fully waitlisted (waitlisted for all the passengers) even after chart preparation then your names will not come in chart and the tickets will get automatically cancelled. Please DO NOT board the train in this case as it is treated as ticketless travel.
  • Avail full-refund of ticket for trains running late: If the train is running late by more than 3 hours and the passenger decides NOT to undertake the journey, he can cancel the ticket and get full refund of the fare irrespective of whether the ticket is waiting list (WL) , RAC or confirmed.
  • Do not forget to take valid identity proof in original: Travelling on a reserved ticket where none of the passengers have a valid identity proof in original will be treated as travelling ticketless as per railway rules.
  • Get your seat/berth checked by TTE: If you do not get your ticket checked by TTE, then he might assign your seat/berth to someone else.