Railways reduces time limit for advance train reservation to 60 days, check benefits for passengers

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The Railway Board has reduced the advance reservation period of seats from existing 120 days to 60 days, an official notification said on Thursday.

The reduction in time limit for advance train reservations will come into effect from November 1, 2024, it said.

"It has been decided that w.e.f 01.11.2024, the existing time limit for advance reservation by trains will be reduced from 120 days to 60 days (excluding the date of journey). All bookings done up to October 31 under the ARP (Advance Reservation Period) of 120 days will remain intact. There will be no change in the case of certain day time express trains like Taj Express, Gomti Express etc where lower time limits for advance reservation are, at present in force. There will also be no change in the case of a limit of 365 days for foreign tourists, a Railway Board's circular, dated Oct 16, 2024, said.

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The 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 passengers point of view, the officials said, adding that there will be several benefits of 60 days reservation period.

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 per cent cancellation and 4 - 5 per cent 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 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.