NEW DELHI, Oct 19: While reversing a decade old order, the Ministry of Railways Thursday made changes to its reservation rules and reduced the Advance Reservation Period (ARP) from 120 days to 60 days. The Ministry said that the order will be effective from November 01, 2024 and cited the new reservation period as being optimal from a passenger point of view.
“With effect from 01.11.2024, the ARP will be of 60 days (excluding the day of journey) and bookings will be done accordingly. However, all the bookings done upto 31.10.2024 under the ARP of 120 days will remain intact,” reads the Railways circular. The ministry further said that the cancellations of the booking made beyond the ARP of 60 days will, however, be permitted.
‘Reservation should be based on class, not caste’
“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 reservations are, at present, in force,” reads the Ministry circular. Apart from this, there will also be no change in the case of a limit of 365 days for Foreign Tourists. On March 25, 2015, the Ministry had increased the Advance Reservation Period for booking accommodation in trains from 60 days to 120 days (excluding the date of journey).
Railway advance reservation periods have undergone changes from time to time. The advance reservation period has varied from 30 days during 1995-98 to 120 days during 1981-85, 2012-13 and 2015-24. This reservation period has also ranged between 45 days and 90 days during some phases in the interim.
The Ministry of Railways said that based on the experience of various periods during the years, the 60 days Advance Reservation period has been observed as the optimal period from passenger point of view. “120 days was too long for planning, which resulted in high cancellations and wastage of seats/ berths because passengers were not turning up for journeys. Currently, there is about 21% cancellation and 4-5% passengers don’t turn up,” said the Ministry in a statement.
While justifying its decision, the ministry said that 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. The Ministry said that this will be prevented from now onwards.
“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,” said the Ministry.
