Advance railway berth booking period slashed to 60 days

Citing high cancellation rates and wastage of berths, the Railway Board on Wednesday announced cutting the advanced reservation period down to 60 days from 120 days. A circular mentioned that the bookings done up to October 31 under the advance reservation period (ARP) of 120 days will remain intact. Cancellation of the booking made beyond the advance reservation period of 60 days will, however, be permitted, it stated.

Senior divisional commercial manager, Ferozepur, Paramdeep Singh Saini said this would give those, who plan their trip only a couple of months in advance, a fair chance to get a confirmed ticket. This rule will come into effect from November 1.

“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,” the circular stated.

There will also be no change in the case of a limit of 365 days for foreign tourists, it said.

On March 25, 2015, the Ministry of Railways had increased the advance reservation period from 60 days to 120 days.

“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-day advance reservation period has been observed as the optimal period from passenger point of view,” a statement from the board mentioned. It also presented a table to show how from April 1981, decisions were changed on several occasions to increase or decrease ARP between 120 days and 30 days on 12 occasions till April 1, 2015.

Highlighting the benefits of the 60-day reservation period, it said that 120 days was too long for planning, resulting in high cancellations and wastage of seats/berths because of passengers not turning up for journeys.

According to the board, currently, there is about 21% cancellation and 4-5% passengers not turning up for the train journey. (With PTI inputs)