Additional 10% booked tickets in Nov after rules change: Railways

From November 13-20, Railways could provide reservation to additional 10 percent of passengers due to implementation of its amended ticket cancellation and refund rules, a senior ministry official Friday said.

New Delhi: From November 13-20, Railways could provide reservation to additional 10 percent of passengers due to implementation of its amended ticket cancellation and refund rules, a senior ministry official today said.

Higher cancellations charges deterred customers from aborting their journey plans at the last minute, he said.

With effect from November 12, Railways has doubled ticket cancellation charges while the refund option can now be availed only till four hours before the scheduled departure of a train.

According to the official, prior to the implementation of the revised cancellation charges, only 81 per cent of the passengers booking their journeys in advance were actually boarding for travel while rest 19 percent cancelled their tickets under different available time-period windows.

This was not only putting load on the entire system but also giving scope to touts, the official said, adding, linking ticket cancellation and refund rules to the scheduled departure of trains and levying higher cancellation fee have certainly addressed these two issues quite to an extent.

According to the new refund rules, Railways does not now provide refund after the departure of a train and one has to get the refund four hours before the scheduled departure time.

While the cancellation fee of a second-class confirmed ticket 48 hours before the scheduled departure of a train now stands at Rs 60 from Rs 30 earlier, the same for a third-AC ticket costs Rs 180 as against Rs 90 previously.

For wait-listed and reservation-against-cancellation (RAC) tickets, one has to avail the refund up to half-an-hour before the scheduled departure of the train and there is no refund after that.

The second-sleeper class cancellation charge were also upwardly revised to Rs 120 from Rs 60 earlier, while for the second AC, it is now Rs 200 as against the earlier Rs 100.

Earlier, between 48 hours and six hours before the scheduled departure of the train, cancellation fee was 25 percent of the ticket. Now, the charge stands at 25 per cent of the ticket for cancellation between 48 hours and 12 hours before the scheduled departure of a train.

Also, from six hours before the scheduled departure of a train and up to two hours after the actual departure of the train, cancellation fee was 50 per cent of the ticket.

However, the revised rules stipulate that between 12 hours and four hours before the scheduled departure of the train, the cancellation fee will be 50 per cent of the ticket price.