While rolling back the ten-year order, the Railway Ministry on Thursday made changes in its reservation rules and reduced the Advanced Reservation Period (ARP) from 120 days to 60 days. The Ministry said the order will come into effect from 01 November 2024 and cited the new booking period as appropriate for passengers.
“From 01.11.2024, the ARP will be for 60 days (excluding the date of travel) and bookings will be made accordingly. However, all bookings made up to 31.10.2024 under 120 days ARP will remain so,” reads the Railways circular. The department also said that cancellation of bookings made beyond the 60-day ARP will be allowed.
“There will be no change in the case of certain day time trains like Taj Express, Gomti Express, etc. where the lower time limits for pre-booking are in effect, for the time being, they are in effect,” reads the Department’s circular. Apart from this, there will also be no change in the matter of the 365-day limit for foreign visitors. On March 25, 2015, the Department increased the Advance Booking Period for booking accommodation on trains from 60 days to 120 days (excluding the day of travel).
Railway advance booking times have undergone changes from time to time. The advance booking period has varied from 30 days during 1995-98 to 120 days during 1981-85, 2012-13 and 2015-24. This reservation period was also between 45 and 90 days during certain temporary periods.
The Ministry of Railways said that based on the experience of various periods over the years, the Advance Day booking period of 60 days has been seen as a reasonable period from the passengers’ point of view. “120 days was too long to plan, resulting in high cancellations and wasted seats/tables because passengers were not coming on the trip. Currently, about 21% have been canceled and 4-5% of passengers do not arrive,” said the Ministry in a statement.
While confirming its decision, the Department said that in many cases, it seems that passengers do not cancel their tickets and do not cancel the journey and this leads to frauds like impersonation, railway officials taking money illegally etc. that this will be prevented from now on.
“Since there are long periods, there are many chances that some people will block the tickets. Shorter times 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 less cancellations and no-shows, railways can schedule more special trains in advance,” the Department said.