THINGS TO REMEMBER WHILE BOOKING THE TICKET

टिकट बुक करते समय ध्यान में रखने योग्य बातें

• Tatkal reservation can open 2 or more days in advance: Tatkal reservation opens 1 day in advance at 10 am. But if the train departs from your boarding station one day after it begins its journey from its originating station, then tatkal reservation will open 2 days in advance for your journey. For example, the tatkal ticket from Delhi to Mumbai in Punjab Mail (12138) opens 2 day in advance because the train departs from Delhi on 2nd day of its journey! For more tips on booking tatkal tickets on IRCTC goto Tatkal Booking Tips. Similarly, advance reservation period in this case is 61 days and not 60 days.

• Get a confirm ticket by extending destination city: If you are getting waiting ticket for your origin-destination pair in a train, then change the destination to a station which comes 2-3 stops after your alight station. Sometimes you might find confirmed ticket in this case. Or if not confirmed then you might find a better waiting list quota. For example, if you have to go from Delhi to Surat in Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani (12952) you get a RSWL from Delhi to Surat (which has less chances of confirmation), but if you book ticket from Delhi to Mumbai you might get a confirmed ticket or a GNWL waiting list (which has much better chances of confirmation). And you can still alight the train at Surat! To know about different types of waiting list, click here.

• Get a confirm berth in Lower Berth (LB) quota: If a female passenger above age of 45 or a male passenger above age 60 is travelling alone, the system would automatically place them in vacant Lower Berth (LB) quota where he/she can get a confirm berth, even if the status for same journey is waiting list in general quota. Please dont confuse it with Senior Citizen concession applicable to male (60+)(40%) and female (58+)(50%).

• Take care of date if departure is after 12 midnight: In cases where train departure time at passenger boarding station is after 12am (say 12:30am), then you should keep in mind to put journey date as the next day.

• Break Journey: If a passenger wishes to take a break at an intermediate station of his journey, he can do so if this intermediate station is more than 500 kms from the origin of his journey. He can stay at this station for a maximum of 2 days before continuing his journey. For more details go to indian railways break journey link. This facility is not allowed on premium trains such as rajdhani, shatabdi and duronto.

• Circular Journey: If you wish to go on a tour where no. of destinations is between 4 and 8, you can opt for circular journey tickets. For this ticket, journey should begin and end at the same station. These tickets give the benefit of telescopic rates which are considerably lower than regular point-to-point fare. For more details go to indian railways circular journey link.