The Indian Railways on Tuesday announced a major overhaul of its ticket cancellation and boarding norms, insisting that the changes were an effort to tighten the screws on black marketing and improve passenger convenience. Union railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the new refund rule will take effect between April 1 and 15 this year (PTI)
Under the new rules, the railways have introduced a tiered refund system that will require passengers to pay a minimum cancellation charge for confirmed tickets cancelled more than 72 hours before a train’s scheduled departure.
If a ticket is cancelled between 72 hours and 24 hours before departure, the railways will deduct 25% of the fare, subject to the minimum fee. The deduction rises to 50% of the fare for cancellations of confirmed tickets between 24 hours and 8 hours before departure.
Passengers will no longer receive any refund for tickets cancelled within eight hours of a train’s departure. Earlier, this no-refund rule only applied to tickets cancelled before four hours.
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the changes were designed to dismantle the business model of touts who “book in bulk and cancel unsold tickets” at the last minute.
“This is to end the incentive for last-minute black marketing, where people are ready to pay any price,” Vaishnaw said.
The revised rules will be implemented in phases between April 1 and April 15 and will address booking patterns in which agents exploit refund windows by strategically cancelling tickets, particularly around earlier cut-off periods.
The minister said passengers would now be allowed to change their boarding station up to 30 minutes before the scheduled departure of the train provided this is done through digital means.
“Earlier, such changes were permitted only before the preparation of the reservation chart. The move is expected to benefit passengers in cities with multiple stations, allowing them to choose a more convenient boarding location without affecting their confirmed seat,” he said.
Vaishnaw also announced that passengers who want to upgrade their travel class can do so up to 30 minutes before departure for counter tickets; this was previously only allowed until the train’s chart was prepared.
The railways said the changes are aimed at streamlining cancellation rules, reducing misuse of the booking system and providing greater flexibility to passengers.
They also said the initiatives would discourage agents and touts from hoarding tickets.
The ministry also revealed it has deactivated 30 million suspicious user IDs to curb hoarding.