CHENNAI: The Indian Railways has restored the pre-Covid system of allowing passengers to reserve tickets up to five minutes before the scheduled departure, subject to the availability of seats/berths, according to an order issued recently by Sanjay Manocha, Director, Passenger Marking - II.
It was in 2020, a few months before the Covid-induced lockdown, that the Railway Board brought down the deadline to prepare the second reservation chart from 30 to 5 minutes before the scheduled departure. The passengers, as such, could book such tickets both online and at counters up to 5 minutes before train departure. During the lockdown, however, this deadline was pushed back to two hours before the scheduled departure, and then to 30 minutes again.
In November 2015, the Railways revised the ticket cancellation rules, according to which the time limit for cancelling confirmed tickets was reduced to four hours before train departure. Vacant seats generated after the first chart preparation were then available for booking.
“The final reservation charting can be done anywhere between four hours and five minutes before departure of the train depending on the availability of the berths. Only when a large number of seats lies vacant after the first chart preparation will passengers be allowed to book tickets up to 5-10 minutes before train departure,” said a railway official.
‘Origin’ problem
The system of filling seats from train-originating stations deprives passengers boarding at remote location (RL) stations. D Rajkumar, a passenger, said, “Katpadi is an RL station for Chandigarh-Madurai bi-weekly express. If vacant berths after the first-chart preparation (at Chandigarh) are transferred to the next chart preparation station (Katpadi), waitlisted passengers from Katpadi will get berths up to Madurai. The policy only benefits those who board at originating stations”