IRCTC: Types of Indian Railway tickets

advance booking for tickets in Indian Railways commences 120 days before date of journey. Tickets can be booked online at www.irctc.co.in, or offline at Passenger Reservation System(PRS) in railway stations. online ticket can again be an e-ticket whose print-out is to be shown during journey or an i-ticket which is delivered to passenger by Courier. All tickets issued contain a unique 10-digit PNR(Passenger Name Record) which is to be quoted during any correspondence relating to ticket/journey. ticket also shows  journey details like train number, journey date, travel class, origin, destination, ticket status, berth details for confirmed tickets, passenger details etc. A Maximum of six passengers can travel through one ticket. But having a ticket does t guarantee that journey is confirmed, it depends on status of ticket. status of ticket can be waiting (WL), RAC (half berth), or confirmed (full berth). A passenger is guaranteed a journey if his/her ticket is CNF(confirmed) or RAC(Reservation Against Cancellation) but t if its WL(Waiting List). se technical details can be quite illegible to aver user, who can struggle to grapple what TQWL or RLWL is, or what PQWL means. For benefit of passengers, all different statuses of train tickets are described below in intricate detail.

•    Confirmed (CNF) - If status of ticket is Confirmed passenger is guaranteed to get a complete berth (Upper, Middle, Lower, Side Upper or Side Lower) for journey. berth details of a confirmed ticket are usually given when ticket is issued. Only in case of First AC compartments(1A), passenger may t get berth details when ticket is issued because berth allotment for this class is done manually by TTE during chart preparation.

•    RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) - Once general quota seats are filled, passengers are placed in RAC queue.RAC passengers can travel in train but are t guaranteed a full berth.2 passengers travelling by RAC are assigned same side lower berth seat. If any cancellation is done in general quota seats, person in RAC queue is assigned a CNF ( Confirmed ) status.RAC passengers can cancel ticket 30 minutes before departure of train. If ticket is cancelled by 30 minutes before departure of train, a full refund is granted deducting cancellation charges. After charting if status remains in RAC, full berth will be allocated from confirmed passengers who have t boarded train. While in train TTE checks passengers who have t come and vacant seats are assigned to RAC passengers in priority according to order of RAC passengers given in chart.

•    WL (Waiting list) - If ticket status is marked as WL followed by a number n passenger has a waitlisted status. ticket can get confirmed only if passengers who have booked before for same journey cancel ir ticket. For example, if status is GNWL 13 / WL 9, n this means that ticket has a waiting list of 9 and it will get confirmed only if 9 passengers who have booked before for same journey cancel ir tickets. GNWL/AVAILABLE means that current status of ticket is Confirmed because some passengers who booked before having cancelled ir tickets.  In case passenger status is waitlisted even after chart preparation, n passenger is t allotted any berth.  If cancellation of a waitlisted ticket is made 48 hours before departure of train, only a cancellation charge of Rs. 60 is deducted per person. If all passengers on an e-ticket have waitlisted status after final chart preparation, n ticket gets automatically cancelled and amount is refunded back to user’s account. In this case, passengers are advised t to board train. If at least one passenger has RAC or confirmed status while or passengers on same ticket have waiting list status, n e-ticket does t get cancelled automatically and passengers are allowed to board train. Waiting list tickets can be of various types:

• General Waiting List (GNWL)
• Pooled Quota Waiting List (PQWL)
• Remote Location Waiting list (RLWL)
• Tatkal Waiting List Tickets (TQWL)
   

se lists should help clear confusion about waiting lists for Indian Railways. For more details, you may also download IRCTC app for mobile devices.