From real-time vacant berth status updates to public reservation charts and biometric linking, Indian Railways passengers now have a higher chance of getting seats in trains.

Getting a confirmed Indian Railways train ticket can often be a headache, with lakhs of people using the network daily. Apart from opening advanced booking 120 days ahead of the train departure date, Indian Railways has been taking several innovative steps to increase the chances of passengers getting confirmed seats.
indian railways

5 innovative steps by Indian railways to get confirm tickets:

  • 1- Reservation charts go public: Indian railways recently made its reservation charts public like the airline-style. This allows passengers to make an informed choice as the status of any vacant berths is seen after chart preparation. While the first chart is available online, 4 hours before the train’s departure, the second chart is made available 30 minutes before departure. the layout is also visible of all classes.benefit is that that tte will not be able to deny seat availability.

READ MORE: INCREASE FARE IN RAJDHANI TRAINS

  • 2- Hand Held Terminals: In Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains handheld terminals were already introduced and now railways try to bring this service for more trains. The HHT is a GPS-enabled, mini tablet-like device given to TTEs to update the real-time occupancy status in a running train. This helps passengers boarding trains from subsequent stations bag confirmed seats or berths. This helps passenger a lot who board from subsequent stations.
  • 3- Biometric Linking: Under western railway zone Indian railways introduced a new biometric system on an experimental basis. Due to many complaints of seat cornering by antisocial elements in unreserved coaches, this step was taken. This will help generate a token, which in turn has to be shown to the RPF staff during biometric verification at the time of boarding the train this will help avoid a stampede like situation as most trains arrive at the platform a few minutes after actual departure.

ALSO READ : NEW KYC RULES FOR BANKS

  • 4-CNF Probability: With the upgradation of IRCTC web portal last year, Indian Railways had introduced a feature called CNF Probability. This feature gives passengers a forecast of confirmation probability, determining the chances of getting a confirmed seat. To check the CNF Probability, login to your IRCTC account and enter you’re desired ‘from’ and ‘to’ stations, date of the journey along with other details. Now, click on ‘Find trains’ option, following which a list of trains will be displayed. Now, select the desired train and click on ‘check availability and fare’. If there are no seats available, click on ‘CNF Probability’ for the date you want to commence the train journey. In case the chances of a confirmed ticket are less, passengers can opt for another train or date of journey. They can also go for the VIKALP scheme that helps allot seats in an alternate train.



  • 5-PNR Linking: To improve the experience of connection train journey linking pnr concept is introduced.passengers can link two PNRs for connecting train journey, both for PRS counter tickets and IRCTC e-tickets or a combination of both. The fare for the portion travelled is retained and the refund is provided on the balance account if the passenger is travelling with reservation ticket and the train is delayed somehow and 2nd train is missed due to that.