Indian Railways Revolutionizes Booking: Charts Now 8 Hours Early, New PRS Promises Lightning-Fast Tickets

Get ready for a smoother, more predictable train journey! In a significant policy shift aimed at enhancing passenger convenience, Indian Railways is set to prepare its final reservation charts a full eight hours before a train's scheduled departure, a substantial change from the current four-hour window. This move is designed to bring greater certainty and empower passengers, especially those holding waitlisted tickets.

For trains departing before 2 PM, an even earlier update is in store: their reservation charts will be finalized at 9 PM on the preceding evening.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has given the green light for these changes, directing their "phased implementation to avoid any disruption." The Railway Board is currently working on the detailed rollout plan, which will be announced soon.

According to an official statement from the Ministry, the existing four-hour chart preparation window often leaves passengers in a state of uncertainty. The new, extended timeline will be a significant boon for those with waitlisted tickets, providing them with crucial status updates well in advance. This will particularly benefit travelers embarking on long-distance journeys from remote areas or the suburbs of major cities, granting them more time to make alternative arrangements if their tickets aren't confirmed.

But that's not all for passenger-friendly initiatives. In another major announcement, the Railways revealed a complete overhaul of its Passenger Reservation System (PRS), slated for completion by December. This ambitious upgrade promises to revolutionize the ticket booking experience.

The revamped PRS will boast an incredible capacity of over 1.5 lakh ticket bookings per minute – a staggering five-fold increase from the current 32,000 tickets per minute. Furthermore, the system's ticket inquiry capacity is set to skyrocket tenfold, from 4 lakh to an astounding 40 lakh inquiries per minute. The new PRS will also feature a multilingual and intuitively user-friendly interface for both booking and inquiries. These pivotal decisions emerged from a comprehensive review meeting chaired by Minister Vaishnaw last week.

Officials confirmed that the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) has been actively working on this transformative project over the past few months. "With the new PRS, users will have the ability to specify their preferred seat choices and view the fare calendar," an official stated.

Adding another layer of security and transparency, the national transporter is also set to implement mandatory user authentication for Tatkal ticket bookings on the IRCTC website and mobile app, effective July 1. These sweeping changes underscore Indian Railways' commitment to modernizing its services and significantly improving the travel experience for millions of passengers.