New refund guidelines 2026: Indian Railways has introduced a brand new set of refund guidelines for confirmed train tickets. As per the brand new guidelines, if a passenger chooses to cancel a confirmed train ticket inside 24 to 72 hours of the scheduled departure, there will likely be 25% deduction in the train ticket fare. If the cancellation is made inside 8 hours then no refund will likely be issued on the ticket.
New Cancellation & Refund Rules 2026: Top factors to know
1. For a confirmed ticket, if the cancellation is made greater than 72 hours earlier than departure, then you’re going to get the utmost refund potential, with solely the minimal flat cancellation payment per passenger relevant2. If you cancel the confirmed ticket, in the 72 hours to 24 hours window earlier than the train departure, there will likely be a normal penalty window (25% of the fare topic to the minimal cost)3. Between 24 hours as much as 8 hours earlier than the departure, if the train ticket is cancelled then 50% of the fare will likely be deducted topic to the minimal cost4. If you cancel your confirmed train ticket lower than 8 hours earlier than the departure of the train, NO REFUND will likely be permitted.
Refund guidelines for PRS counter tickets and e-tickets have additionally modified.
- Earlier, passengers have been required to cancel tickets on the terminating station. Now passengers can cancel throughout the counter at any station.
- Earlier, for e-tickets passengers have been required to manually file a Ticket Deposit Receipt. Now the TDR requirement has been eradicated. No passenger motion is required and automated refund is granted.
In the meantime, final yr Indian Railways made a number of changes to its train ticket reserving system as effectively. For instance, efficient October 1, 2025, Indian Railways launched a rule mandating Aadhaar authentication for passengers reserving reserved tickets underneath the overall quota through the IRCTC web site or cell software throughout the first quarter-hour of the reserving window.The transfer was supposed to make sure that real customers profit from the reservation system whereas curbing misuse by unauthorised entities.The introduction of this measure adopted carefully on the heels of Indian Railways making Aadhaar authentication obligatory for Tatkal bookings from July 1, 2025.Those reserving tickets underneath the Tatkal scheme are required to finish Aadhaar verification and might achieve this solely via the IRCTC web site or its cell software.The pointers additionally outlined restrictions for authorised railway ticketing brokers in relation to Tatkal reservations.Such brokers are barred from reserving Tatkal tickets on the primary day throughout the preliminary half-hour of the reserving window. This restriction applies from 10:00 am to 10:30 am for air-conditioned lessons and from 11:00 am to 11:30 am for non-air-conditioned lessons.