IRCTC To Let You Easily Reschedule Confirmed Train Tickets
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is planning something exciting for all the rail travellers across the country. It is soon going to roll out a new feature that allows passengers to reschedule the travel date on a Confirmed train ticket without the need to cancel it. This new service that will be launched from January 2026 would be available on both the website as well as mobile application.
Until now, passengers who wanted to change their travel date had no option but to cancel their train tickets. This process was both time consuming and a financial loss because of the hefty cancellation charges. The new changes aim at removing this tedious process and provide a much more simpler and flexible booking process to the passengers.
How the New System Will Work
The new system will be user-friendly and would easily allow the passengers to reschedule the travel dates. You just have to Log In to the IRCTC account and in your booking section
You need to change the travel date online. The system will check if the seats are available on the day of your choosing. If seats are available, the system will instantly change your travel date.
You can check train seat availability at the RailMitra platform. RailMitra has a bunch of important railway features like train food delivery, live train running status and PNR status checking.
You might need to pay an extra fare if the fair prices of the rescheduled travel date are higher. If the fare of the rescheduled date is the same or lower than the original fare, passengers won’t need to pay any extra charges. All these rescheduling is subject to train seat availability.
Why It Matters
According to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, this move is part of Indian Railways’ ongoing efforts to make train travel more passenger-friendly and digitally efficient. He pointed out that the existing system of cancellations and deductions has often been “unfair and not in the interest of passengers” for passengers, and said that instructions have been issued to implement the new policy soon.
Currently, cancelling a confirmed ticket between 48 and 12 hours before departure leads to a 25% deduction, while cancellations made closer to departure can cost up to 50% of the fare. Once the reservation chart is prepared, refunds are rarely allowed. The new system will help passengers avoid these unnecessary losses when their travel plans change at the last moment.
A Step Towards Smarter Ticketing
IRCTC would integrate these new changes in its Central Reservation System to ensure there is transparency and accountability to the process. The new process aims to significantly reduce the stress for passengers who earlier had to visit 48 hours in advance to cancel and book a new train ticket. New changes will also reduce crowding at the Railway counters.
The change is a part of the digital transformation drive that Indian Railways is undertaking. Recently Railways made Aadhar-based verification mandatory for booking tickets, reduced Advanced Reservation Period duration as well barred Railway agents from booking tickets in the initial minutes of bookings.
These new steps aim to make the ticket booking system in IRCTC more transparent, accountable, and accessible to passengers. Passengers claimed that although an online method of ticket booking is available , the process is not user friendly at all. The new changes tries to bridge the divide between the passengers and the ticket booking system and tries to make the system smooth and user-oriented.