New Indian Railway Rules 2025: Key Changes for Passengers
Indian Railways is the mainstay for most of the passengers in the country. For the convenience of the passengers, the Ministry brings about changes in the Indian Railway Rules from time to time.
Recently, Indian Railways has introduced some changes that have significant impact for the travellers. In 2025, Indian Railways introduced these new rules to tackle the issues of overbooked trains, quota misuse, and congestion.
Passengers must be aware of these changes before boarding their train otherwise they might run into unnecessary problems arising due to negligence. This article is here to inform you all about the recent changes in depth, so that you can travel on rail stress free.
Understanding the New Indian Railway Rules
At the heart of the new Indian Railway Rules are the events of Maha Kumbh. This mammoth festival gave important inputs to the Railway Authorities in crowd management and ticket booking procedures. These lessons are clearly reflected in the updated rules that are discussed below:
Reserved Coaches Off-Limits for Waitlisted Passengers
The biggest change in the Updated Indian Railway Rules for 2025 has arrived for Waiting List ticket holders. Owing to the huge overcrowding of Trains and Railway Stations during the Maha Kumbh, Indian Railways has brought changes in the entry of Waiting List passengers.
Earlier, Indian Railways allowed passengers with offline Waiting List tickets to board the train but denied entry to those with online Waiting List tickets. From now on, this practice will stop completely.
Waiting List ticket holders booked offline or online, cannot board any Reserved coach, i.e, neither AC nor the Sleeper bogies. If caught boarding these coaches with a Waiting List ticket, a fine of ₹440 on AC coaches and ₹250 on Sleeper coaches will be levied. Apart from this fine a travel fare from the station where the train started to the next railway station will be additionally levied for AC as well as Sleeper coaches.
Waiting List ticket holders can still travel by the train but they would have to board an Unreserved coach.
This move targets overcrowding and forced boarding on trains. So, make sure to check your booking status and confirm that your ticket is valid before boarding. You can easily check this via the PNR Status Check services available at RailMitra. It provides a fast and efficient way to check these services without any charges or login requirements.
Waitlisted Passengers Barred at 60 Key Stations
To prevent overboarding at the Stations, stringent changes in Indian Railway Rules for the entry of Waiting List passengers have been introduced. Waiting List passengers won’t be able to enter the 60 major and busy Railway Stations and would have to wait at the designated Waiting Areas.
During Festive seasons Railways introduced Waiting Areas outside a few stations, in which Waiting List passengers were allowed to enter. Authorities allowed entry into the railway station only when the train arrived.
Railway has now decided to extend this plan to 60 major Railway Stations across the country. Pilot projects have been initiated at New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Mumbai, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Patna, Gaya, Buxar and Saharsa. Along with this Railways has also vowed to seal all unauthorised entry points to the concerned railway stations.
Waiting List passengers have to now wait at the designated Waiting Areas until the train arrives at the station. After the arrival of the train they would be eligible to board Unreserved coaches only.
You can check Train’s Arrival timings at any station by checking the Live Train Running Status service. This service tracks train Live location and Updated Arrival/Departure timings at various stations.
Advance Reservation Period Reduced to 60 Days
In November last year, Railways introduced a major change in the Advance Reservation Period. Passengers can now book railway tickets 60 days in advance with the Departure date not included. Earlier, Indian Railways fixed the advance booking period at 120 days.
Railways brought this change to tackle multiple issues. The biggest concern was the blocking of tickets by bogus entities. The 120 days advance booking period was excessive in nature and used by malicious entities to prevent genuine passengers from availing the tickets.
Another concern was of passengers not showing up on the train and neither cancelling the tickets. This creates a chaotic situation leading to fake impersonations and bribing of Railway officials. The reduced reservation period ensures that more and more genuine passengers get to avail the tickets and can travel with comfort.
Before booking your tickets, make sure to check seat availability in train.
Lower Berths Reserved for Seniors and Vulnerable Groups
To ease the travel and minimize difficulties of Senior Citizens, Women above the age of 45, Pregnant women and Persons with disabilities the Ministry of Railways has brought a major change. New Indian Railway Rules would automatically allot lower berth seats to persons belonging to this vulnerable group, regardless of whether they selected it or not. The exact seat allocation depends upon the seat availability.
To ensure the safety and comfort of vulnerable groups, Indian Railways reserves specific seats, which vary from coach to coach. For senior citizens, women aged 45 and above, and pregnant passengers, the system allots lower berths—even if they haven’t selected them.
In Sleeper Class, 6 to 7 lower berths per coach are reserved. In 3AC, the quota is 4 to 5 lower berths, and in 2AC, it’s 3 to 4 lower berths.
Similarly, for passengers with disabilities, Railways reserves 4 berths in Sleeper Class (including 2 lower berths), 4 berths in 3AC/3E, and 4 seats in 2S or Chair Car (CC). This applies to all mail/express trains, including Rajdhani and Shatabdi.
Railways provide these quotas regardless of whether passengers use concession benefits.
To check what Seat has been allotted to a passenger, one can use the PNR Status Check service available at RailMitra platform. You can easily avail this service either on the RailMitra website or the dedicated application available on Android as well as iOS.
Enforcement of Baggage Rules
Indian Railways have updated the Baggage policies. Indian Railways has set new baggage limits based on berth class, and exceeding these limits can result in heavy penalties.
The Baggage limit has been set to 70 kg for First Class AC, 50 kg for Second Class AC, 40 kg for Sleeper Class and 35 kg for Second Class Non-AC. For baggage exceeding these limits an excess baggage fee, 1.5 times the standard baggage fee is levied.
Apart from the weight restriction there are size restrictions as well. Any of the bag dimensions, i.e.. Length, breadth and width, should not exceed 160 cm. Indian Railways relaxes the dimension limit to 185 cm for certain select items such as cameras, umbrellas, and briefcases.
Indian Railways prohibits certain items in addition to enforcing weight and size restrictions. These include firearms. Flammable objects, weapons, ammunitions, leaking liquids, hazardous substances, etc.
Conclusion
Indian Railways latest updates in 2025 tries to address long standing issues such as Crowd management, ticket availability and passenger comfort. The new rules ensure that the operations are streamlined and a pleasant travel experience is provided to the travellers.
The new rules might be tough on waitlisted passengers but brings fairness, efficiency and discipline in the course of journey. RailMitra’s fast and user-friendly services such as Train Schedule, PNR Status Check and Live Train Running Status makes the passengers informed and plan the travel better.
So, before you go and board your train, make sure to be updated on the new Railway Rules for the passengers in 2025. Your pleasant and hassle-free journey depends on these updates.
FAQs for New Indian Railway Rules 2025
Q. Can I board a Reserved coach with a Waiting List ticket booked offline?
Ans: No you can no longer board a Reserved Coach with a Waiting list ticket either booked offline and online. However, you can still board an Unreserved coach with a Waiting List ticket.
Q. What are the new baggage limits on trains?
Ans: The new baggage limits on trains depend upon the class of travel: 70 kg for 1AC, 50 kg for 2AC, 40 kg for Sleeper, and 35 kg for Second Class.
Q. Are senior citizens, pregnant women, women above the age of 45 and people with disability guaranteed a lower berth?
Ans: While senior citizens, pregnant women, women above the age of 45 and people with disability aren’t guaranteed a lower berth. The new rules provide them a specific quota on each Coach making the availability of lower berths significantly easier.
Q. How long before the date of departure can I make the booking in Indian Railways?
Ans: You can make a booking in Indian Railways 60 days before the Date of Departure. Earlier the duration was 120 days before but it has now been scrapped.