Rail ticket cancellation, refund made more stringent from July 1

After hiking passenger fares, Railways have now  made rules for cancellation of tickets and obtaining refund more stringent to discourage frequent cancellations.

The revised rules, effected after a gap of 15 years, will come into force from July 1.
Under the new rules, no confirmed ticket can be cancelled after two hours of departure of train. The waitlisted or RAC tickets can be cancelled only within three hours after the departure of the train.

According to changed rules, prescribed time limit for cancelling tickets without inviting any deductions other than the prescribed cancellation charges has been increased from 24 hours to 48 hours. If a passenger cancels his confirmed reservation ticket 48 hours before the commencement of journey, he will get refund of complete fare after the deduction of cancellation charges.

A passenger cancelling his confirmed reserved ticket between 48 hours and six hours of the scheduled departure time of the train will lose 25 per cent of the fare. According to existing rules, this time limit is between 24 hours and 4 hours.

If a ticket is presented for cancellation between six hours prior to and two hours after the scheduled departure of the train, the passenger will lose 50 per cent of the fare as cancellation charges. According to existing rules, a reserved ticket can be cancelled up to 3, 6 and 12 hours depending on the distance of the travel after the actual departure of the train by losing 50 per cent of the fare. According to new refund rules, no reserved ticket can be cancelled after two tours of the departure of the train.

For waitlisted and RAC tickets, only clerkage charges will be deducted if it is cancelled within three hours of the departure of the train. Under existing rules, a waitlisted or RAC ticket can be cancelled between 3 and 12 hours after the train’s departure depending on the distance of the travel.

The cancellation norms for unreserved tickets has also been made stringent. An unreserved ticket can be cancelled only up to three hours after the issuance of the ticket. Earlier, it was linked to the actual departure of the train and could be done up to three hours after the departure. For advance unreserved tickets, the time limit is 24 hours preceding the day of the journey.

However, the railways have denied that the new rules will make train journey difficult for passengers as they lack flexibility.  “Amendments are aimed at simplification, efficiency in processing and reduction of fraudulent refund claims,” railway spokesperson Anil Saxena told Deccan Herald.