IRCTC E-ticket’s Cancellation Refund Time & Train Ticket Rules

Filed in Articles by TMLT Editorials on May 5, 2021

IRCTC E-ticket’s Cancellation: The Indian Railways allow the passengers to cancel their ticket either online or at the railway station (depending on the mode of reservation) until the chart preparation on the date of departure of a train, which is usually four hours prior to the train departure.

Do you intend canceling your train ticket and you do not know how? Keep reading then you will know more about cancellation and refund. Before I tell you more, take note of these few points

IRCTC E-ticket’s Cancellation Refund: Getting Started On IRCTC

To book an e-ticket, you have two options. Either go to a travel agent or register yourself on the site. If you regularly use the internet and have a credit/debit card, I recommend that you register on IRCTC.

The process takes less than 10 minutes. This site is used by millions of Indians each day. Money transactions are made by hundreds of thousands of people. After registering, you will be provided a username and password. You may later log-in to IRCTC and change the default password.

Booking an E-Ticket

If you know how to surf around on the Internet, I bet that you’ll have no trouble booking an e-ticket on IRCTC. After logging in, you’ll find a ‘quick book’ setting. It asks for you to fill fields like- ‘from station’, ‘to station’, ‘date of a journey’, ‘quota of booking’ etc.

After filling the necessary fields, click on the ‘search trains’ option. IRCTC will retrieve the list of trains satisfying the conditions set by you.

Now, select the train and class that suits you best and click on ‘book ticket’. Next, you will be asked to fill details of passengers like name, age, sex, berth preference, etc. After filling the details, the next step is to make the payment.

IRCTC E-ticket’s Cancellation Refund: Things you MUST know

Now, the advance train tickets can be booked 120 days before for all classes.

This period of reservation (ARP) is exclusive of the day of the train’s departure, as per IRCTC. Secondly, E-tickets (online tickets through IRCTC portal) can be canceled online till the chart is prepared, says IRCTC.

E-ticket cancellations won’t happen on railway counters. Furthermore, the refund will be credited to the account that was used for booking online tickets (after deduction of applicable cancellation charges).

New Rules for Ticket Cancellation and Refund (cancellation charges are levied on per passenger basis)

If the tickets are confirmed, it can be canceled up to 48 hours before the scheduled departure of the train. The cancellation charges will be deducted at 240 INR for AC First Class/Executive Class; 200 INR for AC 2 Tier/First Class; 180 INR for AC 3 Tier/AC Chair car/AC 3 Economy; 120 INR for Sleeper Class; and 60 INR for Second Class.

If you cancel a confirmed ticket within 48 hours and up to 12 hours before the scheduled departure of the train, ticket cancellation charges will be 25 percent of the fare (subject to the minimum flat rate mentioned above).

If you cancel a confirmed ticket between 12 hours and up to four hours before the scheduled departure of the train, cancellation charges will be 50 percent of the fare paid (subject to the minimum cancellation rate).

As per IRCTC website, tickets booked online (E-tickets) cannot be canceled after the chart is prepared. There won’t be any refund of fare on tickets having confirmed reservation in case ticket is not canceled or Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR) not filed online up to four hours before the scheduled departure of the train.

In case your train gets canceled for some reason, for e-tickets, there will be an automatic refund process. Filing of TDR or ticket deposit receipt won’t be required.

Rules for wait-listed, RAC Train Ticket Cancellation and Refund

For RAC (reservation against cancellation) train tickets or wait-listed train tickets, if canceled up to 30 minutes before the departure of the train, there will be refund after deduction of clerking charges. As per the IRCTC website, for second class (reserved) and other classes, the clerk age charge is 60 INR per passenger (for cancellation of RAC and waitlisted tickets).

If the train is running late by more than three hours of the scheduled departure, no cancellation charge will be levied. Full money will be refunded to passengers holding confirmed, RAC, and wait-listed tickets in such cases (subject to the condition that the ticket is surrendered before the actual departure of a train).

In case of train cancellation, for a Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counter ticket, a refund is allowed within three days excluding the scheduled day of departure of the train.

Rules for Cancellation of Tatkal Train Ticket

There shall be no refund on cancellation on confirmed Tatkal train tickets.

As per IRCTC website, if the train is running more than 3 hours late, then you can file TDR and claim a refund.

Rules for partial Cancellation of Train Tickets

If there is any partial cancellation of the ticket, make sure that a fresh e-reservation slip (electronic reservation slip) is printed separately (as mentioned on the IRCTC website).

Cancellation at Railway Station Counter

You have to present your reserved tickets, RAC tickets or wait-listed tickets for a refund to the Station Master of the ticket issuing station. The station-master, on verifying the genuineness of the tickets through their computer or railway station records, will grant you the refund at the counter, subject to deductions mentioned in the Refund Rules section by the Indian Railways.

Online cancellation

If you cancel the tickets online, the refund amount will be credited to the account initially used to book the ticket. The cancellation of tickets online is not entertained after the chart preparation, but in some cases using the TDR service by IRCTC can help in canceling the train ticket and facilitating refund after chart preparation. TDR can be filed and a refund can be checked online by visiting the IRCTC website.

The Time Required for Online Refund

The time taken to process the refund is approximately within 7 days in case of online cancellation. The refunded amount is subject to deductions mentioned in the Refund Rules section by the Indian Railway.

The cancellation charges for confirmed tickets when canceled more than 48 hours before the departure time varies between INR 30 to INR 120 for passenger trains. The cancellation charges also depend on the type of train for which the booking was made, coach class and the period of cancellation.

In the case of E-ticket cancel, a cancellation charge of 25% of the ticket fare is charged when a ticket is canceled between 48 hours to 6 hours before the scheduled departure of the train. For cancellations done between 6 hours of the train departure, a cancellation fee of 50% is charged.

Ticket Cancellation for Canceled Trains

The refund for a ticket when the train is canceled due to calamities like accidents, floods or earthquakes, is processed in the full amount of the ticket is canceled within three days of the scheduled departure of the train.

Note: The refund is not provided for confirmed tatkal tickets. Refer to the Railway refund rules to know more about the tatkal cancellation.

Checking the IRCTC Refund Status Online

To check the refund status of your canceled ticket, you can follow the below-mentioned steps

Visit the IRCTC website
Click on the tab My transactions
Click on the tab Refund status of canceled tickets
The canceled refund page displays the details of your canceled tickets with the transaction ID
Click on the transaction ID to get the details of your refund

IRCTC E-ticket’s Cancellation Refund status inquiry can be done by following these steps on IRCTC’s website, and you can look for trains from Bangalore to Goa or trains from Delhi to Srinagar.

Your friends or loved ones might need these guidelines, do well to share it with them on their social media handles.

CSN Team.

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