To prevent touts from abusing the booking system and to provide customers more leeway to change their boarding stations, Indian Railways has updated its policies on ticket cancellation.
The revised system, which will be put into place in stages from April 1, 2026, to April 15, 2026, will be more stringent in its linking of reimbursement amounts to the period of cancellation prior to train departure. Subject to a flat cancellation fee, passengers who cancel their tickets more than 72 hours before to departure will receive the maximum refund.
If you need to cancel your reservation 72 to 24 hours before your departure, you’ll have to pay 25% of the ticket. Cancellations made between 24 and 8 hours prior to the event will incur a 50% surcharge. If you cancel less than 8 hours before your departure, we will not give you a refund.
The move, according to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, is an attempt to stop touts from buying a bunch of tickets at once and then cancelling the ones that don’t sell right before departure in order to make a killing. Ticket availability for actual travellers should improve as a result of the stricter refund system, which should decrease such practices.
To better accommodate their customers, Indian Railways has recently instituted a policy that permits riders to alter their designated boarding location up to half an hour prior to the train’s planned departure. Before chart preparation, such adjustments could only be made.
By allowing customers to select a more convenient boarding place closer to departure time, the new feature is especially advantageous for cities with several railway stations.
The reforms are an attempt by Indian Railways to strike a compromise between more stringent controls on ticketing misuse and better customer convenience and flexibility.
