Online Train Ticket Booking rules: The rules for booking railway tickets online are going to change. From October 1, 2025, after opening online booking for any train, only base-attested users will be allowed to book general reservation through the IRCTC website or app.
However, at present, there will be no change in the time of booking general reserved tickets through computerized PRS counters of Indian Railways. There will be no change even in the time of 10 minutes of ban on the general reservation, during which the authorized ticket agents of Indian Railways will not be allowed to book reserved tickets on the first day. Let us tell you that this type of rule is only applicable only to immediate booking. Let us tell you that the booking for general reservation starts daily at midnight 12.20 pm and runs till 11.45 pm. Advance booking for general tickets opens 60 days before the date of journey.
Understand how a new rule will work with an example
For example, suppose you have to book tickets for November 15 in Shivganga Express from New Delhi to Varanasi, for this, online ticket booking window will open on September 16 at midnight at 12.20 pm. Now from 12.20 am to 12.35 pm, only those users will be able to book tickets in this train, whose IRCTC account will be Aadhaar Verified. If your account will not be Aadhaar verified, then you will not be able to book from 12.20 am to 12.35 pm after opening the window.
There is also a fight for general tickets in festivals and wedding season
Usually, big festivals like Deepawali, Chhath Puja, Holi and the congestion of passengers to book tickets as soon as the booking window opens 2 months ago in the wedding season. This crowd breaks exactly the same for general booking, as it breaks for immediate booking.
Rules were mandatory for Tatkal ticket booking in July
Let us tell you that in July this year, Indian Railways made Aadhaar Authentification compulsory for online Tatkal ticket booking. According to this rule, it is necessary to have a user account verified to book Tatkal tickets online from IRCTC’s mobile app and website. If your account is not Aadhaar verified then you cannot book Tatkal tickets online.