In the festive season, millions of people in India go home or village to celebrate the festival with their families. The number of people returning home increases considerably on the occasion of festivals like Durga Puja, Dussehra, Diwali and Chhath. In such a situation, booking train tickets becomes the biggest challenge.
From 1 November 2024, the Ministry of Railways had reduced the period of advance booking of train tickets from 120 days to 60 days. That is, now you can book tickets only 60 days before the date of travel. If you are traveling from a station where the train reaches the next day, then you can book tickets 61 days in advance. At the same time, this period may be shorter for some special intercity day trains.
What is the right time to book tickets?
Suppose you want to travel on 20 October 2025, then you will have to book your tickets by 8 am on 21 August 2025. You can do this booking from IRCTC website or railway counter. But keep in mind that during the festivals, seats are filled in a few minutes as soon as the booking starts. So if you are not able to book tickets on the first day, then it becomes difficult to get confirmed ticket later.
Advance ticket booking starts at 8 am on IRCTC. If you want to get a confirmed ticket, then log into the same day when the booking window opened. This time is very valuable during festivals because millions of people try to book tickets at the same time.
What to do if you do not get confirmed tickets?
If you do not get a confirmed ticket on the day of booking, then you have two options. The first RAC (Reservation Against cancellation) in which you get a chance to travel, but have to share the seat. And the second Tatkal ticket which is found a day before, but is expensive and there is no guarantee of confirmed. So it is better that you try to get a ticket at 8 am on the first date of booking.