The Indian Railways will soon allow passengers to change the travel dates of booked and confirmed online tickets without any excess fee. The relief, however, is not for the current festive season but will only come during the next calendar year.
Speaking to News18, a railway ministry official said that the instructions from the minister’s office have been issued and the final details are being worked out.
“The new system is likely to be implemented from January 2026 and will be for tickets booked online,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
While the details are yet to be issued, the official said that the date modification will be allowed for the same origin and destination without any guarantee of confirmed seats.
“If you modify a confirmed
ticket, there will be no guarantee that you will get a confirmed ticket for the new date. A confirmed seat will depend on availability,” the official added.
Also, in case there is any change in cost, the difference will be charged to the customer.
When asked if the modification would also allow passengers to change travel class, the official said the ministry will issue the details in the coming weeks.
The name and date modification is allowed in offline tickets under certain conditions. However, there is no such rule for online tickets.
At present, online passengers wishing to change their travel date must cancel their existing ticket and book a new one—often losing money to cancellation charges that can go up to 50% of the fare, depending on when the cancellation is made. Also, the passengers need to fill in all the details all over again. If date modification is allowed, then a simple date-change request will be enough, without re-entering passenger and other travel details.
The move is part of Indian Railways’ ongoing efforts to make online ticketing more flexible and passenger-friendly.
With over 80% of tickets now booked through IRCTC’s online platform, officials say the feature could significantly reduce the number of cancellations and refund requests.
This is also in line with the ministry’s initiatives to make the system flexible.
From October 1, the ministry has mandated that during the first 15 minutes of the opening of general reservation, reserved general tickets can be booked through the website of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) or its app only by Aadhaar-authenticated users.
This was done to ensure that the benefits of the reservation system reach the common end user and are not misused by unscrupulous elements.
Last year, from November 2024, the ministry reduced the advance reservation period from 120 days to 60 days for train bookings by Indian travellers in order to promote genuine passengers.
The decision, the ministry said, was to help the Railway Board to improve the visibility of genuine demand for rail travel in India.
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