Indian Railways To Replace 40-Year-Old Reservation System From August — Here's What's New

Indian Railways is preparing to shift all train reservations to a new and upgraded Passenger Reservation System (PRS) from August. The move is aimed at improving ticket booking services and reducing technical problems faced by passengers.During a review meeting held at Rail Bhavan on Thursday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw instructed officials to make sure passengers do not face difficulties while moving from the old reservation system to the upgraded one.“Today at Rail Bhawan, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw held a review meeting with officials and issued directions to ensure that passengers do not face any inconvenience during the transition of trains from the 40-year-old reservation system to the upgraded system. Union Ministers of State

for Railways, V. Somanna and Ravneet Singh Bittu were also present in the meeting,” the Ministry of Railways said in a statement.Also Read: 3 Passengers Per Seat? Inside India’s Train Routes with the Highest OccupancyIndian Railways first introduced the Passenger Reservation System in 1986. Over the years, the system has been upgraded several times to handle the growing number of passengers booking train tickets across the country.Online railway ticket booking started in 2002, and today nearly 88% of all railway ticket bookings happen through online platforms. To further improve passenger experience, Railways has now increased the capacity of the reservation system using newer technologies.One of the biggest recent changes is the launch of the RailOne super app in 2025. The app uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict whether a waitlisted train ticket is likely to get confirmed.According to Indian Railways, the accuracy of ticket confirmation predictions on the app has improved significantly — from 53% earlier to 94% now.The RailOne app also combines several railway services in one place. Passengers can book or cancel tickets, apply for refunds, buy platform tickets and unreserved tickets, and check live train status, platform numbers, coach positions and train schedules. The app also includes Rail Madad services for passenger support and complaints.Railways said the app is already being widely used across the country.“Every day, 9.29 lakh tickets are booked through this app across the country, including 7.2 lakh unreserved tickets and 2.09 lakh reserved tickets. Unreserved tickets also include platform tickets. The RailOne app is widely appreciated on both Android and iOS platforms. It has been downloaded 3.16 crore times from the Google Play Store and 33.17 lakh times on Apple devices,” it said.