help please understanding the WL

b-side

Hello all! This is my first post although i've done a lot of reading here and found it to be very helpful, entertaining, and civil.

My question is this: looking to book tickets for my first trip to India starting May 31st. What exactly is the WL and if the tickets are, say WL25/WL12, will we get our tickets? Confusing stuff when you have no idea what anything means.

Thank you all in advance and I look forward to reading and posting more!

mousourik

Hi bs,
There is a certain number of berths/seats available in each compartment - the exact number depends on the class. More on sleeper and 3tier AC, less on AC2tier. Once all the berths are booked, some more seats are alotted as RAC (reservation against cancellation). People having rac tickets will be able to board the train and will be given a seat, not a sleeping berth. Once all the seats kept as rac are booked, the people are given tickets as wait-listed(WL). A person having WL ticket will not be able to board the train.
As the date of journey approaches, some confirmed/rac tickets may be cancelled by the ticket holders. In such case, the status of the following passengers improve. Also, some berths/seats are kept reserved under certain quota. If these berths are still vacant at the time of chart preparation (4 hours before the time of jorney), then these berths are made available to the passengers waiting in queue.
WL25/WL12 means the status was waiting list 25 at the time of booking, but has improved to wl12 at the time of checking the status. If the status still remains WL at the time of journey, the passenger will get a full refund once s/he claims it.

Mickey S

If your trip is starting May 31st then you should have been booking train tickets months ago. Booking opens 90 days prior to the journey.

b-side

Thanks very much for the information. Still curious as to whether tickets that are WL/12 and WL/13 (possibly the number before that would be WL/25?? not sure...) have a decent chance of getting on, or should I make multiple reservations just in case?

Thanks once again for your help.

And, um, yeah Mikey. Only two problems with booking months ago; didn't even know I was going to India, and didn't know I had to a couple weeks ago when we got our flight. I'm sure you're aware that there's quite a learning curve for first time visitors. And I'm quite sure this isn't the only mistake we'll make

Shipnil

In a waitlisted train ticket, first WL no. signifies the serial no. and the second WL gives the current status at the time of booking. So on the day of journey, once you reach the train station, if you want to check the status of your ticket, you should check the first WL no. in the chart posted at the station. In your case, it happens to be WL25.

spicetrekker

Well whether it will get confirmed or not depends on the sector and class - frankly in May it is holiday time in India and therefore the cancellations are few. Let me explain how this will get confirmed. Your number indicates that serially you were WL 25 but by the time you booked 13 people had already cancelled so your current no is WL 12. Now if 12 more cancel you would then come to RAC which means you can board the train but will not necessarily get a sleeping berth but a place to sit.

So it all depends on how many cancel which depends on:

1. Which sector it is - some sectors like Mumbai - Surat see a lot of cancellations but others like Mumbai Delhi may see a lot few
2. Which train - sometimes people reserve in two trains and if they get the preferred train then they cancel the other - having said that they preferred trains also have longer waitlists
3. Lastly which class (other than Shatabdi/Rajadhanis) most trains in India have a combination of Sleeper Class, AC3, AC2 and sometimes AC1 berths - in decreasing nos i.e max Sleeper and lowest AC2/1; so if you are booked in AC then chances of WL 12 confirming are much lesser than in the case of Sleeper
   

Have I confused you enough

Suggestion is that you book multiple trains dates if possible; provided WL no is lower than what you have

Also see if there are summer specials (trains run to ameliorate the summer peak rush) available on the route and date you want

Hope this helps

b-side

Thank you so much. It's starting to make a little sense...

The route is Mumbai to Chennai, it looks like it's the second most preferred train, the quicker one had a huge WL number. If anyone has insight on this route please let me know.

It sounds like I should book other tickets too so I'll do that. I've heard that a little financial incentive may help in berths coming available once at the station. If anyone would care to comment on this as well it would be appreciated.

You guys rock!

oops forgot. I've booked 2AC.

Any thoughts on tourist quota being worth a go?
And is there any way to check the status of your WL ticket on the IRCTC site? I've just looked for 2hrs but can't seem to find any.

Thanks once more. I hope everyone who's helped realizes just how much it means

mousourik

visit indianrail.gov.in and "check pnr status" with the pnr printed in your ticket.

steven_ber

Starting your trip on the 31st......After looking at the waitlists, I think you mean that you're starting your train journey to Chennai on the 31st, details are vital for accurate info.

I can see you've just booked 2 tickets.

I think the waitlist thing has already been explained, but just to explain again, WL 25/WL 12 means you're the 25th person to join the waitlist, but because of cancellations (before or after you book), your current/actual waitlist position is 12.

When all berths have been sold (before going to waitlist), you are given an RAC ticket, RAC means Reserved against cancellation, this gets you a seat on the train, but not a berth, this helps the railways ensure people are on the train in case of last minute cancellations or people just not turning up, there are 6 RAC positions in 2-tier air con, these 6 occupy 2 lower berths, so when 2 people are given berths, the 3rd person would use the lower berth as their bed.

If the waitlist did go right down, you'd find out your berth by going to the 2-tier air con RAC/waitlist reservation chart on the platform, you'd find out your carriage and seat/berth by looking for WL25 on the form.

Train 2163 (the fastest train) had a waitlist of WL 48/WL 26, but there are 26 berths allocated to this sector of the route (the full route)

Train 1041 (2nd fastest, the one you booked) had a waitlist of WL 25/WL 12, but there are only 10 berths allocated to this sector.

BOTH of these waitlists are too big, you have very little chance of getting a confirmed berth, you need another 34 cancellations in train 2163 (26+the 2 that you'd book+6 RAC), and 34 cancellations from 26 available is unlikely.

Likewise, in 1041 you need 20 cancellations from 10 berths.

There is availability (2 in each train) in 2-tier air con via the foreign tourist quota, but you need to be in India to book foreign tourist quota tickets.

You can wait and try to book Tatkal tickets (an extra Rs300 per ticket), to travel on the 31st, you'd need to book early (08:00 IST) on Monday 26th, there are 10 available on 1041, and 14 available on 2163.

---------------------------

To check if your waitlist position has improved, try the following link.

http://www.indianrail.gov.in/pnr_stat.html

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spicetrekker

As Steven said - you are unlikely to get a confirmation in 2 AC ; I would say almost impossible. Yes you can get Tatkal by paying the extra bit on last day but it is a gamble. As for getting tickets by paying some bribe - I would say you avoid.

My suggested course of action is to try and book yourself an airticket. You can get one on Low cost airlines - eg Deccan, etc. for around INR 3000 - I guess your 2 AC ticket would be close to INR 2000 and all the bribes etc ur planning would take it closer to the figure of 3K in any case.

Try sites like makemytrip.com for finding out cheapest fares, though personally I dont book thru this site but after finding the cheapest fare go the particular airline site and book the tickets

b-side

I feel very redundant saying "thank you" so much, but it's true.

I believe I'm slowly getting a grip on things. The other train tickets we needed I booked last night with no problem.

I'll check out the plane situation asap.

Everyone has been so helpful. I'm sure I'll have some entertaining stories to tell and hopefully I'll be able to return the favor someday.

steven_ber

Don't cancel your train ticket yet, wait to see if the waitlist goes down, you only pay a very small cancellation fee as long as you cancel 2 days before the train is due to depart.

reneeautumn

Thanks, all, this is just as helpful for me; I had no idea (though I should have) how difficult it would be first to use the website and then to find trains that aren't already waitlisted.

Just out of curiosity, are private buses typically easier to get on last minute?

b-side

Everyone has been such a great help. We've actually decided to change our itinerary a bit and cut out Chennai. It was a little too ambitious for our time frame. I've managed to get our other tickets with no problem. Now we just have 3 days to wander around between Mumbai and Madurai...

machadinha

By all accounts, yes (and by my experience, but that's not very recent). Public buses as well. It always pays to make enquiries as soon as you can of course. (I.e., when you have some idea of when you'll be wanting to move on out of a given place. So "last-minute" might be an overstatement. But say a day before, yes. And often even really on the spot.)

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