Time Limit for Advance Reservations

+1 to both the above points.

One question though, given the demand supply situation, it's obvious that IR coaches would still be fully filled up mostly. In such case, increasing cancellation charges would definitely add to Railway coffers. E.g. IR can have a 25% cancellation charges and the ones who book (esp. touts), may refrain from booking then.

Again, it could very much be the case that the invisible hands (read influential circuits in favor of tout 'raj') inside Railways may stop them from doing this.

But could there be any other cause?

not just touts, even individuals (me included, guilty as charged) book too many tickets & cancel the ones not needed a day prior to travel - just because the penalties are not stringent enough.

i have a more radical idea - the cancellation charge should be proportional to the number of days you held on to the seat (thereby depriving others of the option to book). this would ensure that people book the tickets they actually need (& not due to fear of unavailability in future)...

Not to justify, but people like us multi-book to try a better connection/train, when the desired ones are not available. I'm sure most of the popular trains are booked heavily by touts, and most of us are forced to have a confirmed booking and a luck try in the desired train.

So you mean it could be like "minimum cancellation charge is 20%, if you are holding it for 2 months before you cancel, it is 40%"?

Has the enforcement of ID check for all AC classes (also for non-e-tkts) helped reduce the touts cornering the seats? Or they are influential enough to make the TTEs ignore such cases as well?

i was thinking something more simple like you blocked the seat for X days, so you pay X% as cancellation charge. this can be subject to min/max amounts. of course the new 120 day limit has brought a new twist

I'm not sure, as I haven't taken a long distance train after the "all passenger's to be checked" regime came into being.

However, given the experience when at least one ID was to be checked, I can safely assume that it will, at best, be random.

E.g. I was once questioned by TTE why my official ID was having a 'different name' as compared to my passenger name in IR records. This, of course, happens because my official name exceeds the character limit by railways (e.g. "Krishna Kumar Agarwal" has to be "K K Agarwal" in IR). And few times, even when I was trying to show up my ID card, the TTE said "it's ok"! So it's that kind of randomness I was talking about!!

IR cancellation charges is already 25% if cancelled less than 24 hrs before departure time from originating station

What I meant was that IR could make a lot of money through cancellation charges if they chose to increase the cancellation charges from day 1 which is presently minuscule and hence encourages multiple booking etc, and also helps touts to book popular routes.

i couldn't agree more.

Indian Railways actually need to start rewarding the frequent travelers. This can be accomplished by revamping their frequent traveler program - SOFT. One of the benefits then should be a 6 month advance limit for frequent travelers, which can be based on total number of trips made or total number of distance traveled. That way, loyal customers will also have an edge over touts.

Why cannot I book tickets for 31st December? Isn't it more than 120 days now?

30 (Sep) + 31(oct) + 30 (Nov) + 30 (dec) = 121 days. (Excluded 31st Dec which is the day of travel).

Nope.

Thanks. Can you explain how to calculate?

No, sorry, I can't. I'd start looking into it some 120 days ahead. Note this ARP as it's known (Advance Reservation Period) may be much shorter for some trains.

There's some more stuff on it here I think, I'm not currently in the mood to look into it much more deeply. But search the web on e.g. +arp +railways: http://www.indianrail.gov.in/reservation_Rules.html.

30th December is the 121st day from today. So you can book the ticket for 31st December tomorrow. If you are booking from the originating station then after 10:00 am.

PS: It should be 8:00 am.

08.00 AM India Time.

Its Tatkal that opens at 10.00.