Indian Railways Ticket Reservation: 10 Things To Know About Booking Charges

The Indian Railways offers the option of ticket booking in accordance with the rules and conditions published in the coaching tariff. A passenger seeking reservation of berths or seats can purchase tickets from the railway reservation offices, authorised travel agency or book directly from Indian Railways e-ticketing arm, IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation). Advance reservations can be made generally done up to 120 days in advance for all classes and all trains. The ticket reservation charge varies for different classes, noted Indian Railways on its official website- indianrailways.gov.in. 

Here are 10 things to know about Indian Railways ticket booking charges:

1. Miscellaneous charges like reservation fee, superfast charge, catering charge, GST (Goods and Services Tax) etc. wherever applicable are levied additionally to the base fare of railway tickets, said Indian Railways.

2. Reservation fee is also levied on RAC (reservation against cancellation) and waitlisted tickets. 

3. The point-to-point fares for all pairs of stations, including intermediate to intermediate stations, in case of Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto sets of trains are notified by the Zonal Railways.

4. The ticket fares are same in case of all distances within that distance slab.

5. Indian Railways charges a service charge of Rs 20 is for second/sleeper class and Rs 40 is charged in case of all other higher classes (1AC, 2AC, 3AC, CC, 3E, FC) per e-ticket, irrespective of the number of passengers (maximum six) booked on an e-ticket. GST (Goods and Services Tax) charges are extra. Here's a detail:

6. Children under five years of age are carried free of charge in Indian Railways trains. Children above the age of five years and under twelve years of age are charged corresponding to adult fare, when separate berth is required for child. 

7. Children under 5 years of age are provided food in Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains without any charge. 

8. Bed-rolls are supplied to passengers in AC First Class, AC 2-Tier and AC 3-Tier Classes in all trains, except Garib Rath Express trains without any additional charge. 

9. Bed-rolls in Garib Rath Express trains and in sleeper class of mixed Duronto Express trains are supplied to passengers on demand, on payment of stipulated charges. 

10. Quarterly Season Tickets (QST) fares are 2.7 times the Monthly Season Tickets (MST) fare, noted Indian Railways.