When I initially began travelling in trains in India, I used to find it confusing to calculate the date of ticket release for the purchase by the general public. Railways use ARP (Advance Reservation Period) of a train to release the tickets. Beginning 1st November 2024, ARP for domestic travellers has been reduced from 120 days to 60 days (excluding the date of the journey)[1]. The 365-day ARP limit for foreign tourists remains unchanged. However, ARP can be less than 60 days for certain trains. It can be more than 60 days in certain cases as is shown in cases 3 and 4 below. Publication mentions ARP is “excluding the date of journey”. However, based on my experience, it should have been “excluding the date of origin of the train” and that is what we are going to consider.
For this article, we are going to consider 60 days as ARP and the train on which we are going to book the ticket is TVCN YNRK SF EX (No. 22659) which goes from Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) North (TVCN) in Kerala to Yog Nagari Rishikesh (YNRK) in Uttarakhand. This is once a week train and it only runs on Fridays from the station of origin (TVCN) as of 24th February 2025. It takes 52 hours 25 minutes over 3 days to reach its destination.
We are going to consider 4 examples of travel from 4 different stations.
When can one start booking tickets for this train given the date of journey and station of boarding?
1 Train Schedule
The following picture gives the train schedule of Train No. 22659.
2 Case 1: Boarding station is Thiruvananthapuram North (TVCN) in Kerala and date of journey is Friday 16th May 2025 (Day 1)
We need 3 pieces of information to calculate the date on which the tickets are released to the general public.
- Date of Journey: Friday 16th May 2025
- Day on which train reaches the boarding station: Day 1 (Journey from the origin)
- Date of train departure from the station of origin: Friday 16th May 2025
This is the one of the two simpler cases as
- Boarding station and station of origin is the same.
- Hence, the date of train departure from the station of origin and the date of journey is the same, i.e. Friday 16th May 2025.
First, Exclude the date of origin, i.e. Friday 16th May 2025
Count 60 days backwards from Thursday 15th May 2025 as shown in the figure below. We get Monday 17th March 2025. This is the date on which tickets will be released for the public.
Booking opens at 08:00 AM on Monday 17th March 2025.
3 Case 2: Boarding station is Mangaluru Jn (MAJN) in Karnataka and date of journey is Friday 16th May 2025 (Day 1)
This is again a simple case. Here:
- Date of Journey: Friday 16th May 2025
- Day on which train reaches the boarding station: Day 1 (see train schedule)
- Date of train departure from the station of origin: Friday 16th May 2025
In this case train reaches the boarding station on the same day it left the station of origin, i.e. train reaches the boarding station on Friday 16th May 2025.
First, Exclude the date of origin, i.e. Friday 16th May 2025
Count 60 days backwards from Thursday 15th May 2025 as shown in the figure above. We get Monday 17th March 2025. This is the date on which tickets will be released for the public.
Booking opens at 08:00 AM on Monday 17th March 2025.
4 Case 3: Boarding station is Ratnagiri (RN) in Maharashtra and date of journey is Saturday 17th May 2025 (Day 2)
Here:
- Date of Journey: Saturday 17th May 2025
- Day on which train reaches the boarding station: Day 2 (see train schedule)
- Date of train departure from the station of origin: Friday 16th May 2025
In this case train reaches the boarding station on the second day of the train leaving the station of origin, i.e. train reaches the boarding station on Saturday 17th May 2025.
First, Exclude the date of origin, i.e. Friday 16th May 2025
Count 60 days backwards from Thursday 15th May 2025 as shown in the figure below. We get Monday 17th March 2025. This is the date on which tickets will be released for the public.
Booking opens at 08:00 AM on Monday 17th March 2025.
Please note that it does not matter what is your date of journey is; booking always opens based on date of origin of the train which in this case is Friday 16th May 2025.
Thus in this case, booking opened 61 days before the date of journey and 60 days before the date of origin.
5 Case 4: Boarding station is Hazrat Nizamuddin (NZM) in New Delhi and date of journey is Sunday 18th May 2025 (Day 3)
Here:
- Date of Journey: Sunday 18th May 2025
- Day on which train reaches the boarding station: Day 3 (see train schedule)
- Date of train departure from the station of origin: Friday 16th May 2025
In this case train reaches the boarding station on the third day of the train leaving the station of origin, i.e. train reaches the boarding station on Sunday 18th May 2025.
First, Exclude the date of origin, i.e. Friday 16th May 2025
Count 60 days backwards from Thursday 15th May 2025 as shown in the figure below. We get Monday 17th March 2025. This is the date on which tickets will be released for the public.
Booking opens at 08:00 AM on Monday 17th March 2025.
Please note that it does not matter what is your date of journey is; booking always opens based on date of origin of the train which in this case is Friday 16th May 2025.
Thus in this case, booking opened 62 days before the date of journey and 60 days before the date of origin.
REMEMBER: It is NOT the date of journey but the date on which train starts from its station of origin that is important.
References
[1] Tewari, D. (2024). To promote genuine passengers and minimize rising no show trend, Indian Railways cuts down Advance Reservation Period from current 120 days to 60 days w.e.f. 01.11.2024. Ministry of Railways, Government of India. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=2065879®=3&lang=1. Accessed on 24/02/2025.
Booking date calculator
* Indian railways frequently changes its rules, regulations and processes for booking railway tickets. The writer of this post is not responsible for such changes and readers are advised to confirm the details in this blog from the Indian railways.
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