For the people who travel a lot or planning to travel soon then this news definitely holds some importance for you.
Indian Railways Updated Ticket Booking Rules & Fares
Indian railways has totally changed the game for tatkal booking as from July 1, Tatkal tickets booking will not be possible without an Aadhar linked IRCTC account.
Not only that, there are updates coming in which Indian Railways has increased the rail fare from July 1, 2025.
It seems that Indian railways has implemented many big changes which are already effective from July 1.
The Indian railways have increased the fare almost after five years along with the rules of reservation as they are updated too.
Besides this there have been big changes for those with waiting tickets from today.
Reportedly, Indian Railways has increased the rail fare from July 1, 2025, they have increased the fare of AC, non-AC coaches in mail to express trains.
They have increased the fares according to the distance, for instance the fare of general non-AC sleeper class and first class has increased by 50 paise per kilometer.
Similarly, the fare of mail and express non-AC trains has been increased by 1 paisa per kilometer.
In case of AC class, the fair has increased by 2 paise per kilometer.
Moving ahead with the fare of second class, sleeper class and first class mail or express trains, it has increased by 1 paisa per kilometer.
Similarly, the fare of AC coaches i.e. AC-3 tier, AC-2 tier and First AC have been increased by 2 paise per kilometer.
Indian Railways Updated Fares With Respect To Distance Travelled
Please note here that there will be no increase in fares for second class in normal non-AC trains for distances up to 500 km.
Beyond that, the fares have been increased by Rs 5 for distances between 501 and 1500 km.
Similarly, for 1501 and 2500 km, the fares have been increased by Rs 10 and Rs 15 for the distances between 2501 and 3000 km.
In case of first class and sleeper, the fares have increased by half a paisa per kilometer.
List of Trains Having Updated Fares
Indian Railways has updated fares of premium trains including Vande Bharat, Shatabdi, Rajdhani, Tejas, Duronto, Garib Rath.
Reportedly, the fares for the Anubhuti and Vistadome coaches are also being raised.
Interestingly, the fares of suburban trains are still intact and don’t have any impact changes so far.
Similar to this, the fares of season tickets have also not been increased.
In addition to these, there is no change in the reservation fee, superfast surcharge and other charges notably but GST will also remain applicable as before.
A Big Relief For The Passengers
While giving a big relief, the railways have changed the rules on waiting tickets.
According to this, the reservation charts will be issued 8 hours before instead of 4 hours now.
Besides this, the booking of Tatkal tickets will not be possible from an IRCTC account without an Aadhar link effective from July 1.
Please note here that these rules have been changed not only for online but also for travel agents. So henceforth, the OTP will be mandatory to book Tatkal tickets from July 15 from the railway counter.
In addition to this, the Railways has given extra time to the passengers for convenience as the timing of Tatkal tickets also changed for these people.
As per this new rule which has already shocked the ticket agents, ,”the window of Tatkal ticket for the ticket agent will be activated 30 minutes after the booking opens.”
If we put it simply, the booking window for booking Tatkal tickets in AC class opens at 10.00 am, it will open from 10.30 am for agents.
In case of non-AC class, the booking window which earlier opened at 11.00 am, will open for from 11.30 am.
