Railway ticket cancellation rules: No refund on train ticket cancellations within 8 hours

Indian Railways has revised its ticket cancellation and refund policy, tightening norms to discourage last-minute cancellations and misuse of bookings by agents.

No refund within 8 hours

Under the new rules, passengers will not get any refund if they cancel their tickets within eight hours of the train’s departure. This replaces the existing rule that allowed cancellations up to four hours before departure with partial refunds.

The revised policy will come into effect between April 1 and April 15, 2026, and will apply to all trains.

Updated refund slabs

The Railways has also reworked the refund structure across different time windows:

Cancellations made more than 72 hours before departure will get a full refund, subject to a flat cancellation charge.

Between 72 and 24 hours: 25% of the ticket cost will be deducted

Between 24 and 8 hours: 50% deduction

Less than 8 hours: no refund

Earlier, the deduction windows were shorter and less stringent.

Why the rules were changed

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the move is aimed at curbing black marketing and preventing agents from blocking tickets and cancelling them close to departure.

More flexibility for passengers

In a passenger-friendly change, those with counter tickets can now upgrade their travel class up to 30 minutes before departure. Previously, this was allowed only before the first reservation chart was prepared, usually around eight hours before departure. This facility will not be available for online bookings.

Passengers will also be able to change their boarding station up to 30 minutes before departure. At present, this change is allowed only before the first chart is prepared. The Railways said this will help travellers manage last-minute plan changes without affecting ticket cost.

Tatkal booking changes

To tackle misuse of Tatkal tickets, Aadhaar-based OTP authentication has been introduced, along with restrictions on agents during the initial booking window and anti-bot systems. Around 3 crore suspicious user IDs have been deactivated so far.

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