Indian Railways — Frequently Asked Questions

Enter your 10-digit PNR on the Ghumo PNR Status page for real-time booking status, current WL position, coach & berth allotment and berth type (LB / MB / UB / SL / SU), with auto-refresh and change alerts.

About 9 months after the journey. After that, the PNR is purged from the IRCTC system.

It means Indian Railways has finalised the passenger list. WL e-tickets not confirmed by then are auto-cancelled. RAC and CNF tickets are valid for travel.

Either the PNR is older than 9 months, was cancelled, or hasn't been issued yet. Wait a minute and retry.

10:00 AM (AC) and 11:00 AM (Sleeper/Non-AC) IST, one day before journey. See the full Tatkal Booking Guide.

Heavy concurrent load on IRCTC at 10:00 AM. Use UPI, save passenger Master List in advance, and use the IRCTC mobile app for the best chance.

Confirmed Tatkal: non-refundable. WL/RAC Tatkal not confirmed: auto-refunded after chart prep.

Tatkal has fixed surcharge and may go to WL. Premium Tatkal uses dynamic pricing (1.5–3× more) but always confirms. PT is non-refundable. Estimate your PT fare with the Premium Tatkal Calculator.

Before the Tatkal window opens (10:00 AM IST for AC — 1A/2A/3A/3E/CC/EC — and 11:00 AM for non-AC — SL/2S/FC), each TQ row shows a 🔒 lock with a live countdown. From 10 minutes before the window opens you can early-bird tap the locked row — Ghumo will pre-fill the official booking page with your train, date, class and Tatkal quota and prompt you to retry once the window flips, giving you a head start over manual users.

GNWL 1–10 usually confirms (~85%). WL 30+ is risky. Try Ghumo Waitlist Prediction for AI-based odds.

Different waitlist pools by station type. GNWL has the highest confirmation chance. See Waitlist Types Explained.

Yes — RAC means guaranteed boarding with a shared sitting berth that often upgrades to a full berth after chart prep.

Enter source and destination on Ghumo, pick a date, and see all available trains with availability, fares and smart ranking.

Ghumo aggregates direct and via-route trains, applies smart ranking, and surfaces value picks. IRCTC may filter trains by quota availability — Ghumo shows the full list.

Visit /trains for a directory of popular Indian Railways trains grouped by origin station, or /routes for an index of popular city-to-city routes with availability and fares pre-loaded.

Bookings always happen on the official railway portal. Ghumo gives you a one-tap “Book” shortcut next to each available class — we run a quick availability pre-check, then open the official booking page with the train, date, class and quota pre-selected so you save 2–3 minutes during peak Tatkal load.

Live status is sourced directly from Indian Railways' GPS-tracking system and refreshes every minute on Ghumo. Accuracy depends on Railways' data feed.

Open Live Chart on Ghumo, enter the train number and your boarding station — type the full station name (e.g. New Delhi) or the short code (NDLS), both work. You'll see coach-wise vacancy; tap any coach for exact berth numbers, berth type (LB/MB/UB/SL/SU) and segments. Use the route chips above the grid to filter by boarding-to-alighting segment in one tap.

About 4 hours before departure for daytime trains. For early-morning trains, the chart is usually prepared the previous evening.

No. The TTE allots vacant berths onboard — show them the chart info and request allocation. Pay the fare difference if upgrading class.

Flat ₹60–240 if cancelled >48h before. 25% of fare if 48–12h before. 50% if 12–4h before. Nil after 4h. See Refund Rules.

3–7 working days for normal cancellation. 60–90 days for TDR refunds.

Ticket Deposit Receipt — filed online when normal cancellation isn't applicable (train cancelled, late >3h, AC failure, etc.).

3AC Economy (3E). See full Class Guide.

No. Discontinued in March 2020. Lower-berth preference still applies.

6 lower berths per Sleeper coach reserved for women travelling alone or with kids ≤12. See Quotas Guide.

Ghumo shows live, quota-wise availability everywhere — no separate lookup needed:

• Train card: GN, TQ and PT for every class, side-by-side.
• GN / TQ filter chips above the results to narrow by quota.
• 15-Day Availability panel (📅 on any card) to compare GN & TQ across the next 15 days.
• Topbar quota button (next to the date) to enable LD, SS, HO, DF, DP, FT, YU and PH — each appears as an extra row in the live grid.
• One-tap booking for GN, TQ, LD and SS cells. Full details in the Quotas Guide.

Ghumo is an independent platform that aggregates Indian Railways and IRCTC data. Bookings happen on IRCTC. Ghumo is free, requires no login, and helps you compare trains, check availability, predict waitlists and track journeys.

Yes. Install Ghumo as a PWA and recently checked PNRs / searches are available offline.

On Chrome/Edge mobile, tap Share → Add to Home Screen. On desktop, click the install icon in the address bar.

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