Continuing with the rollback policy, now Indian Railways has again tinkered with advanced reservation period (ARP). In a latest such move, the Indian Railways has reversed the ARP to 60 days, excluding the day of journey. At present, a traveller can book train ticket 120 days in advance, about four months before the planned day of journey. The new ARP will be 60 days (two months) and the same would be effective from November 1 onwards, coinciding with Laxmi Pujan, the most auspicious day of the Festival of Lights.

 

A notification about changes in ARP was issued on Wednesday by the Sanjay Manocha, Director, Passenger Marketing, II, wherein he clarified that no changes are made as to reservation period of day time express like Taj Express, Gomti Express etc. Tickets for these trains can be booked in lower time limits of advance reservation period as usual. Additionally, Railways have also notified that no change is done to ARP for foreign travellers, it continues to be 365 days.

 

This is not the first time that Railways have changed its policy as to time period for reservation. In past, nearly a dozen times, the ARP was altered and each of the time Railways eloquently waxed about benefit that would accrue to travellers. However in reality changes in stated policy often foxes the citizens For example, sometime back, all of sudden Railways decided to scrap ICF coaches and switch over enmass to LHB coaches, which altered the total number of available seats on offer. So with ARP of 120 days in force, particularly for travellers in Vidarbha Express, one of the popular trains of Central Railways, faced trouble due to mismatch in issued tickets and coach composition fed in passenger reservation system (PRS). So till the expiry of earlier ARP, the travellers continued to suffer as there was no solution available with railway officials. In fact, Railways started with ARP of 30-days and reached maximum 120-days and in between sometimes it was 90, at times it was 60, or 45 during some period of time. Each of the time, Railways dished out a new explanation that based on analysis of booking and cancellation, the ARP was altered to suit the interest of passengers, whose voice however is not heard any time and decision are sort of imposed as fait accompli.

 

The alteration in ARP is done after observing that many a time travellers were put to loss due to cancellation of their reservation owing to last minute changes, says the Railways. Incidentally, organisation working for protecting travellers interest had objected when ARP was increased to 120-days, but as usual Railways brushed aside their claims. And now Railways has come out with same clarification about benefits accruing to travellers, which it ignored in the first place earlier. Major reason for lowering ARP Railways is would ensure that genuine passengers would benefit and reduce cases wherein travellers would not turn up on travel day, putting the organisation to loss. Further with lower ARP, now people would be at major advantage and would have better chances of getting confirmed reservation. In case of heavy booking, Railways would be in a better position to run special trains well in advance that would help clear rush of travellers.

 

Citing statistics culled from PRS, the lifeline Indian Railways said nearly 21 percent of reservations were getting cancelled that was done for 61 to 120 day periods. Additional, 5 per cent of passengers were neither cancelling their tickets nor were they undertaking the journey. This No Show trend was a major factor influencing decision to lower ARP, as same would help during peak travel season periods. With a shorter ARP, passengers will have better clarity in their travel plans, reducing the current 21% cancellation rate, claimed Railways further. A 60-day booking window would help reduce the chances of ticket hoarding, making more tickets available for genuine passengers, the officials claim.