Railways imposes new restrictions on unreserved tickets

From March 1, 2016, tickets for distances up to 199 km will be valid only for three hours; return journey withdrawn for the distance.

Passengers waiting in a queue to get into an unreserved compartment at the Egmore Railway Station in Chennai. File photo

An unreserved train ticket for travelling up to 199 km distance will no longer be valid after three hours of purchase of the ticket as railways has formulated a new rule to be effective from March 1, 2016, the Lok Sabha was told on Wednesday.

Unreserved tickets for distances up to 199 km, the journey has to be started from the originating station within three hours of the issue of tickets or up to the departure of first train for the destination whichever is later, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said in a written reply.

He said the return journey facility for distance up to 199 km for unreserved tickets has been withdrawn.

Mr. Sinha said the facility for issuing paperless platform tickets through mobile phones is already available on 29 stations.