RAC Ticket Rules May Change, Parliamentary Committee Seeks Fair Fare for Passengers

RAC Ticket Refund Rules: Lakhs of passengers travelling in Indian Railways may get a big relief in the coming time. A powerful committee of the Parliament has suggested to the Railway Ministry that a part of the fare should be refunded to those passengers travelling on RAC tickets who are not able to get a full berth in the train despite paying the full fare. This issue has been raised prominently in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report ‘Punctuality and travel time of trains in Indian Railways’ presented in the Parliament on 4 February.

Under current rules, RAC passengers are required to pay the full fare for confirmed tickets, but are only provided with half a berth during the journey. The committee strongly objected to this arrangement, stating that charging full fare without berth accommodation is unjustified.

The committee clearly stated in its report, “The Committee believes that if a passenger remains in the RAC category even after the chart is prepared and does not get a full berth, then it is wrong to charge him the full fare. The Ministry should develop a system through which such passengers can get a partial refund of the fare.”

Currently, as per IRCTC rules, if the RAC e-ticket is not cancelled or TDR is not filed online 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time of the train, then no refund is granted.

The committee argues that when passengers are forced to travel on half the berth, they receive only half the service, and therefore, payment should be proportionate. If implemented, this recommendation would be a major change to the railway’s decades-old fare structure.

 

About the Author

Sweta Mitra

Working in the media for last 7 years. The journey started in the year 2018. For the past few years, my working experience has been in Bengali media. Currently working at Timesbull.com. Here I write like Business, National, and Utility News. My favorite hobbies are listening to music, traveling, food,...

SwetaMitra@timesbull.com Author at TimesBull TimesBull
Working in the media for last 7 years. The journey started in the year 2018. For the past few years, my working experience has been in Bengali media. Currently working at Timesbull.com. Here I write like Business, National, and Utility News. My favorite hobbies are listening to music, traveling, food, and books. For feedback - timesbull@gmail.com
Sweta Mitra - Author at TimesBull
About the Author

Sweta Mitra

Sweta Mitra - Author at TimesBull

Working in the media for last 7 years. The journey started in the year 2018. For the past few years, my working experience has been in Bengali media. Currently working at Timesbull.com. Here I write like Business, National, and Utility News. My favorite hobbies are listening to music, traveling, food,...