Indian Railways to begin shift to upgraded reservation system from August

Indian Railways' reservation system will begin migrating to a new upgraded platform from August, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday, as the government looks to modernise the four-decade-old ticketing infrastructure without disrupting passenger services.

During a review meeting at Rail Bhawan, Vaishnaw directed railway officials to ensure that passengers do not face inconvenience during the phased transition from the existing reservation system, which has been in use since 1986, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Railways.

The ministry said the reservation system has now been “completely overhauled” using updated technology and its capacity significantly expanded to handle rising demand.

Indian Railways introduced internet-based ticketing in 2002, and online channels now account for nearly 88% of total ticket bookings, the ministry said.

The ministry also highlighted the growing adoption of the RailOne mobile application, launched in July last year, which has crossed 3.5 crore downloads within a year.

The app offers integrated railway services, including booking, cancellation and refunds for reserved, unreserved and platform tickets, along with live train tracking, platform information, coach position updates and passenger grievance redressal through Rail Madad.

According to the ministry, the app also provides artificial intelligence-based predictions on waitlist confirmation probabilities, improving prediction accuracy from 53% earlier to 94% now.

RailOne currently facilitates booking of 9.29 lakh tickets daily, including 7.2 lakh unreserved tickets and 2.09 lakh reserved tickets, the statement said.

The ministry said the app has been downloaded 3.16 crore times from the Google Play Store and 33.17 lakh times on Apple devices.

The government also said Indian Railways provided passenger ticket subsidies worth ₹60,239 crore in 2024-25, translating into an average fare subsidy of 43% for passengers.