Passengers travelling on the Indian Railways can now conveniently change their boarding station, ahead of their planned journey. According to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the new feature was added alongside several other features like booking a meal online, hotel stays, flight tickets, etc.
The announcement of this feature was made on the official website irctc.co.in.
As per the new rule, passengers can change their boarding station 24 hours in advance of taking the journey. Passengers should, however, note that the same cannot be done once the chart for the specific train has been prepared.
The boarding station can be changed either at the time of ticket booking or after you have booked the ticket.
Steps to change boarding station during ticket booking
1. Login to irctc.co.in by entering your credentials
2. Provide your desired “From-To” station, date of journey and class of travel
3. Click on find train option and the list will be displayed
4. Select the train from the train lists and click on 'book now'
5. On the passenger input page, select the Change Boarding Station option
6. A pop-up window will appear with the list of stations between the selected train route
7. Choose your desired boarding point
8. Your selected boarding station can be seen on the right side ticket window
Steps to change boarding point after ticket booking
1. Login to irctc.co.in by entering your credentials
2. Click on 'my account' and go to your booked ticket history
3. Select the journey for which you want to change the boarding station
4. Click on change boarding point option
5. A pop-up window will appear with the list of stations between the selected train route
6. Choose your desired boarding point
7. On selecting the station, the system will ask for confirmation, click 'OK'
8. Success alert message will appear once the boarding station is successfully changed
9. The corresponding message regarding change of boarding point will be sent on your registered mobile number
Change boarding station on IRCTC - Rules
# No refund shall be permissible on cancellation if the boarding station is changed within 24 hours of departure of train
# Boarding station change is not allowed for the tickets booked with VIKALP option and online boarding station change is not allowed for I-Ticket, according to IRCTC
# If boarding station has been changed at the time of booking, then passengers can change boarding station one more time from 'Booked Ticket History' section on the IRCTC website or mobile application
# In case a passenger has changed the boarding station, he/she will lose right to board the train from the original boarding station. If found travelling without any proper authority to travel, the passenger will have to pay a penalty between the original boarding station to changed the boarding station.
