Reservation chart preparation: the rule and its sources

Under the rule in force today, the first reservation chart is prepared by 20:00 the previous day for a train leaving between 05:01 and 14:00, and at least 10 hours before departure for every other train. The second chart follows in the last half hour, between 30 and 5 minutes before departure. The rule comes from a Railway Board letter of 16 December 2025. Below: what it says, who signed it, and where our evidence stops.

Rule verified 3 September 2026. Every document named on this page was re-opened from this server on that date. Where we have not read a document ourselves, the page says so in the same sentence as the claim.

What is the rule in force today?

A Railway Board letter dated 16 December 2025 set the current timings. It went to the Principal Chief Commercial Managers of all zones and to the Managing Director of CRIS, and was issued by Sanjay Manocha, Director (Passenger Marketing-II). The Daily Jagran reported the date, the addressees and the signatory on 17 December 2025; that report is where those three details come from.

The two bands of the rule set by the Railway Board letter of 16 December 2025, as reported.
Scheduled departure	First chart is prepared
05:01 – 14:00	by 20:00 the previous day
14:01 – 23:59	at least 10 hours before departure
00:00 – 05:00	at least 10 hours before departure

The letter's own word, in the one report that quotes it directly, is "preferably": charts "should be prepared preferably by 8 pm the previous day", and "preferably at least 10 hours in advance". That word matters. It is the same word Commercial Circular 10 of 2025 used in July, and it is why zones move to a new timing on their own dates rather than overnight. Read the times above as a target the zone is told to aim at, not a deadline it is forbidden to miss.

Worked through, the rule gives:

The same rule worked through for six departure times. Computed by us, not quoted from the letter.
Departure	First chart expected
00:30	14:30, previous day
05:30	20:00, previous day
14:00	20:00, previous day
14:30	04:30, same day
17:00	07:00, same day
23:50	13:50, same day

Every hour of the clock is worked out on the chart preparation time table, which will also look up a single train number.

Where the evidence stops. We have not read the 16 December letter itself. No circular number for it has been published anywhere we can find, and it does not appear in the Railway Board's own Commercial Circular list for 2025, where the chart series ends at Circular 10 of 2025. Treat the December 2025 revision to ten hours as press-reported. Three independent things hold it up: South Central Railway announcing the change in its own name on 20 December 2025 in identical terms, The Daily Jagran naming the letter's date, addressees and signatory, and DT Next quoting the circular's wording two days later.

The start date is reported two ways, and we cannot settle it. DT Next wrote that the new timings took effect from 20 December 2025. The Hitavada, quoting an instruction passed from a zonal headquarters down to its divisions, wrote that they applied to journeys commencing on or after 30 December 2025. Both dates are long past, so nothing you look up today turns on which is right. We are not going to print one of them as though the other did not exist.

One detail from the South Central Railway announcement matters more than it looks: the ten hours run from the scheduled departure time at the charting station, not necessarily from the train's origin. More on that below.

How did the rule get here?

IRCM para 626. The Indian Railway Commercial Manual, Volume 1, required only that the chart be displayed at the station "as early as possible but not less than 2 hours before the scheduled departure of train". No preparation deadline; zones did as they liked.

Commercial Circular 62 of 2015 (No. 2009/TG-I/20/P/Chart, dated 14 October 2015) fixed that: "Reservation charts of the trains should be prepared at least 4 hours before the scheduled departure of the train without fail." The same circular required supplementary charts, covering bookings made after the first chart, to be "invariably taken out and handed over to the train staff". This four-hour rule stood for nearly ten years, which is why so many pages still quote it.

A Railway Board letter dated 15 April 2025 told zones that trains leaving in the early morning — up to 09:00, or as the zone decided — should be charted "preferably before 2100 hours on the previous night". We know this letter only from the circular that supersedes it, which quotes it in its reference line.

Commercial Circular 10 of 2025 (No. 2024/TG-1/20/P/Reservation Chart, dated 2 July 2025, signed by Praveen Kumar, Director Passenger Marketing/Coordination) set two bands: departures between 05:00 and 14:00 charted "preferably by 21:00 of previous day", and departures between 14:00 and 23:59 and between 00:00 and 05:00 charted "preferably 8 hours in advance". It also stated that the existing provisions for the second reservation chart were unchanged, and that "These instructions also cover charting at remote locations."

Because that circular said preferably rather than shall, the change was not national on one day. The clearest documented example: the Jabalpur Division moved to eight hours from midnight of 15/16 July 2025, announced by its own Senior Divisional Commercial Manager. Other zones and divisions moved on other dates through that month. The Press Information Bureau had trailed the change on 29 June 2025 as a proposal the Railway Minister had agreed to, directing the Board "to start implementing this in phases so that there is no disruption".

A Railway Board letter dated 18 November 2025 is reported to have told zones that if a zone does not prepare the first chart in time, the system finalises it automatically, including for remote-location charts, with CRIS software modified accordingly. We could not obtain this letter.

The 16 December 2025 letter then moved the morning band from 21:00 to 20:00, and the rest from eight hours to ten.

When is the second chart prepared?

Between 30 minutes and 5 minutes before departure. This is the most settled part of the whole subject, and three documents agree on it.

The Ministry of Railways announced the position itself. A PIB release of 6 October 2020 records the decision "that the second reservation chart shall be prepared at least 30 minutes before scheduled/rescheduled time of departure of train", restoring the pre-pandemic arrangement with effect from 10 October 2020, with CRIS instructed to change the software. That 2020 decision is the rule our train pages point at.

A Railway Board letter of 20 December 2024 (No. 2024/TG-I/20/P/Reservation charts) then described the system as it stood: "Second reservation charts are prepared between 30 minutes and 5 minutes before departure of train. In case Zonal Railways do not prepare second reservation charts up to 5 minutes before departure of train, system automatically finalises these charts." That letter asked zones whether the five-minute cut-off should move to ten or fifteen minutes, with comments due by 2 January 2025. It was a consultation, not an order, and no order following it has been published.

The fifteen-minute claim is not confirmed. One report of the 18 November 2025 letter says the second chart is finalised automatically fifteen minutes before departure. Reports disagree with each other — another gives thirty to sixty minutes — and the December 2025 reporting cuts against both. The Daily Jagran wrote on 17 December that there is no change to the second chart; DT Next described it two days later as still prepared between 30 and 5 minutes before departure. We have found no document. Until we do, the second chart on this site means the 30-to-5-minute window and nothing more.

Why might your train chart at a different time?

A long-distance train does not have one chart. Stations designated as remote locations hold their own quota and produce their own chart for passengers joining there. This is the machinery behind RLWL tickets. Circular 10 of 2025 states that its timings "also cover charting at remote locations", and the South Central Railway announcement measures the ten hours from the departure time at the charting station.

The practical consequence: if you booked from an intermediate station on a train that started twenty hours earlier, your status is settled by that station's chart, on that station's clock. A passenger who boarded at the origin may have known their fate long before you know yours. Neither of you is looking at a broken system. You are looking at two different charts.

Two further reasons a train charts off-target: the zone is aiming at a preferable time rather than a hard one, and charts are sometimes prepared late. We publish no observed chart times, because we have not measured any.

What changes for you at each stage

Before the first chart. Your waiting-list number moves as others cancel. Nothing is allotted. You can cancel for a refund less clerkage.

At the first chart. Berths are allotted. RAC passengers may be given full berths. Under the refund rules, if every passenger on an e-ticket PNR is still on the waiting list after the chart is prepared, all of them "shall be dropped from the reservation chart" and the fare is credited back automatically, less clerkage. You do not file anything. Counter-issued waitlisted tickets are not dropped automatically; those must be cancelled at a PRS counter. What to do when you are still waitlisted covers the rest.

Between the charts. Berths still empty go to current booking, and unused Tatkal accommodation may be "released to the General RAC/Waiting list passengers". This is the only stage at which a berth can appear that did not exist an hour earlier.

At the second chart. The list is closed. After that, spare berths are the ticket-checking staff's to allot on board.

Does an earlier chart give you longer to cancel?

No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding about the new rule. The Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Ticket and Refund of Fare) Rules, 2015 tie every refund deadline to the scheduled departure of the train, not to chart preparation. There is no refund on a confirmed ticket after four hours before departure, and none on an RAC or waitlisted ticket after thirty minutes before departure.

Charting at 20:00 the previous night therefore gives you more time to decide, not more time to cancel. If the chart tells you at 20:00 that you are confirmed on a train you no longer want, your cancellation charge is already in the 25-per-cent band and heading for 50.

What could change next?

Indian Railways began shifting trains onto a rebuilt Passenger Reservation System from August 2026, replacing one in service since 1986. Charting behaviour is a property of that system. If your train charts at a time this page does not predict, a migration in progress is a plausible reason. We will update this page when there is a document to cite rather than a rumour to repeat.

Where to check the real thing

The authoritative answer for your train, on your date, is the Railway's own reservation chart. Berth-level charts for trains that have been charted are published at irctc.co.in/online-charts, and PNR status is available through the official channels: the RailOne app, 139, and station enquiry counters. Anything on this site is a target derived from a circular. The chart is the fact.

Sources

Every factual claim above was checked against these documents on 3 September 2026.

Written and reviewed by Vijesh Rathore · Page last updated 3 September 2026 · how often we re-check.

When is the reservation chart prepared?