RAC: what a Reservation Against Cancellation ticket gets you
RAC stands for Reservation Against Cancellation. The rules define it as a ticket on which a seat has been reserved against a requisition for a berth, and a berth may be provided later against a cancellation. In plain terms: you can board, you have a numbered place, and you share one side lower berth with one other passenger until a berth frees up.
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What does RAC stand for, and is it a waiting list?
RAC stands for Reservation Against Cancellation, and no, it is not a waiting list. This is the one abbreviation in this family that is defined in law rather than by convention.
If your own status reads something else, the status decoder says what it means.
The Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Ticket and Refund of Fare) Rules, 2015 define three states in the same clause, and the wording repays reading:
- a confirmed ticket is "a ticket on which a berth or seat has been confirmed";
- a wait-listed ticket is "a ticket on which no berth or seat has been allotted";
- an RAC ticket is "Reservation Against Cancellation ticket on which a seat has been reserved against requisition for a berth and a berth may be subsequently provided against cancellation, if any".
So an RAC ticket has something allotted to it. A waitlisted ticket has nothing. That single difference decides whether you travel. The Ministry of Railways also lists RAC as one of its reservation quotas, available to the general public.
What each status actually gets you
| Status | May you board? | What you have | Refund window if you cancel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confirmed | Yes | A berth or seat of your own | Up to four hours before scheduled departure, with charges under Rule 6 |
| RAC | Yes | A reserved seat, shared, and a berth may follow | Up to thirty minutes before scheduled departure, fare less clerkage |
| Waiting list | No, once the chart is made | Nothing allotted | Up to thirty minutes before scheduled departure, fare less clerkage |
The waiting-list code overview explains the codes in the third row. The full charge tables and the automatic refund of a dropped e-ticket are on what to do after the chart.
How is one berth shared by two passengers?
By splitting a side lower berth lengthwise: two RAC passengers sit facing each other on it by day, and by night they share the same berth or one of them moves up to a berth that has come free.
That is the practice. There is also a rule underneath it that most passengers have never seen. North Western Railway's published reservation rules state the intention plainly: "When berths are reserved for passengers, the intention is to provide sleeping accommodation between 9 PM to 6 AM. During 6 AM to 9 PM, the passengers concerned, if required make room for other passengers in compartment up to its carrying capacity."
In other words, a berth is a bed at night and a bench by day, and daytime sharing is built into the arrangement. That is what makes RAC possible at all. Two caveats about that document, because you should know what you are leaning on: it is undated, and it is out of date in at least one respect — it gives the advance booking window as ninety days, whereas the window has since been changed and is now sixty days. We use it only for the general provision quoted above.
How many RAC places are there on a coach?
This one is documented, and the numbers are the Ministry of Railways' own.
In December 2016 the Ministry announced a revision to the number of berths earmarked for RAC, to let more people travel. The figures below are the revised ones, and the release says the enhanced accommodation applied to trains for which booking opened from 16 January 2017.
RAC berths earmarked per coach
| Class | Berths earmarked for RAC | RAC passengers accommodated |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeper (SL) | 7 side lower | 14 |
| AC 3 Tier (3A) | 4 side lower | 8 |
| AC 2 Tier (2A) | 3 side lower | 6 |
Two passengers to a berth, in every row. That is where the sharing arrangement comes from, and it is why an RAC number that is even and low is a different proposition from an odd one — although we are not going to spin a rule out of that, because none is published.
One honest caveat: the release is headed as applying to non-LHB coaches, while its own body text says only "coaches of different classes". We cannot resolve that from the document, so we are reproducing both readings rather than picking one. What each class code means is set out on the classes compared.
When does RAC become a confirmed berth?
Whenever a confirmed berth in your class is given up, right through to the final chart. There are three moments worth watching.
Before the first chart. Ordinary cancellations move the RAC queue in the days and hours before travel, exactly as they move a waiting list.
At chart preparation. This is the big one. Every fully waitlisted booking is dropped at this point, and the berths that were being held against those bookings are freed. RAC positions move furthest here. When the chart is made, and why the timing is contested, is on when the reservation chart is prepared.
On the train. A no-show releases a berth. North Western Railway's rules describe the mechanism: if a passenger for whom accommodation has been reserved "does not turn up up to 10 minutes before the scheduled departure of the train", the administration "may cancel the accommodation reserved for him and allot it to the passenger on the RAC list/Waiting list accordingly on priority". That is why asking the ticket-checking staff on board is worth doing, and it is also why nobody can promise you the outcome.
What does being upgraded cost you?
Money, if you then change your mind. This catches people out and almost nobody mentions it.
Rule 7(6) of the 2015 rules says that where a confirmed berth has been provided to an RAC or waitlisted ticket holder "at any time upto final preparation of reservation chart, such ticket shall be treated as a reserved ticket and cancellation charge shall be payable in accordance with rule 6".
Read what that does. While you were RAC, you could cancel up to thirty minutes before departure and get the fare back less clerkage. The moment you are given a berth, you are on the confirmed-ticket rules instead: the flat cancellation charge, the sliding scale, and no refund at all inside the last four hours. Being upgraded buys you a night's sleep and costs you your refund flexibility. If your plans are shaky, that is worth knowing before you look up your status hoping for good news.
What should you do on the platform and on the train?
- Board. An RAC ticket is a valid reservation. You have a place.
- Find your allotted seat first. The chart at the coach door and the ticket-checking staff both have your position.
- Ask the ticket-checking staff about a berth, politely and early. They allot berths freed by no-shows, and the rule above puts RAC and waiting-list passengers in the queue for them on priority.
- Expect to sit until the evening. The sleeping-hours provision runs from 9 pm to 6 am. Before that, sharing is the design, not a slight.
- Do not lose the ticket. Rule 19 of the 2015 rules allows a duplicate for a lost confirmed or RAC ticket only before the chart is prepared, and says in terms that no duplicate ticket shall be issued in respect of RAC tickets after the chart is prepared.
- If the train is more than three hours late and you decide not to travel, Rule 13(1) gives a full refund with no cancellation charge or clerkage to confirmed, RAC and waitlisted passengers alike, provided the ticket is surrendered, or the deposit receipt filed online, before the train actually leaves.
What we cannot tell you
We cannot tell you whether your RAC will become a berth on your train, on your date. Nobody who is being straight with you can. It depends on how many people in your class cancel, and that is unknowable in advance.
We also cannot show you a berth-by-berth picture of who is in which seat. Only the railway's own online reservation charts have that.
What we can do is show you the count of berths on offer after the chart is prepared, with the time in IST at which we fetched it, and tell you plainly when we do not have an answer. If your code is not RAC but a waiting list, the TQWL page and the RLWL page explain two queues that behave nothing like each other.
Sources
Every factual claim above was checked against these documents on .