Reservation chart preparation time
A train leaving its origin between 05:01 and 14:00 is charted at 20:00 the previous day, and every other train ten hours ahead of departure. That rule is press-reported, not verified, and this page says how far our evidence for it goes.
Rule verified · how often we re-check
Press-reported, not verified. The timing comes from a Railway Board letter reported as dated 16 December 2025, which we have not read and for which no circular number appears in the Board's own 2025 index. The Daily Jagran reported it on 17 December 2025; the earliest announcement in a railway's own name was South Central Railway's, for its own zone, on 20 December 2025. The effective date is reported as both 20 and 30 December 2025.
The last chart order we have read in full is Commercial Circular 10 of 2 July 2025, which sets 21:00 the previous day or eight hours in advance, and which says “preferably”. It has been superseded. The evidence trail, source by source, is on when the chart is prepared.
Look up a train number
The lookup covers the 3,811 trains in timetable version 2026-08-30 that our data says carry reserved accommodation. The answer comes from our own timetable data, not from a live enquiry, so it is the same target the table below gives — worked out for that train's own departure time.
Expected first chart time by departure time
Find the row your train's scheduled departure from its originating station falls in. Every time below is worked out by us from that press-reported rule, and it is a window rather than a minute. How we work the chart time out.
| Departure from origin | First chart expected | Which day | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05:01 to 14:00 | 20:00 | the previous day | RB-16.12.2025-A |
| 14:01 to 23:59 | 04:01 to 13:59 | the journey day | RB-16.12.2025-B |
| 00:00 to 05:00 | 14:00 to 19:00 | the previous day | RB-16.12.2025-B |
This is a target, not a guarantee, and it assumes the chart is prepared at the originating station. Treat the ten-hour timing as press-reported. It rests on a Railway Board letter reported as dated 16 December 2025 that we have not read, and no circular number for it appears in the Railway Board's own 2025 index. The Daily Jagran reported the letter on 17 December 2025, and South Central Railway announced the change in its own name, for its own zone, on 20 December 2025. Actual preparation can be later.
Second chart: the published position is 30 minutes before departure (2020 rule). Since November 2025 an automatic finalisation about 15 minutes before departure has been reported; we have not confirmed it.
Worked example for every hour
Expected first chart time for a departure on each hour of the clock
| Departs | Chart expected | Which day | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 14:00 | previous day | B |
| 01:00 | 15:00 | previous day | B |
| 02:00 | 16:00 | previous day | B |
| 03:00 | 17:00 | previous day | B |
| 04:00 | 18:00 | previous day | B |
| 05:00 | 19:00 | previous day | B |
| 06:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 07:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 08:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 09:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 10:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 11:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 12:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 13:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 14:00 | 20:00 | previous day | A |
| 15:00 | 05:00 | journey day | B |
| 16:00 | 06:00 | journey day | B |
| 17:00 | 07:00 | journey day | B |
| 18:00 | 08:00 | journey day | B |
| 19:00 | 09:00 | journey day | B |
| 20:00 | 10:00 | journey day | B |
| 21:00 | 11:00 | journey day | B |
| 22:00 | 12:00 | journey day | B |
| 23:00 | 13:00 | journey day | B |
The orders this rule comes from
Which of these documents we have read in full, which we know only through reporting, and which zone adopted what on which date, is set out in the full explainer, with sources — some of the detail in the third column is reported rather than verified, and the explainer says which.
| Document | Date | What it did | How we know it |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRCM-626 | Not dated in our records | Indian Railway Commercial Manual, para 626 — charting practice. It set no preparation deadline, only a display deadline. Superseded. | quoted-in-a-later-circular |
| CC-62/2015 | Commercial Circular 62/2015 — superseded; rule history only. It required the first chart at least four hours ahead of departure, and stood for nearly ten years, which is why other sites still quote it. | text read, from a transcription (the government PDF is a scan) | |
| RB-15.04.2025 | Railway Board letter of 15 April 2025 revisiting chart timing. Superseded. We know it only from the reference line of the circular that replaced it. | known only through a later document | |
| CC-10/2025 | Commercial Circular 10/2025 — superseded; it set 21:00 the previous day, or eight hours in advance, and says "preferably". Zones and divisions adopted it on their own dates through July 2025; the only adoption we have a source for is the Jabalpur Division, from a newspaper report. | verified | |
| RB-18.11.2025 | Railway Board letter of 18 November 2025 on automatic chart finalisation. We could not obtain it, and the reports of it disagree with each other, so this site applies nothing from it. | press-reported | |
| RB-16.12.2025 | Railway Board letter reported as dated 16 December 2025 — chart at 20:00 the previous day for 05:01-14:00 departures, and ten hours ahead of departure otherwise. This is the rule this site applies, and it is press-reported: we have not read the letter, no circular number for it appears in the Board's own 2025 index, the earliest announcement in a railway's own name was South Central Railway's for its own zone on 20 December 2025, and the effective date is reported as both 20 and 30 December 2025. | press-reported | |
| PIB-2140614 | PIB release 2140614 — the July 2025 change was announced as being rolled out in phases. | verified | |
| PRS-MIGRATION-2026-08 | 2026-08 | PRS system migration from August 2026 may change observed behaviour. Context, not an order: nothing on this site is computed from it. | context |
What this site cannot tell you
- We cannot show berth-by-berth coach vacancy. Which berth in which coach is free appears only on the railways’ own online chart page, at irctc.co.in/online-charts. That page is the place to go for it, and the checker points you there when we cannot answer.
- We cannot tell you whether a waitlisted ticket will clear. Nobody can. Any site offering you a confident percentage should be asked where that number came from and over how many journeys.
- We do not know or store your PNR. We never ask for one and never accept one, so we cannot look up your booking. See privacy.
- The exact charting minute varies by train and by zone. We publish the window the rule sets, not a prediction of when a particular zone will act.
What our sources are. Times, distances and halts come from our own timetable database, built from a published Indian Railways timetable feed, version . Chart times are computed by us from a published railway order, and the order is named beside every one. We hold no booking data of our own, and we are not a booking agent. Where the timetable data comes from.
What this page in particular does not tell you
- It assumes the chart is prepared at the train's originating station. A train charted at a remote location can differ: the lead time is measured from the scheduled departure at the charting station, which may not be the origin.
- It is a target from a circular. Railways miss it. We publish no observed chart times because we have not measured any.
- It says nothing about berths, quotas or who is confirmed. Reservation charts themselves are published by the railways, not here.
- The lookup covers reserved trains only. An unreserved train has no reservation chart at all.