TQWL: what a Tatkal waiting list means
TQWL is the Tatkal waiting list — the queue for the Tatkal quota, which opens at 10 am for AC classes and 11 am for non-AC classes one day before the journey. It rarely clears, because a confirmed Tatkal ticket is refunded only in a few listed situations, so very few are given up. Unused Tatkal berths at charting go to the general RAC and waiting list.
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What does TQWL stand for, and what is CKWL?
TQWL is the Tatkal quota waiting list. You will also see the same queue printed as CKWL, because CK is the older reservation-system code for the Tatkal quota. Both labels mean you asked for a Tatkal berth, the Tatkal berths were gone, and you joined the queue for them.
If your ticket says something you do not recognise, the status decoder will name the queue.
Tatkal itself is defined in law. The Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Ticket and Refund of Fare) Rules, 2015 define a "tatkal ticket" as "a ticket with shorter advance reservation period, issued to meet the requirements of those passengers who have to travel at short notice". The Ministry of Railways also lists Tatkal, and separately Premium Tatkal, among the reservation quotas available to the general public.
The expansions TQWL and CKWL are reservation-system usage rather than published rule. We have not found an Indian Railways page that spells either of them out, and we would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise.
When does Tatkal booking open?
One day before the date of travel, excluding the travel date itself. The railway's own Tatkal page gives the times, and its worked example is worth keeping: for a train leaving on the 6th, Tatkal booking opens at 10 am for AC classes on the 5th, and at 11 am for non-AC classes on the 5th.
Two later changes matter, and both come from a Ministry of Railways press release of 11 June 2025.
- From 1 July 2025, Tatkal tickets on the official ticketing website and app are available only to Aadhaar-authenticated users.
- From 15 July 2025, an Aadhaar-based one-time password is required for those online bookings, and a system-generated one-time password is required for Tatkal tickets booked at reservation counters and through authorised agents.
- Authorised agents may not book opening-day Tatkal tickets in the first thirty minutes: 10:00 to 10:30 for AC classes, 11:00 to 11:30 for non-AC.
The Tatkal booking clock
| Moment | What happens |
|---|---|
| Sixty days before the journey date | Ordinary booking opens. This window was cut from one hundred and twenty days to sixty with effect from 1 November 2024 |
| 10:00 on the previous day | Tatkal booking opens for AC classes |
| 10:00 to 10:30 | Authorised agents may not book opening-day Tatkal for AC classes |
| 11:00 on the previous day | Tatkal booking opens for non-AC classes |
| 11:00 to 11:30 | Authorised agents may not book opening-day Tatkal for non-AC classes |
| At chart preparation | Any unused Tatkal accommodation may be released to the general RAC and waiting list |
What does a Tatkal ticket cost on top of the fare?
The Tatkal charge is a percentage of the basic fare — ten per cent for second class, thirty per cent for every other class — held between a floor and a ceiling. These are the figures published on the railway's own Tatkal page for journeys starting from 24 December 2015 onwards.
The floor is ₹100 in Sleeper and ₹300 in AC 3-Tier; the ceiling is ₹200 and ₹400. The full class-by-class table, with the minimum distance each charge applies beyond, is on Tatkal booking time and charges, which also covers the identity rules and the agent restriction on the opening half hour. If you want to know what each class code means, see the classes compared.
Why does a Tatkal waiting list rarely clear?
Because almost nobody gives a confirmed Tatkal ticket back, and a queue only moves when someone in front of it leaves.
The railway's Tatkal page is blunt: "No refund will be granted on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets", subject to a short list of exceptions. Full refund of fare and Tatkal charges follows only if the train is delayed by more than three hours at the passenger's journey originating point, if it is diverted and the passenger does not wish to travel, if it is diverted and the boarding or destination station is not on the diverted route, if the coach holding the Tatkal accommodation is not attached, or if the party is put in a lower class and does not travel. Rule 9(1) of the 2015 rules says the same thing in the same shape.
So think about what that does to the pool. A passenger who paid the fare plus a Tatkal charge, and who will get nothing back for cancelling, simply does not cancel. The bucket a TQWL ticket is waiting on is small, it opens one day before travel, and hardly anything is returned to it.
What happens to your TQWL ticket at chart preparation?
Two separate things happen, and only one of them is in your favour.
Unused Tatkal berths are released — but not to you. The railway's Tatkal page says that at the time of preparation of charts, the unutilised portion "may be released to the General RAC/Waiting list passengers". Read that carefully. Berths left unsold in the Tatkal quota go to the general queue. They do not go to the Tatkal queue. A TQWL ticket does not benefit from Tatkal berths going spare.
A still-waitlisted Tatkal e-ticket is dropped and refunded. Rule 9(2) sends an unused waitlisted Tatkal ticket to Rule 7, the ordinary waiting-list refund rule. In practice that means a fully waitlisted e-ticket is dropped from the chart at charting and the fare is credited back less clerkage, exactly as any other waiting-list e-ticket is. The what happens after the chart page sets out the charges and the two exceptions that catch people out.
When the chart is prepared, and why that timing is contested, is on the chart preparation page.
Can you get your money back if you cancel first?
If your Tatkal ticket is still waitlisted, yes. Rule 9(2) applies Rule 7, which refunds the fare less clerkage if the ticket is cancelled up to thirty minutes before the scheduled departure of the train, and nothing after that.
If your Tatkal ticket is confirmed, the answer is normally no, for the reasons above. There is one useful exception for a group booking. Rule 9(3) says that where some passengers on a party or family Tatkal ticket are confirmed and others are waitlisted, full refund of fare less clerkage is admissible for the confirmed passengers too, provided the entire Tatkal ticket is surrendered up to thirty minutes before scheduled departure. Cancel the whole thing, not the waitlisted names.
Note also what the railway's page says about deposit receipts: "TDRs are not being issued for waiting list tickets."
What you cannot do with a Tatkal ticket
- You cannot change the name on it. The Tatkal page states that change of name is not permitted on Tatkal bookings.
- You cannot move an ordinary ticket into the Tatkal quota. Rule 11(5) says postponement or preponement of a normal ticket "shall not be applicable against tatkal quota even on payment of tatkal charges".
- You cannot book more than four passengers on one Tatkal PNR.
- You must carry the identity document you booked with. One passenger on the ticket has to produce the original of the proof entered at booking, and the details are printed on the ticket and in the chart.
How big is the Tatkal quota? We do not know
You will see confident figures elsewhere — a set number of berths per sleeper coach, a share of the accommodation. We are not printing any of them, because we could not find a published source for them.
The one earmarking figure the railway's own Tatkal page states is narrow and specific: Tatkal in the Executive Class of Shatabdi Express trains is provided by earmarking ten per cent of the accommodation available, which the page works out as five seats per coach. That is the only Tatkal quota size we can show you a document for, and it covers one class on one kind of train.
For every other class, the honest answer is that we do not know, so we will not tell you. A missing number is better than an invented one. If you want the general picture of how the codes relate to each other, the waiting-list code overview is the place to start; if your code is RLWL rather than TQWL, the remote-location page explains a very different queue; and if you are given a shared seat instead, see what RAC gets you.
Sources
Every factual claim above was checked against these documents on .