The Indian Railways, the fourth largest railway network in the world, is the lifeline of about 25 million people who are using it on a regular basis. Since so many people are counting on it, the Indian Railways has also responsibilities towards its valued passengers.
The Railway department is always taking some steps to make people’s journeys safe and comfortable.
Among others, passengers’ convenience is always its top priority.
Despite its best efforts, passengers do suffer some inconvenience during their journey period, due to reasons which are unavoidable in nature.
The late running of trains causes the most inconvenience.
In such case, a passenger can cancel his/her ticket for which the Railway department has laid out customer-friendly refund rules.
For reserved tickets, if a customer finds a train is running late by more than three hours at the journey-commencing station, s/he can surrender her/his ticket at the journey-commencing station and get a full refund.
If you have a counter ticket, you are advised to go to the reservation counter to cancel it. If the ticket is purchased online through IRCTC, you will have to go through certain steps on the website to cancel it.
Notably, you are entitled to get a full refund when the train is late due to reasons or circumstances out of your control. This means if a train is delayed or cancelled due to inclement weather conditions or any other similar reason, you will get full refund. But when it comes to personal reasons, different rules may apply.