Northern Railways relaxes norms for changing names on rail tickets

There will be several checks and balances that would be followed to see to it that touts and middleman do not take benefit from these relaxations.

PRAYAGRAJ In a bid to simplify the complex procedure of changing name(s) on a reserved train ticket, the Northern Railways (NR) has made some key changes and relaxed a few rules.

As per the revised policy, if a passenger wishes, railways will change the name on the confirmed ticket within 24 hours. (HT File)

Now, at almost every station of NR -- which includes major stations like Prayagraj Sangam and many smaller stations like Phaphamau and Phulpur in Prayagraj under its jurisdiction -- railway officials have been authorised to take applications, check necessary documents, and change the name on the journey ticket.

However, there will be several checks and balances that would be followed to see to it that touts and middleman do not take benefit from these relaxations, said officials.

As per the revised policy, if a passenger wishes, railways will change the name on the confirmed ticket within 24 hours. The option of changing names of family members on a rail ticket was available for a long time but many more relaxations have now been given as per the letter issued in this regard by NR, added officials.

The railways have also issued special instructions regarding government departments in this regard. Be it police or administrative officers, employees going for government duty or government work, students of a school or college or for that matter, any member of a wedding procession, changes can be made as per new relaxed norms.

For instance, if the ticket is reserved in the name of some police personnel, who is on an administrative duty, but somehow there is a situation when the duty gets assigned to someone else, then it will now be easier to change the name on the reservation ticket of the trains without having to cancel it and rebook the ticket. Similarly, on the request of the school or college administration, the names of students can also be changed. The same implies for bulk reservations made for ‘wedding procession’ or pilgrimage wherein if any passenger cannot join the journey, his or her name on a ticket can be changed for someone else.

Senior divisional commercial manager, northern railways, Lucknow, Rekha Sharma, said that the chief reservation supervisor (CRS) and reservation supervisor in-charge (RS) can also get the name changed at stations even where there are no gazetted officers. If the passenger is a government servant and the appropriate authority (sanctioning official tours) requests in writing 24 hours before the scheduled departure of the train, that the reservation made in the name of the government servant be transferred to another government servant on duty, it will also be changed, she added.

The same can be done if a passenger requests in writing 24 hours before the scheduled departure of the train to transfer the reservation made in his name to any other family member ie father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, husband or wife, his request will be approved.