Railways Passenger Reservation System to be shut down for upgradation

In an attempt to revert,  in a phased manner, to the pre-Covid levels of service, the Ministry of Indian Railways informed that its Passenger Reservation System (PRS) will be shut down for 6 hours during the lean business hours in the night. Except for the PRS services, all other enquiry services, including 139 services, will continue uninterrupted. 

The order from the Indian Railways informed that this activity is in place from the intervening night of 14 and 15 November, 2021 to the night of 20 and 21 November, 2021. The 6 hours that the reservation system will be shut is from 11:30 pm to 5:30 am. During the railways reservation shut down period, the railway’s personnel will ensure the advance charting for the trains to start during the affected timings. 

Along with the advance charting process, the Railways will update the old train numbers, and the current passenger booking data, to meet the current standards. This exercise is being planned in a series of calibrated steps and is planned to be implemented during the night hours in order to minimise the impact on ticketing services. 

Since the Covid-19 pandemic set in, with the lockdowns and movement curbs, the Railways has been running special trains only. What started off with long-distance trains, has followed suit for the remaining short-distance passenger trains with slightly higher fares. To discontinue these operations, on 12 November, 2021, the Railways issued an order to discontinue the special tag for mail and express trains and revert to pre-pandemic ticket pricing with immediate effect. 

The Ministry of Railways has requested all the customers to support the Railways in this endeavour to normalise and upgrade the passenger services.