New Delhi: The Indian Railways is gearing up to change the concept of linking PNRs for connecting journeys, permitting passengers to cancel their onward journey without any cancellation fee for delays in their first leg of the journey, senior Railways officials said. The Indian Railways will let passengers link two PNRs for a connecting journey, both for e-tickets and PRS counter tickets, or a mix of both.
The new facility will mostly benefit those travelling on continuous trains for their onward journeys and get held up because of protests, fogs or any other reason during their journey. The facility will commence from April 1.
"In case of linked PNRs, if a rail passenger misses connecting train owing to late running of the train by which he had been travelling, the fare for untravelled portion shall be refunded, without levying any cancellation or clerkage charge," a Railway Board order said.
The passengers will not be levied with cancellation or clerkage fees if they surrender the ticket for refund within three hours of the actual arrival of the first train, the order added. This new facility is available for all classes, while the names of passengers on both the PNRs and the destination station in the main train must be same.
"This will greatly help passengers as they will not be in fear of losing money if they miss their connecting train. There were instances that the non-linking of PNRs resulted in problems for passengers during the cancellation of tickets. This will be easier now," a senior official said.