Train planning
Enter your train's scheduled departure and see when its first and final reservation charts are prepared — the moment a waitlist stops moving and vacant berths open for current booking.
Use the train's departure from its originating station, not your boarding point.
The two rules
Find the scheduled departure
Use the departure time from the train’s originating station, shown on your ticket or the IRCTC timetable.
Enter the date and time
Fill in both fields — the rule that applies depends on the hour of departure.
Read the first chart time
Trains leaving between 05:00 and 14:00 are charted at 20:00 the previous evening; all others 10 hours before departure.
Note the final chart
Prepared about 30 minutes before departure, absorbing late cancellations.
Set a reminder
Add a calendar alert for chart time so you can check your PNR status the moment it is decided.
A waitlisted ticket is a question that stays open until the chart is prepared. Up to that moment the number can keep falling as other passengers cancel; at that moment it is answered, and for a fully waitlisted e-ticket the answer is final — the booking is cancelled automatically and the money returns to the account it came from, less clerkage. Knowing when that happens is what turns an anxious wait into a decision point: if the chart is prepared at 20:00 the night before, you know by dinner whether you are travelling, and you still have the evening to find an alternative.
Charting used to happen roughly four hours before departure, which left overnight travellers finding out their fate close to midnight. The window has been widened twice since, most recently to 10 hours. But a flat ten-hour rule would chart an early-morning train in the small hours, so trains departing between 05:00 and 14:00 are instead charted at 20:00 the previous evening — a civilised hour at which to learn you need a different plan. Everything outside that band, including post-midnight departures, follows the ten-hour rule.
Berths that are vacant at the first chart are released for current booking — bookable at reservation counters and on IRCTC right up to the final chart, sometimes at a fare below the normal one for that class. On routes where the waitlist looked hopeless, this window is frequently how people end up travelling anyway. It closes about 30 minutes before departure, when the final chart absorbs the last cancellations and RAC passengers move into any berths that freed up.
The chart is prepared against the train’s departure from its originating station, not from yours. Board a Kerala-bound train at Nagpur and the chart may well have been prepared more than a day before you set foot on the platform. Intermediate stations with remote-location quotas get their own separate charting, which is why an RLWL ticket behaves differently from a GNWL one right through to the end — a difference the waitlist confirmation tool accounts for.
The waitlist tool reads your quota code and position and gives an honest estimate of whether the ticket clears — plus what to do if it does not.
The first reservation chart is prepared at least 10 hours before the train’s scheduled departure. For trains departing between 05:00 and 14:00, the first chart is instead prepared by 20:00 the previous evening. A second and final chart is prepared about 30 minutes before departure, taking in any cancellations made after the first chart.
The Railway Board moved first-chart preparation from 8 hours to 10 hours before departure in a revision reported in December 2025, itself an increase on the 4-hour practice of earlier years. The intent is to tell waitlisted and RAC passengers their status early enough to make other arrangements.
Yes, though the odds narrow sharply. Berths released by cancellations between the first and final chart can still be allotted, and the final chart about 30 minutes before departure reflects those. But a ticket still waitlisted at the first chart is automatically cancelled for e-tickets, and the refund is processed without you filing anything.
Fully waitlisted e-tickets are cancelled automatically at chart preparation and the refund is credited to the source account, less the applicable clerkage. You do not need to file a TDR for this. Partially confirmed tickets travel, and passengers who choose not to travel in that situation can file a TDR instead.
Yes — berths left vacant after charting are released for current booking, available at reservation counters and on IRCTC until the final chart is prepared roughly 30 minutes before departure. Current-booking fares are sometimes lower than the normal fare for the same class.
The chart is prepared against the train’s scheduled departure from its originating station, not from your boarding point. For a long-distance train you board mid-route, the chart may therefore be prepared a day or more before you actually travel. A separate chart is prepared for remote-location quotas at intermediate stations.
Editorial Trust Panel
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Last reviewed
24 July 2026
Content update
Auto-updated on Jun 28, 2026
Scope: Chart timings are computed from the published Railway Board rule (first chart 10 hours before departure, or 20:00 the previous evening for 05:00–14:00 departures). Actual charting can vary for delayed trains and separately charted remote-location quotas.
Primary references