Waitlist gets a crystal ball: Railways to unveil AI tool to predict ticket confirmations

Tired of waiting for wait-listed ticket being confirmed while planning to travel in trains. Come August 2026, Indian Railways will roll on the Artificial Intelligence-based mechanism, which will almost project a perfect status of the reservation status from the date of booking till the date and time of final charting of the passenger manifesto of the scheduled train.

Sources working on the mega rail ticketing project said the new Passenger Reservation System (PRS) will be more advanced platform with improved booking capacity, AI-based and a smoother ticketing experience for the passengers. The new system will replace the platform in use since 1986.

The PRS overhaul is part of the Indian Railways’ broader digital modernisation push. Union Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has taken a keen interest in the project and has been personally reviewing the progress weekly for the last couple of months. Railway data shows around 9.29 lakh tickets are booked daily through several apps, including 7.2 lakh unreserved tickets and 2.09 lakh reserved tickets.

One of the major concern of the Indian travelers is getting a desired train and seat. The new system is being looked upon to cater to these needs of passengers. “For this one of the major features introduced is an AI-powered waitlist prediction tool. The feature estimates the probability of waitlisted tickets getting confirmed, helping passengers better plan their travel. The prediction accuracy has improved from 53 per cent to 94 per cent after recent upgrades through several of its and now the idea is to make it 100 percent. The new PRS is expected to make ticket booking faster, smarter and more reliable for millions of passengers across India,” said a senior railway official in the commercial department.

Last year in July, the railways departed from past and revised its charting time period from four hours to eight hours to facilitate passengers plan their travel well in advance in case they are not getting a confirmed reservation in the desired trains. The new charting scheme of eight hours is a success story as passengers from far-flung areas like Aligarh, Meerut, Panipat etc., scheduled to board from Delhi railway stations gets ample time to plan their journey accordingly.

Started in 1986, this PRS has undergone several minor changes over the past 40 years. However, now it is being completely overhauled, and its capacity to be significantly expanded using state-of-the-art technology.

The railway reservation system has witnessed several key milestones. In 2002, Indian Railways introduced internet-based ticketing.

Today, the system has become so popular that most people no longer approach ticket counters. Currently, nearly 88 per cent of total ticketing demand in the country is fulfilled through online channels.

The RailOne mobile app is rapidly gaining popularity among passengers. It was launched in July last year. In less than a year, it has recorded over 3.5 crore downloads across the country.

One of the biggest reasons for its popularity is that the app not only provides all railway-related information to the common man but also resolves complaints related to ticketing and other services.