Indian Railways is undertaking a comprehensive modernization of its Passenger Reservation System (PRS), which serves as the technological backbone for railway bookings across one of the world's largest rail networks. The PRS, introduced in 1986, has evolved from manual reservation counters to supporting online and mobile ticket booking, managing seat allocation, waitlists, Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC), reservation charts, and passenger enquiries.
System Scale and Performance
During June 2025 to June 2026, the PRS processed 65.08 crore reserved tickets, with 57.90 crore tickets (89%) booked online through digital channels. The system currently serves over 20.5 lakh passengers daily through multiple booking channels, with approximately 73% of transactions being cashless. The PRS is maintained by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), which was established in 1986 to develop and maintain IT infrastructure for Indian Railways.
Modernization Initiatives
The existing PRS, deployed in 2010 on Itanium servers and the OpenVMS platform, is being upgraded to a cloud-enabled, next-generation reservation system. The upgraded PRS will deliver significantly enhanced capacity: over 1.5 lakh ticket bookings per minute (compared to 32,000 currently) and over 40 lakh enquiries per minute (up from 4 lakh). The system will feature a multilingual, user-friendly interface with greater scalability, flexibility, and reliability to support future passenger demand.
Passenger-Centric Reforms
Indian Railways has implemented several reforms to improve the reservation ecosystem, including reducing the Advance Reservation Period from 120 days to 60 days to better align with passenger booking patterns. In July 2025, Aadhaar-authenticated Tatkal booking was introduced to improve fairness and transparency, with OTP-based verification added later to curb misuse by automated bots and unauthorized agents.
Digital Platforms and Applications
CRIS has developed multiple digital platforms including the Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS), National Train Enquiry System (NTES), and RailConnect mobile application introduced in 2017. The RailOne application, launched in July 2025, is an integrated mobile platform that has recorded over 4.55 crore downloads across Android and iOS devices (as of 22nd July) and currently facilitates around 9.65 lakh ticket bookings daily. The app features AI-based waitlist confirmation prediction with accuracy improved from 53% to 94%, helping passengers make more informed travel decisions.
Additional Passenger Services
RailMadad provides an integrated platform for passenger grievances, feedback, and service requests, achieving 99.98% grievance resolution in 2023-2024, 99.99% in 2024-2025, and 99.98% in 2025-2026. Other services include CoachMitra for onboard facilities, Rail Sugam for service information, and Rail Rajbhasha for Hindi language support in administration.
Operational Technology Systems
Beyond passenger services, CRIS has developed the Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) for freight movement digitization, Crew Management System (CMS) for crew scheduling, eDrishti for performance monitoring dashboards, Aapoorti for procurement digitization, and field operation support systems including Chalak Dal and Hand-Held Terminals.
Technology Adoption
CRIS is adopting emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) across railway applications. These technologies are being used for predicting train delays, optimizing routes and timetables, forecasting energy consumption, enabling predictive maintenance, and improving operational decision-making.
The phased migration of trains to the upgraded PRS began in August 2026, marking a new phase in the digital transformation of railway reservations that aims to create a future-ready reservation ecosystem for millions of Indian rail travelers.