When travelling with kids on trains with Indian Railways, passengers have various concerns about ticket bookings.
If tickets are not reserved, Indian Railways does not charge anything for children under the age of five.
However, by adding infant seats in the trains, Indian Railways and IRCTC have changed the booking norms. A quick check on the IRCTC website reveals that full fare has to be paid by passengers for kids between 1-5 years of age.
In order to get free travel for the kids under reservation, one has to select Berth with infant seat or Infant without berth option.
As per circular number 12 of 2020 issued on 06.03.2020 by the Indian Railways, kids below 5 years of age doesn’t need a reservation for travelling and can travel on a train without a ticket for free of cost. However, if a berth is required, full adult fare has to be paid by booking a ticket.
The railways has now implemented the system of giving seats to children below five years of age, while booking tickets on IRCTC and Railway Rersevation booths at the stations. Till now only tickets for children in the age group of 5 to 11 years were allowed.
Indian Railways ticket booking rules for kids :
As the rule applies, if you are taking a full berth for the kid between 5-11 years of age, only than full fare has be paid to the Railways. If you don’t take a full berth, you have to pay only half the ticket price.
However, when it comes to children below 5 years, the Passenger Reservation System has not put any option of not taking a child berth after filling the names of children between the age of one to four years.
Age 0-4 years: Free of cost for kids if you select Infant berth/ Infant with no berth depending on the train. Else pay the full charge if berth is taken
Age 5-11 years: Full charge if you select the whole berth, half price if you select a child seat without berth
Age 12 years onwards: Full charge for everyone
Passengers who are looking to book a ticket, have to book a train berth with infant seat to avail full discount on the train ticket.
While Indian Railways and IRCTC have not made any formal announcement on the matter, the new ticket rules have been applied on the IRCTC’s website already.