The Indian Railways facilitate millions of travellers every day to reach their destinations. However, most travellers are unaware of all of the services provided by railways to make people’s journeys easier.
Similarly, the Circular Journey Ticket is one of those services that many travellers are unaware of and hardly utilize. This service by the IRCTC is issued for all journeys (other than regular routes) which begin and complete at the same station, according Indian Railways’ website, www.indianrail.gov.in. Circular journey tickets give the benefit of ‘telescopic rates’, which are considerably lower than regular point to point fare and can be purchased for all classes of travel.
For example, if you take a circular journey ticket from New Delhi to Kanyakumari from Northern Railway, your journey will start from New Delhi and end at New Delhi. You will reach Kanyakumari via Mathura via Mumbai Central Marmagoa Bangalore City Mysore Bangalore City Udagamandalam Thiruvananthapuram Central and come back to New Delhi via this route. The circular ticket made for this journey of 7,550 kilometres remains valid for 56 days.
Things To Know About IRCTC’s Circular Journey Ticket
This facility is suitable for passengers travelling individually or in groups; especially for passengers traveling on a pilgrimage or a sightseeing tour.
The Circular Journey facility of Railways covers two single journeys. The length of each journey is considered to be half of the entire journey.
They are available on all routes except for regular routes.
The ticket covers up to 8 stations/stoppage points.
The start and end stations have to be the same.
The rate of each ticket incorporated within the Circular Journey ticket is telescopic, i.e, for more stations included in your itinerary, the lesser will be the price of each inclusive ticket. Thus, a Circular Journey ticket is cheaper than the total cost of the individual tickets booked separately.
It saves a lot of time.
Booking Procedure of Circular Journey Ticket
Once your itinerary is finalised, you can approach the Divisional Commercial Manager of the Division of certain major stations to which the journey commencing station belongs.
The Divisional Commercial Manager or the station authorities will then calculate the cost of the tickets based on your itinerary. He will also inform the Station Manager of the same in a prescribed format.
You can purchase Circular Journey Tickets by presenting this form at the Booking Office of the station where you propose to start your journey.
After purchasing the Circular Journey Ticket, you must approach the Reservation Office to reserve your accommodation for various laps of your journey.
You will then be issued reserved journey ticket for the journey.
A Circular Journey Ticket is charged for as two single journeys, the length of each single journey being taken as half of the total distance.
40% concession for male Senior Citizens and 50% concession for female Senior Citizens are granted on the cost of the Circular Journey Tickets when travelling a minimum distance of 1000 kms.
Rules of Booking a Circular Journey Tickets
Normal rules on Break Journey will not apply in case of Circular Journey Tickets for such circular journey which commences and completes at the same station. Return Journey on the shortest route or on a route up to 15% longer than the shortest route will not be treated as a circular journey for this purpose.
Circular Journey Tickets can be issued for all classes. Before issuing a Circular Journey Ticket, the passenger should be asked to advise the names of a maximum of eight stations (excluding originating/destination station) where he wants to break the journey.
Validity period The validity period for the ticket will be calculated at the sum of journey days and break journey days journey days to be calculated at 1 day per 400 km distance or part thereof and break journey days to be calculated at 1 day per 200 Kms. The ticket will be valid from the day of the journey indicated on the ticket. There will be no restriction on commencing the break journey. The passenger will be required to put his signature with the date on the ticket on the commencement of the journey.
Break Journey On a circular journey ticket the maximum number of break journeys will be 8 (eight). The endorsement of break-journey is not required on Circular Journey Tickets.
Fare for Circular Journey ticket The circular journey ticket will be charged for two single journeys, each journey being taken as half of the total distance. Reservation charges for different legs of journeys, the supplementary charge on super-fast, etc. will be levied extra. If a passenger travels in a higher class or by a higher category of trains, he will be required to pay the difference of fares for such distance on point to point basis.