Reservation against Cancellation
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A Reservation against cancellation is a type of ticket that can be purchased on India railway network. Although it ensures certainty of travel it does not guarantee a berth. The berth will be allocated to the person who reserves the ticket under Reservation Against Cancellation, if the passenger who reserved the ticket initially do not turn up before the train departure or performs a last minute cancellation. [1]
A quick explanation of RAC and Waiting List
*WL # = Waiting List Number
*RAC = Reservation Against Cancellation
An RAC ticket ensures certainty of travel on the train (a WL ticket doesn't) and in your chosen class, but there’s a chance you could end up with just a seat. (very unlikely if you book early)
A berth is split into 2 seats for 2 RAC ticket holders, if there are any last minute cancellations, or any unsold quota allocations, or if any confirmed ticket holders are given a free upgrade, an RAC ticket holder is given the empty berth, the other RAC ticket holder can then convert the 2 seats into a berth.
RAC tickets are only issued for Sleeper Class
| Air Conditioned | Non Air Conditioned |
|---|---|
| 2-tier (4 seats per carriage), | First Class (4 seats per carriage), |
| 3-tier (6 seats per carriage), | Sleeper Class (up to 12 seats per carriage). |
Every Ticket has 2 numbers
All RAC/WL tickets have 2 ’numbers’, the first is the position you join the waitlist, the 2nd is your current waitlist position.
So lets imagine you go to buy a ticket online (or at a reservation office), you find the perfect train, select your chosen class, enter your date of journey, then notice that the ticket offered is WL 10/WL 4, you buy the ticket, so we’ll use this as an example. (with 4 RAC places)
WL 10/WL 4 means that you join the waitlist at position 10, but due to cancellations (before you bought the ticket) you have already moved to waitlist position 4, the first number will not change, if there were another 3 cancellations, your new waitlist position will be WL 10/WL 1, another 3 cancellations would take you to WL 10/RAC 2, a further 2 cancellations would take you to WL 10/CNF (confirmed reservation, though you wouldn’t find out your carriage and berth number till a couple of hours before the train departs)
Think of standing in a queue, as you go to join the queue you are given a number indicating the position you join the queue (e.g. WL 10), this number will remain the same as that IS the position you joined the queue, all those in front of you have either confirmed, RAC or better waitlist positions than you, if any of the people in front of you decide to leave the queue, you move forward, and also closer to a confirmed seat/berth, some in front of you may have already left the queue before you joined, so if 6 people had already left the queue, you’d be joining the queue in position WL 10, but you’d already be at position WL 4.
RAC is Reservation Against Cancellation. All RAC passengers are accommodated in the lower side berth with sitting arrangement (no sleeping). RAC passengers are given priority if there is any cancellation by confirmed ticket passenger. The above ticket would move through the waitlist as follows: -
(cancellation of 1 ticket in each step) WL 10/WL 4
WL 10/WL 3
WL 10/WL 2
WL 10/WL 1
WL 10/RAC 4
WL 10/RAC 3
WL 10/RAC 2
WL 10/RAC 1
WL 10/CNF
So having a RAC 100 is actually better than a WL 1. [2]