From Queues to Clicks: Four Decades of Passenger Reservation in Indian Railways

The Passenger Reservation System (PRS), introduced in 1986, is the technology‑enabled backbone of Indian Railways ticketing. It has evolved from manual registers to a nationwide platform supporting counters, the IRCTC website and mobile apps, handling 65.08 crore reservations (89% online) between June 2025‑June 2026 and serving over 20.5 lakh passengers daily. The system, maintained by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), is being upgraded to a cloud‑enabled next‑generation PRS that will support over 1.5 lakh bookings and 40 lakh enquiries per minute, a multilingual interface, and greater scalability. Recent passenger‑centric reforms include reducing the advance reservation period to 60 days, Aadhaar‑authenticated Tatkal booking (July 2025), and OTP verification.