PNR or Passenger Name Record is a ten-digit unique number assigned by Indian Railways to every booked train ticket. This number provides basic information about passengers such as name, age, sex, journey date, train details, as well as ticket booking status. It is a record in the Indian Railways database against a passenger or group of passengers’ journey details. PNR status tells about the passenger’s current berth status i.e. whether the passenger has got a confirmed ticket, Reservation Against Cancellation, or waiting list ticket. The PNR status of the waitlist passenger may change if the ticket gets confirmed in the future.
Train PNR status also reveals the origin status, boarding point, destination status, travel class, quota, along with charting status. The PNR status is frozen once the chart gets prepared and it does not change after that. PNR number is stored for a maximum of nine months period in the Railway’s database because the TDR filed by the passengers can take a maximum of 9 months for the refund, after this period PNR number is removed from the database. PNR number reveals the following information related to the train journey:
Details of the Passengers — Name, Sex, Age, and Birth Number
Ticket Details — Journey date, train number, source station, destination station, boarding status, class as well as quota under which the ticket is booked, fare, along with payment details.
· The first digit of the PNR number reveals the zone of the train, i.e. the station from which the train will start.
· First three digits of the PNR number from which Passenger Reservation System the ticket has been booked.
· The last seven digits of the PNR number are randomly generated using the Rand() function that provides a unique identity to the PNR number.
How to check PNR status?
Passengers who have booked their train ticket either online or offline can check the PNR status to know different information related to the journey. Sometimes while booking train tickets passengers get waitlist tickets and they are not allotted any birth. To check whether their ticket has been confirmed or not passengers need to check their PNR status. Today passengers have diverse options for checking the PNR status, as of right from several portals to mobile applications to the IRCTC website, passengers just need to enter their 10 digit PNR number to get all the information related to their booked ticket.
Information Revealed by PNR Status
PNR status is usually checked by passengers who got waitlisted ticket and their seat or birth number is not confirmed. The PNR status provides information such as ticket booking status like confirmed, canceled, or waitlist, train details like seat number, train’s arrival and departure time.
