Boarding Point Change in Indian Railway/ IRCTC

Boarding point is the station which you select to get on the train. While doing railway reservation  you provide 3 stations

1. From Station: Station from where reservation is done.
2. To Station: Station up to which your berth in train will be reserved.
3. Boarding Station: railway station at which you will occupy your reserved berth.

Out of these three stations boarding station can be changed easily online using IRCTC change boarding point feature.

Whether you have done booking of railway ticket online on IRCTC or offline at reservation counter,  you can change boarding point as per rules (see FAQ below).

How to Change Boarding Point on IRCTC Online

Changing Boarding Point of Train Ticket Booked at Counter

To change boarding point take following steps:

• Login to registered IRCTC account using your username and password.
• In main menu select "More". Under it Select "Counter Ticket Boarding Point Change" option.

You will be now on counter ticket services page of IRCTC.

In the left hand side you will see form like this:

 Now do the following:

1. In transaction type, click black arrow 🠟, and ensure that  "Boarding Point Change" is selected instead of "cancellation" (read cancelling railway counter tickets online).
2. Provide PNR number in appropriate field. It is 10 digit number printed on your railway ticket.
3. Enter Train Number (it is also printed on your train ticket).
4. Enter Captacha code.
5. Click on "I have read cancellation/boarding point procedure and rule".
6. Submit the form.

You boarding point is changed successfully.

Changing Boarding Point of Train Ticket Booked Online

For online tickets take following steps:

1. Login to irctc website or irctc rail connect app.
2. Go to "My Account" than "My Transactions" and click on "Booked Ticket History" option.
3. You will see all you tickets.
4. Select the train ticket in  you want to change the boarding point.
5. Change the boarding point.
6. New page will open. Select new boarding point from list of stations.

You can also change boarding point while booking train tickets online

Above we have discussed how to change boarding points after a ticket is booked. However, one can also change it at the time of booking.

During booking process, at the time of filling up passenger details, in the extreme right you will ind this option. See the picture below, see the green circle (this is where you can change the station to take the train).

Before recent update in 2019 this option was easily visible. People used to booking train tickets online often wonder where it is gone? Has IRCTC removed it?

As you can see it is there.

Indian Railway Boarding Point FAQs

Q. Can I change my boarding point anytime?

A. You are allowed to change your boarding point only once after booking train ticket, that too before 24 hours of scheduled departure of the train.

Q. Can I board the train from railway station before the boarding point?

A. No, Once you have stated from where you will get on the train you cannot board the train before that station. If you want to travel you need to buy separate railway ticket up to your boarding station and than occupy your train seat at right place.

Q. What happens if I am unable to occupy my berth at boarding point. Will railway give it to other person?

A. Ideally you should take your seat/berth at the boarding point mentioned on your railway ticket. Generally TTE (Travel Ticket Examiner) waits for next station to see if you turn up or not. If not, they have a right to allot your seat to passenger with RAC pnr status.

Q. Is there any limit on distance regarding boarding point and reservation point?

A. You can choose any station on route of train between your journey stations as a boarding point. If you don't mention, the station from which reservation is done is also chosen as boarding point by Passenger Reservation System (PRS) of Indian Railways.

Q. Reservation charges are taken/applied from which station? "Reservation from" station  or from "Boarding Point" station?

A. Charges apply for full journey from "Reservation From"  to "Reservation To" stations you fill in railway reservation form.

Q. Can I change boarding point using above method for all types of trains?

A. No. You cannot change boarding station in all trains. In most mail/express/passenger trains you can change it. But you cannot do so in full fare trains which have end to end fair structure like Rajdhani express, Duronto Express, Tejas Express, Shatabdi Express etc.

Q. If I have booked a connecting journey ticket on IRCTC, can I change the boarding point of my connecting train?

A. No. In connecting train tickets the destination station of first train and boarding station of next train (connecting train) should be same as per railway rules. You cannot change the boarding station in connecting journeys.

Q. Are there any charges for changing boarding station?

A. No, there are no charges. This service is offered for Free by IRCTC.

Q. Why or when should I change the boarding point?

A. People choose/ change boarding point for two reasons. 

1) Sometimes a suburban/ substation is nearer to home than the main railway station. Hence people reserve seats from main stations while chose boarding point nearer to the place of their stay. 

2) People living in small town or cities often find that they don't get confirmed reservation when they book tickets from their place. This is because small cities have small number of seats/ accommodation quota (because less people travel from there). Hence, so that they get confirmed seats, they do railway reservation from a big/ main station which comes before their station (which has more seats available) on train's route and mention/choose/select boarding point as their place. Thus by spending few hundred more rupees they are able to have a comfortable train journey. Big benefit indeed.