Goodbye, Shared Berths? Indian Railways May Scrap the Decades-Old RAC System

An Indian Railways train at a station platform. The Railways is reviewing its decades-old RAC system, under which two passengers share a single berth while paying full fare. (Photo: Pexels — representative image)

If you have ever travelled overnight on an Indian train, you probably know the three letters every passenger dreads — RAC. It stands for Reservation Against Cancellation, and for decades it has meant the same thing: you are allowed to board, but you may have to share one berth with a complete stranger, even though you paid the full ticket fare. Now, Indian Railways is examining whether to scrap the system — a change that could transform how millions of people book train tickets.

What Is RAC, and Why Is It Under Review?

Under the RAC system, a passenger who cannot get a confirmed berth is still given a seat — usually half of a side-lower berth — and is allowed to travel. If a confirmed passenger cancels, the RAC holder may be upgraded to a full berth. But if no berth frees up, two strangers spend the night sharing a single sleeping space, each having paid the full fare for the journey. Indian Railways is now reviewing this arrangement amid growing concerns about passenger comfort and the fairness of charging the entire fare when no individual berth is allotted. A parliamentary panel has also questioned the practice of collecting full fares from RAC passengers. The Railways has not yet taken a final decision, and the current RAC rules continue to apply for now.

The Vande Bharat Sleeper Shows the Way

The clearest sign of where the Railways is heading comes from its newest premium service. The upcoming Vande Bharat Sleeper trains have already been designed without any RAC provision at all. Passengers will be allotted individual berths, with no arrangement for two people to share one berth. The trains will also have no Tatkal quota, no waiting list and no flexi-fare or dynamic pricing — tickets will be issued only against confirmed berths, at fixed fares, and bookings must be made through the regular reservation system up to 60 days in advance. The fully air-conditioned 16-coach train will have 823 berths in total — 611 in AC 3-Tier, 188 in AC 2-Tier and 24 in AC First Class — and only the existing Ladies, Persons with Disabilities, Senior Citizen and Duty Pass quotas will apply. Once the berths are sold out, bookings simply close.

What Would Change for Passengers?

For regular travellers, scrapping RAC across the wider network would be a mixed blessing. On the positive side, nobody would ever again have to share a berth after paying full price — a long-standing complaint that has frustrated generations of passengers. Every ticket would mean a proper place to sleep. On the other hand, RAC has also been a safety net. It lets people travel even when trains are full, with a fair chance of a berth opening up before departure. Without it, the choice would be starker: either you hold a confirmed berth, or you do not travel at all. That would make early booking far more important, especially during festivals and peak seasons when trains fill up weeks in advance.

A Decision Still to Come

For now, passengers should not assume that RAC tickets have been abolished. Indian Railways has announced no final decision and no implementation date for discontinuing the system across its network. But the direction of travel is clear: the Railways is moving towards a model where every passenger gets a confirmed, individual berth — and the shared-berth era may be coming to an end.

Have you ever travelled on an RAC ticket and shared a berth with a stranger? Would you welcome the end of RAC, or would you miss the chance to travel when trains are full? Tell us in the comments.