India’s railway reservation system has come a long way from manual registers and long lines at ticket counters to a largely digital platform serving millions of travellers every day. At the centre of this transformation is the Passenger Reservation System (PRS), the technology backbone used by Indian Railways for reserved-ticket services since 1986. Read on to know more.
New PRS For Indian Railways
As per a report by Moneycontrol, the computerised system handles several critical functions, including ticket booking, cancellations, seat allocation, waitlisted and Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) tickets, reservation charts and passenger requests. Over the years, the PRS has changed from a system used at individual reservation centres into a nationwide interconnected network.
The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) establishes and maintains the technology behind the system. Today, travellers can access reservation services through railway reservation counters as well as digital platforms, including the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
The scale of the system has expanded substantially with the rise of online bookings. Between June 2025 and June 2026, 65.08 crore reserved tickets were booked through the PRS. Around 57.90 crore, or 89%, were booked online, showing how much of passenger behaviour has shifted towards digital reservations.
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Indian Railways To Upgrade The PRS
The current PRS was launched in 2010 using Itanium servers and the OpenVMS platform, and Indian Railways is now moving towards a next-generation system.
The upgraded PRS is being developed as a cloud-based platform designed to handle considerably higher transaction volumes while improving reliability and scalability. Phased migration of trains to the upgraded system began in August 2026.
The new system is expected to increase ticket booking capacity to more than 1.5 lakh tickets per minute, compared with around 32,000 currently. Its enquiry-handling capacity is also projected to rise to more than 40 lakh enquiries per minute, from over four lakh.
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The upgraded platform is also being designed with a multilingual and more user-friendly interface, allowing it to accommodate changing passenger requirements and future growth.
The system is expected to form the technological foundation of India’s railway reservation network for the coming years, supporting faster bookings, higher capacity and a more reliable digital experience for millions of passengers.
Cover Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
FAQs
What is the meaning of prs in railway?
In the railways, PRS stands for Passenger Reservation System. It is the computerized network and software platform used to book, cancel, and manage reserved train tickets, check seat availability, and prepare chart lists.
How many PRs are there on Indian Railways?
The Passenger Reservation System (PRS) facility is available at 2926 locations on Indian Railways.
What is prs and uts?
Indian Railways provide computerized PRS (Passenger Reservation System) and UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System) counters at various locations.
