Pakistan Railways online booking on RABTA: tickets, refunds and the 90-day rule

Pakistan Railways sells its own e-tickets through RABTA, the online booking and train timing system at pakrailways.gov.pk, with an app of the same name on Google Play and the Huawei AppGallery. Reservation offices and PRACS counters still sell the same seats. Anything else that appears above it in a search is a reseller, and the refund rules on a reseller booking are not the ones below.

This guide covers the account, the booking, the fares, and the part that costs people money: cancellation.

Step 1: create the account properly

You book under your own CNIC. Pakistan Railways requires the real CNIC number at registration, and the account only activates after two checks:

1. Your mobile number is verified by SMS.
2. Your email is verified through a link.

Both are sent when the account is created, and each can be resent three times. If all three fail, that phone number and email are blocked permanently for a personal account. So enter the number and the address slowly and check them before submitting.

You can change the mobile number or email before verification. After verification, you cannot change either. One more rule people fall foul of: a personal account may book for you, your family and your friends, but not commercially. Accounts used to resell tickets are blocked permanently.

Step 2: book the seat

• Reservations open up to 90 days in advance. For Eid and the long weekends, AC classes on the Karachi and Quetta runs go in the first days of that window.
• Log in at pakrailways.gov.pk, open Tickets, and pick the stations, date and class.
• The classes are AC Sleeper (ACSL), AC Parlour Car (PC), AC Business (ACLZ), AC Standard (ACL) and Economy (EC).
• Pay through the listed service provider. Keep the booking confirmation and the SMS.

Before you leave the page, check the train number, date of journey, berth or seat number and the passenger name. On a counter ticket, Pakistan Railways tells passengers to check the same four things before leaving the window.

Who gets a half fare

• Children aged 3 to 10: half fare.
• Senior citizens aged 65 and above: half fare, on selected trains, and it has to be claimed at the time of booking. You cannot get it adjusted on board.

Quota, and why your fare looks wrong

Economy tickets are reserved from the originating quota station to your destination, and the fare is charged the same way. AC classes, except Green Line, are charged between your boarding and alighting stations.

Green Line is the exception that catches people out. Its fare is quota based: if you are travelling Rohri to Karachi but the available seat is on the Rawalpindi to Karachi quota, you are charged from Rawalpindi, not Rohri. That rule drops away inside 24 hours of departure, when Green Line is charged like any other AC class.

Cancellation: the online rules are harsher than the counter rules

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in Pakistani train travel. An e-ticket and a paper ticket bought at the window are refunded under different schedules.

Online (e-ticket) cancellation, deduction from what you paid:

Counter (paper ticket) refund, what you get back:

Three conditions apply to every online refund. The money comes back only through the same service provider and the same payment method used to book. You must show your original CNIC. And you must show the cancellation message Pakistan Railways sends you: no cancellation SMS, no refund.

When the railway is at fault

• Train cancelled, or more than 6 hours late: no deduction. You have to write an application and have the station master sign it, then send it to the Chief Commercial Manager's office.
• AC fails during the journey: the difference between the AC and Economy fare is refunded, but only if the guard issues you certificate CM-109. Ask for it on the train, not afterwards.

Rules that get passengers fined

• A ticket is not transferable. Travelling on a reservation made in someone else's name is treated as travelling without a proper ticket under Section 113 of the Railways Act.
• A ticket bought from ticket checking staff on board costs more than the same ticket from a booking window or reservation office.
• Pakistan Railways takes no responsibility for lost luggage.

Is the train worth it against driving

For a family of four, the AC Standard fare on a long run is usually well below the fuel cost of the same trip by car, before tolls and the overnight stop. Petrol is Rs 393.75 a litre as of 22 September 2026. Put your car's average and the distance into the fuel cost calculator and compare it against the fare RABTA quotes you, and check the current pump rate on our petrol price page before you decide.

If something goes wrong

Pakistan Railways lists +92-51-9272117 as its contact number, and publishes a complaints resolution time page. For fare tables, the passenger fare notification in force is the one dated 20 April 2025 on the Fares and Rates Table page. Seat availability and live fares are shown only after you log in to RABTA.