Indian Railways Break journey rules: What you must know when boarding from different station

For extending seamless services to passengers, Indian Railways has provisioned Break of journey facility, which is permitted en-route station only on single journey ticket covering more than 500 Kms. According to details given on Indian Railways' official website--indianrailways.gov.in, the first break of the journey shall not, however, be admissible until a distance of 500 km has been travelled from the starting station. Accordingly, only one break-journey is permitted on tickets up to 1,000 Kms and maximum of two break-journeys will be allowed on tickets of longer distances. 

Further, it informs that "the period of break-journey that can be availed at a station will be upto a maximum of 2 days only excluding the day of arrival and the day of departure of the train. For all return tickets, each half of the tickets is treated as a single journey ticket." Notably, break of journey is not permissible on the tickets of certain trains like Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, etc. which have separate all-inclusive fare structure on a point-to-point basis, and therefore, refund on such partially used tickets is also not admissible, according to Railways. Here are break journey rules, according Indian Railways, that you need to know:

1. If a passenger with single journey ticket for 800 kms wants to break his journey at 423 kms, it is not permissible.

2. If a passenger with single journey ticket for 600 kms wants to  break his journey at 501 kms, he/she will be permitted for 2 days maximum.

3. If a passenger with single journey ticket for 1050 kms wants to break his journey at 400 kms and 801 kms, he/she will be permitted only one break journey at 801 kms for 2 days maximum.

4. If a passenger with single journey ticket for 2000 kms wants to break journey at 800 kms, 905 kms and 1505 kms, he/she will be permitted two break journeys as per his/her choice at the rate of two days maximum at each point of break of journey.

Further, the website has also informed about other norms related to the break journey. 

1. Whenever a through passenger detrains at a station en-route for catching a connecting train, it should not be treated as break journey provided such halt is for less than 24 hours. For example, the holder of a direct ticket from Pune to Jammu Tawi via Dadar travels from Pune to Bombay by any day train a day earlier in order to catch Bombay-Jammu Tawi Express next morning leaving Bombay at 6.25 hours shall not be treated as break journey.

2. Indian Railway passengers are required to have their tickets endorsed at the station where journey has been broken. The endorsement shall consist of the station code, station Master's initials and the date. Notably, passengers breaking journey and not obtaining the endorsement as prescribed will be treated as persons travelling without a proper ticket and dealt with accordingly.

3. Passengers breaking the journey en route except as stated above must surrender their tickets at the station where journey is broken and obtain Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR). Thereafter, they should act in accordance with the instructions on TDR for claiming refund for the untravelled portion on such tickets. 

4. The Indian Railways website further adds that break journey shall not be permitted short of the station upto which reservation has been done. If a passenger seeking reservation on ticket wants to break journey enroute, it should be clearly indicated on the requisition form the names of the stations where the break journey is required.

Indian Railways passengers should remember these norms if they want to avail the break journey facility while travelling.