Railway Abbreviations to keep handy when traveling

A
AC: Air-conditioned

ACC: Air-conditioned coach or class

ACCC: Air-conditioned chair car

ACP: Alarm chain pulling

C
CC: Chair car

Cant., Cantt: Cantonment (in station names)

E
EC or ECC: Executive chair car

ECR: Empty coaching rake

EFC: Eastern freight corridor

EQ: Emergency quota

ESCAP: Economic and social commission for Asia and Pacific

ESM: Electronic signal maintainer

ETA: Estimated time of arrival

Exp.: Express

EY: Empty rake (on train monitoring systems)

F
F: Forward journey (in train number annotations)

FC: First class, also financial commissioner, also freight corridor

FEDL: Fully electrified double line

FOB: Foot overbridge (a pedestrian overpass)

FOIS: Freight operation information system

FRED: Flashing rear end device (a warning lamp at the rear of a train)

FT: Foreign tourist (annotation on reservation charts)

J
JOH: Junction of head - point where the tongue rail approaches the main rail in a switch

Jn.: Junction (in station names)

L
LB: Lower Berth (annotation on ticket for sleeping accommodation)

LC: Level Crossing

LQ: Ladies Quota

M
MB: Middle berth (annotation on ticket for sleeping accommodation)

MCO: Military control office (coordinates ticketing and accommodation for military personnel at some railway stations)

Mxd.: Mixed (in train names)

M/E: Mail/express (on tickets)

M/L: Main line

N
NTES: National train enquiry system (phone-based train/reservation status)

NV: Non-vegetarian (meal or restaurant)

P
PCV: Passenger coaching vehicle

Pass., Pgr.: Passenger (train)

PF: Platform (sometimes P/F)

PH: Parliamentary quota

PNR: Passenger name record (Passenger numeric record)

PQ: Pooled quota

PQWL: Pooled quota waiting list

PRS: Passenger reservation system

PS: Passenger service (in indicating kinds of bookings available at ticket agency)

PWI: Permanent way inspector

R
R: Return journey (in train number annotations)

RA: Running allowance (in calculating drivers' pay)

Raj: Rajdhani Express

Rd.: Road (in station names)

RAC: Reservation against cancellation

RCC: Railway convention committee

R Fee, Res Fee: Reservation fee (annotation on ticket)

RJQ: Return journey quota

RLWL: Running line waiting list

RMS: Railway mail service

ROB: Road over-bridge (i.e., road goes over train tracks)

RPF: Railway pension fund (also see above, organizations)

RR: Railway receipt, refreshment room

RRF: Railway reserve fund

RTR: Ready-to-run (modelling kits)

RTSA: Rail travellers' service agents

S
SCRA: Special class railway apprentice

Sh. CC: Shatabdi chair car

SLB: Side lower berth (annotation on ticket for sleeping accommodation)

SM: Station master

T
TDR: Ticket Deposit Receipt (when surrendering ticket for cancellation / refund)

TQ: Tatkal quota

U
UB: Upper Berth (annotation on ticket for sleeping accommodation)

V
V: Vegetarian (meal or restaurant)

V Ch, Vou Ch: Voucher charges (annotation on ticket)

VG: Vegetarian (meal or restaurant), also Vehicle guidance (the record of identifying numbers for coaches/wagons that make up a train)

VLRR: Vegetarian light refreshment room

W
WL, W/L: Waiting list; Wait-listed (ticket issued without confirmed accommodations)

WM: Works manager

W/T: Without ticket

2T: Two-tier (as in "AC-2T" = airconditioned two-tier coach)

3T: Three-tier more  

View all 13 comments Below 13 comments
Regular travellers are aware of the required information. What is the necessity of carrying a big list of such information is not enumerated in the post, which appears to be an exercise of sharing knowledge! more  
Lots of thanks. On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 10:42 AM Ajay Kumar wrote: > more  
Can any tell what are this Abbreviations 1) IPAS 2) IMMS more  
Mr. Tiru narayanan , I dont have any clue for IWMAT . You will have to unfold . Any way there are more , may not be useful for all ; just accademic interest . more  
Post a Comment

Related Posts

    • Crowed

      Railways can plan but not always, when festivals are there. We plan to go, irrespective of capacity of trains as to reach any how. We blame govt, but never think to go on tomorrow inspite...

      By Satyapal Singh
      /
    • FORECASTING THE KUMBH MELA CROWD AND ENSURING ADEQUATE PREPAREDNESS IS A WELCOME STEP :

      TO PREVENT FURTHER TRAGEDIES. As of April 2024, India's population was estimated at 144.17 crore, with over 63.36 crore devotees reportedly taking the holy dip at the Maha Kumbh. ...

      By Jayakumar Daniel
      /
    • Stop the irritating announcements on vande bharath

      Have been travelling frequently on the vande bharath trains to Tamilnadu from Bangalore. The announcements are just outright irritating, reading the English translations (literally, matra by maatra...

      By Padmanabhan G
      /
    • WHY DO LOWER BERTHS IN SLEEPERS ELUDE GENUINE SEEKERS ?

      A recent query on Twitter highlighted a common frustration: “Despite booking tickets for three senior citizens with a preference for all lower berths, they were assigned a middle berth, an up...

      By Jayakumar Daniel
      /
    • : INTRODUCTION OF A/C SUBURBAN TRAINS IN THE CITY – A WELCOME MOVE :

      The introduction of air-conditioned suburban trains in the city is a most welcome development. * A heartfelt thank you to the engineers at Integral Coach Factory (ICF) for their innovati...

      By Jayakumar Daniel
      /
    • IRCTC ONLINE TICKETING: NEW FEATURES – HELP NEEDED. :

      We’ve recently noticed some new features on the IRCTC ticketing screen that are quite puzzling. One such feature is "Introducing Trip Guarantee", which states: Get 3x the refund amount if you...

      By Jayakumar Daniel
      /
    • IRCTC website at 10 am

      Railway Minister Should Try Using IRCTC Website Once For Booking Tatkal Train Tickets That Website/App Doesn’t Work at 10 AM All Tickets Mostly Gone By The Time You Logi...

      By Vibhor Chhabra
      /
    • TEJAS, VANDE BHARAT EXPRESS: A JOURNEY TO REMEMBER and DEVEOP BETTER :

      After a long time, I had the opportunity to travel with the Indian Railways (IR), having regained good health. Interestingly, I ended up traveling on premium trains—the Vande Bharat and Tejas...

      By Jayakumar Daniel
      /
    • Wait listed tickets

      It will be better to stop issuing wait listed tickets. Only confirmed and RAC tickets. Passengers take wating list ticket and sit in reserved coaches forcefully in groups. RAC should...

      By Satyapal Singh
      /
    • Prioritise Wait List Passengers For Confirmed Tatkal Tickets

      Indian Railways should give first right of refusal to Wait List Passengers to Convert WL Tkts To Confirmed Tatakal Tkts. This can be done by sending an SMS and Email asking for confirmation and pay...

      By Santosh Ramanand
      /
    • Utility

      Recently I traveled Tirupati to Mayiladuthurai; then Chennai; then to Hyderabad. I have Railway utility Brought up Excellent. Food supplier through train quality become good; Outside supplier also ...

      By Kv Venkata Chalam
      /
Share
Enter your email and mobile number and we will send you the instructions

Note - The email can sometime gets delivered to the spam folder, so the instruction will be send to your mobile as well

All My Circles
Invite to
(Maximum 500 email ids allowed.)