The number of tickets that can be issued in total for travel from the originating station, issued by booking offices of the originating station and other nearby stations is known as the General Quota (somewhat unintuitively abbreviated 'GN'). Smaller intermediate stations that do not participate in the networked computerized reservation system issue tickets from specific quotas, known as Remote Location Quotas ('RLQ') and Road Side Quotas ('RS'), and these quotas can themselves have wait lists.
The number of tickets that can be issued in total for travel from the originating station, issued by booking offices of the originating station and other nearby stations is known as the General Quota (somewhat unintuitively abbreviated 'GN'). Smaller intermediate stations that do not participate in...
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the networked computerized reservation system issue tickets from specific quotas, known as Remote Location Quotas ('RLQ') and Road Side Quotas ('RS'), and these quotas can themselves have wait lists.
A Pooled Quota Waiting List ('PQWL') is shared by several small stations in a particular region. E.g., Tiruppur, Salem, etc., share in the quota and wait list for some trains originating from Trivandrum or Mangalore. As another example, the 2723 Andhra Pradesh Exp. has three quotas, for Secunderabad - New Delhi, Secunderabad - nagpur, and Secunderabad - Bhopal. There is also a pooled quota for passengers travelling from Secunderabad to stations beyond Bhopal but short of Jhansi. If this quota is exhausted, a passenger is placed in the pooled quota waiting list. Pooled Quotas normally operate only from the originating station of a route, and there is only one Pooled Quota for the entire run. The Pooled Quota is intended to be utilized by passengers travelling from the originating station to a station short of the terminating station, or from an intermediate station to the terminating station, or between two intermediate stations. Such remote location quotas are also provided when there is a very strong demand for the train in question, because of which, without such additional quotas, all seats or berths might be fully consumed by passengers from the originating station leaving nothing available for those wishing to travel from intermediate points. Vacant Pooled Quota berths are automatically tapped by the PRS for booking end-to-end passengers. Passengers in the Pooled Quota Waiting List are cleared against the vacancies in the earmarked Pooled Quota only, or against General Quota vacancies available at the time of charting.
A Running Line Waiting List ('RLWL'), also known as Remote Location Waiting List or Road-Side Location Waiting List applies to the quotas of specific intermediate ticketing stations on a route, known as the Remote Location Quota. E.g., Solapur has a quota with a corresponding wait list on the Mumbai - Chennai mail). The intermediate stations are usually the more important towns or cities on the route. The RL quota takes care of passengers travelling from these intermediate stations up to or short of the terminating station. RL quota tickets are never available from the originating station of the route. When the RL quota is exhausted, RAC (Reservation against Cancellation) begins, and it is then followed by ticketing on the RL Waiting List; in some cases when the RL Quota is small, the RL Waiting List is active immediately. There can be more than one Remote Location Quota for some long distance trains, corresponding to different stations en route. Passengers in the Remote Location Quota Waiting List are cleared against the vacancies in the earmarked Pooled Quota only, or against General Quota vacancies available at the time of charting.
In some cases if a ticket is to be booked from an intermediate station to another intermediate station, and is not covered by the general quota nor by the remote location quotas or pooled quota, the request for the ticket may go into a Request Waiting List ('RQWL'). A ticket on this list is usually confirmed only when there is a confirmed ticket for a passenger travelling from the originating station to that intermediate station, although in the case of some Rajdhani routes and other long-distance trains specific quotas may be earmarked for use by passengers on the RQWL, for some intermediate stations. Tickets for travel from an intermediate point to the terminating station are also handled in the same way if there is no Remote Location Quota defined for that intermediate point.