Last updated: 2026-05-03
Every PNR on Indian Railways carries a short status code — CNF, RAC, GNWL, PQWL, and a dozen others — that tells you exactly where your booking stands. This glossary explains each code in plain English. Use the table below to jump straight to the one you need, or read through for the full picture.
| Code | Meaning | Can you board? |
|---|---|---|
| CNF | Confirmed | Yes |
| RAC | Reservation Against Cancellation | Yes (half berth) |
| RAC1, RAC2 | RAC ranking numbers | Yes (half berth) |
| WL | Waitlist | No (after chart) |
| GNWL | General Waiting List | No (after chart) |
| RLWL | Remote Location Waiting List | No (after chart) |
| PQWL | Pooled Quota Waiting List | No (after chart) |
| RSWL | Roadside Station Waiting List | No (after chart) |
| TQWL | Tatkal Waiting List | No (after chart) |
| NOSB | No Seat/Berth | Yes (no berth) |
| REGRET | Waitlist full, booking closed | — |
| CAN | Cancelled | No |
| CKWL | Tatkal Confirmed/Waitlist (legacy) | Depends on number |
| RLGN | Reservation Loss / Auto-cancelled | No |
CNF means your ticket is fully confirmed and a specific berth has been assigned to you. You will see your coach number (for example, S4 or B2) and berth number printed on your ticket or on the IRCTC booking page. There is nothing more you need to do — board the train, find your coach, and settle in.
RAC stands for Reservation Against Cancellation. It is a special status unique to Indian Railways where you hold a guaranteed boarding pass but share a side-lower berth with one other RAC passenger — each of you gets half the berth to sit on. If a confirmed passenger cancels before chart preparation, the first RAC ticket in the queue upgrades to a full berth.
See also: RAC deep dive →
The number after RAC shows your position in the RAC queue — RAC1 is first, RAC2 is second, and so on. Both RAC1 and RAC2 allow boarding, but RAC1 has better odds of upgrading to a full berth because confirmations happen in queue order. If there are many RAC passengers, the lower your number the more likely you are to get a full berth before the train departs.
WL means your ticket is on the waitlist. You have paid for the ticket, but a seat has not yet been assigned because the quota for your class was full at the time of booking. If confirmed passengers cancel before chart preparation, waitlisted tickets move up and can eventually reach RAC or CNF status. However, if your ticket is still showing WL after the chart is prepared — usually four hours before departure — you cannot board the train and are entitled to a full refund.
See also: GNWL/PQWL/RLWL explained →, Chart preparation timeline →
GNWL is the most common type of waitlist. It applies to passengers who board at the originating station of the train — for example, booking a seat on the Rajdhani Express from New Delhi, where the train starts its journey. Because the full quota of the originating station is used to clear this list, GNWL typically moves the fastest among all waitlist types. If you are on GNWL with a reasonably low number, there is a good chance your ticket will confirm before departure.
RLWL applies to passengers boarding from important intermediate stations along the route — stations that are large enough to have their own dedicated quota but are not the origin of the train. For example, a passenger boarding the Mumbai–Howrah Mail at Nagpur might receive an RLWL ticket. RLWL moves faster than PQWL but slower than GNWL, because the quota size for an intermediate station is smaller than the originating station's quota. Checking your RLWL number a few days before the journey gives you a good idea of whether it is likely to confirm.
PQWL applies to smaller intermediate stations that do not have their own dedicated quota and instead share a common pool of berths with several other similar stations. Because many stations draw from the same limited pool, PQWL is the slowest type of waitlist to clear and has the lowest chances of confirming. If your ticket shows PQWL with a number higher than about five or six, confirmation becomes unlikely unless there is a wave of cancellations closer to the journey date.
RSWL is assigned to passengers boarding from small roadside or short-distance stations — stops that the train makes briefly between larger junctions. These stations receive a very limited allocation of seats, so the RSWL pool is small. Movement on RSWL is unpredictable and generally slow. If you have an RSWL ticket, keep checking your PNR status regularly as the journey date approaches.
TQWL appears when you book a ticket under the Tatkal quota but that quota is already full, leaving you on a waitlist within the Tatkal scheme. The important thing to know is that TQWL does not automatically promote to RAC or CNF the way GNWL does — the Tatkal quota is separate from the general quota, so movement depends entirely on other Tatkal passengers cancelling. Tatkal cancellations are rare because the fare is non-refundable in most cases, meaning TQWL tickets rarely confirm.
See also: Tatkal TQWL explained →
NOSB stands for No Seat/Berth and is most commonly seen for children below the age of five who were added to the booking without reserving a separate berth. The ticket is valid for travel — the child can board and travel — but no specific berth is assigned. In practice, the child travels on the parent's berth. Occasionally NOSB also appears for certain free-travel passes or concessional categories.
REGRET means the waitlist for that class and quota has reached its maximum capacity and IRCTC will not accept any more bookings in that category. You would see this status on the booking screen when trying to reserve a ticket, not on an existing PNR — it tells you the booking was rejected before it could be made. If you need to travel on that date, try a different class, a different quota, or a different train.
CAN means the ticket has been cancelled, either by the passenger through the IRCTC website or app, or at a railway ticket counter. A cancelled ticket is no longer valid for travel. If the cancellation was processed before chart preparation, the refund follows IRCTC's standard cancellation charges based on how far in advance the cancellation was made. After chart preparation, refund rules differ and you may need to file a TDR (Ticket Deposit Receipt).
CKWL is an older code that was used in early versions of the IRCTC booking system for Tatkal quota bookings, essentially serving the same purpose as the current TQWL code. You may still encounter it on older printed tickets or in booking records from a few years ago. If you see CKWL followed by a number, treat it the same way you would TQWL — the number represents your position in the Tatkal waitlist queue.
RLGN indicates that a ticket which was on the waitlist was not confirmed by the time the chart was prepared and has therefore been automatically cancelled by the system. This is the final state of a waitlisted ticket that never moved up to RAC or CNF. An RLGN ticket is not valid for travel, and a full refund is automatically issued by IRCTC — you do not need to file a cancellation request manually.
Suppose your PNR shows GNWL 12. That means your seat is 12th on the General Waiting List for the originating station of your train. If you booked a Rajdhani Express two weeks before the journey date, GNWL 12 has a reasonable chance of confirming because the general quota is large and cancellations tend to flow in steadily over the following days. The most movement happens in the 48 hours before chart preparation — that is when passengers who booked speculatively or made other plans begin to cancel. Use the homepage to recheck your PNR as the journey date approaches. Once the chart is prepared, the status on your PNR becomes final and will not change further.
Confused by your specific PNR? Check it on the homepage — we will show the live status with these codes decoded for you.