The Bangladesh Railway (BR) will start selling tickets for all intercity trains online five days before schedule instead of the current 10 days.
The new provision will take effect from April 05.
Welcoming the move, many passengers said this would help cut black marketing as they never get tickets online and at counters days before a scheduled trip.
According to a circular on Tuesday, tickets will be available five days before schedule and a full refund be made for returning a ticket 48 hours before a trip.
The BR now makes tickets available 10 days before schedule and accepts return tickets with full payment 120 hours before a journey.
The circular said Tk 40 would be deducted from refunded fares for air-conditioned coaches, Tk 30 for first class and Tk 25 for other classes as service charge.
Seventy-five per cent of fare will be paid in case of returning a ticket before 24 hours and 50 per cent for less than 24 hours but more than 12 hours before the trip.
Again, 25 per cent of fare will be refunded in case of returning a ticket less than 12 hours but more than six hours ahead of the journey.
But no refund will be made if tickets are returned six hours or less before the journey, the circular added.
The current BR service charge against a full refund payable 120 hours before schedule is Tk 25, Tk 20 and Tk 15 for a/c, first class and other classes respectively.
