Railway Knowledge: Why do railway issue GNWL, RLWL, and PQWL waiting lists, when will the ticket be confirmed?

It is finding difficult to travel on the occasion of Holi on most of the trains going to Bihar-UP. Confirmed tickets are not available on these trains. In some trains, the waiting list is more than 250. In such a situation, it becomes necessary to know what is this waiting list and what are its types. Waiting for a ticket has more chances of getting confirmed. Most of us do not pay attention to this small thing while booking tickets. In such a situation, the waiting list for the ticket of your co-passenger may be more and his ticket gets confirmed, but the waiting list for your ticket is less and your ticket is not confirmed. To understand the same thing, today we tell about different types of waiting for tickets so that you can guess correctly while booking waiting tickets whether your ticket will be confirmed or not.

Indian Railways issues several types of waiting tickets between the origin station of a train to its destination station. It includes various types of waiting tickets like GNWL, RLWL, PQWL, RLGN, and RSWL. The meaning of all these waiting tickets is different and the chances of their getting confirmed are also determined by this.

What is the general waiting i.e. GNWL ticket?
GNWL stands for General Waiting List. This waiting ticket is issued at the time when you are starting the journey from the origin station of the train. For example, if a train starts from Howrah and comes to Delhi, then you will get a general waiting list after taking a ticket from Howrah. If you take a ticket from Patna on the same train then you will not get general waiting. This is the most common waiting list and the chances of getting confirmed in this waiting list are maximum. Because from where the train starts, more berths are available in it and the chances of getting the ticket confirmed are also higher. So whenever you take a ticket in this way, be sure to keep in mind whether you should take a general waiting ticket or any other.

What is RLWL?
RLWL stands for Remote Location Waiting List. This waiting list is issued from the stations between the start and destination station of the train. For example, if a person takes a ticket from Patna on the Howrah to Delhi train, he will get an RLWL waiting for a ticket. These stations are important cities falling in the entire route of the train. The chances of getting confirmed on such a waiting list are less as compared to GNWL as there is no quota for it. Rather, it is confirmed when confirmed tickets are canceled between the said stations.

Meaning of PQWL
PQWL stands for Pooled Quota Waiting List. This ticket is available for taking waiting tickets from small stations in the middle of the train route. For example, if you take a ticket from Vidisha to Bhusaval on the Gondwana Express train running from Delhi to Bhusaval, you may get a PQWL waiting list there. That is, PQWL is available only to those passengers who travel between any of the stations between the starting and final destination stations of the train. The chances of getting confirmed even for this waiting ticket are very less.

When is TQWL issued
TQWL stands for Tatkal Quota Waiting List. When you book a Tatkal ticket and you do not get a confirmed ticket, then the Railways issue this type of waiting for a ticket. The chances of it getting confirmed are very less. Because there is no quota with the Railways for this. This TQWL waitlisted ticket is confirmed instead of canceling the confirmed Tatkal ticket only.

Railway mainly issues these four types of waiting tickets. Apart from this, RLGN, RSWL, and RQWL waiting tickets are also issued. But such tickets are rare and do not mean much.