Waiting List (WL / GNWL)
WL is the general waiting list. You have a ticket but no berth yet, and you move up as other passengers on the same train cancel.
How often WL actually confirms
Measured on 1,36,104 WL tickets RailTC tracked from the first check through to their final status — not an estimate.
That headline hides most of the story — where you sit in the list matters far more than the quota does:
| Your position | Confirmed | Tickets tracked |
|---|---|---|
| WL 1-10 | 33.4% | 36,305 |
| WL 11-25 | 24.4% | 38,956 |
| WL 26-50 | 18.9% | 33,292 |
| WL 51+ | 16.2% | 27,551 |
Tickets we checked once and never followed are excluded, and any band with fewer than 150 tracked tickets is left out rather than shown as a percentage. Past rates describe what happened; they are not a promise about your ticket.
How WL works
- A general waitlist draws on cancellations from the whole train, which is why it is the deepest pool of the lot and why WL numbers run higher than other quotas.
- You move up one place each time someone ahead of you cancels. Most of that movement happens in the last 48 hours before departure, when people firm up their plans.
- If it has not cleared by chart preparation — roughly four hours before the train starts from its origin — it either becomes RAC or stays waitlisted, and a waitlisted e-ticket is cancelled automatically with an automatic refund.
What to do about it
Watch it rather than cancel early. If you are still deep in the list 24 hours out, hold a refundable backup instead of hoping.
Check your own PNROther statuses on a train ticket
More on RailTC
Everything else worth checking while your ticket is still moving.