If you’re a frequent traveller by Indian Railways and fed up with the poor quality food and unhealthy snacking options available both on stations and while aboard then this article will change your lack of enthusiasm into excitement for rail travel. What if I tell you that you can get unlimited food, comfortable seating in a relaxed environment, and premium Wi-Fi for free at railway stations? Excited?! Well, That’s what you get in a Railway Lounge.

IRCTC has launched several executive lounges on select railway stations and is expanding the service rapidly into smaller cities. And to access these lounges complimentary you need the right set of cards in your wallet. 

Facilities offered under Complimentary Railway Lounge Access

Following are the facilities mentioned on the IRCTC website which must be given for complimentary access. Generally, these lounges have been outsourced to private catering companies or hotels and the quality of facilities may vary.

•  Two hours of lounge stay in normal seating
•  Breakfast/Lunch or Dinner as per the time of visit and as per the offering by the lounge operator at that particular time of visit
•  Unlimited tea & coffee with cookies
•  Free Wi-Fi
•  Newspaper & magazine

Any additional service such as recliners or more shall be chargeable separately as per the operator price for that service.

List of Lounges at Railway Stations

The list is dynamically changing and will be updated from time to time. Also, keep in mind that lounges that have recently opened may not offer complimentary access due to tie-up issues as faced recently in October 2021 by one of our readers at the Executive Lounge at New Delhi Railway Station located at Platform No 1 and the lounge located at Sealdah Railway Station. I hope IRCTC will resolve this issue soon. Till then we urge our readers to escalate this issue with IRCTC through various channels.

How to Avail Complimentary Railway Lounge Access

• Cardholders are to present their valid/active credit card and valid train travel ticket at the entrance of the participating lounge to avail of the benefit
• A transaction of ₹2 would be done by the lounge operator as a non-refundable card validation charge
• Cardholders would be given access to the Railway Lounge. 
• Any guests without an eligible card would be charged as per the prevailing lounge access rate.

The cardholder is entitled to a visit before the journey that is at the onboarding station only. Though it is mentioned on the IRCTC website that a valid ticket is necessary but general feedback on this has been that they are hardly checking the train tickets to maybe increase the footfall and thus revenue of the operator. So you can try accessing the lounge at the station at which you are de-boarding.

Eligible Cards

Let’s have a look at all the cards which currently offer Railway Lounge access in India. Currently, no debit card in India is giving complimentary access to railway lounges. So only credit cards make up the list. Further, the list is very comprehensive and also provides an idea about the fees of the card.

1. ICICI Bank Coral*

Variant: VISA/MasterCard
Limits: One complimentary access per quarter
Joining Fee: ₹500 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹500 + GST (Waived off on annual spends of 1.5L)
*Co-branded ICICI Coral credit cards are excluded.

2. ICICI Bank MakeMyTrip Platinum

Variant: Visa Platinum
Limits: One complimentary access per quarter
Joining Fee: ₹500 + GST
Annual Fee: NIL

3. ICICI Bank MakeMyTrip Signature

Full Review
Variant: Visa Signature
Limits: One complimentary access per quarter
Joining Fee: ₹2500 + GST
Annual Fee: NIL

4. ICICI Bank Rubyx

Variant: VISA/MasterCard
Limits: Two Visits/ Quarter
Joining Fee: ₹3000 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹2000 + GST (Waived off on annual spends of 3 Lacs)

5. SBI IRCTC Premier

Variant: VISA Signature
Limits: 8 Visits/Year (Maximum 2 Visits/Quarter)
Joining Fee: ₹1500 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹1500 + GST (Waived off on annual spends of 2 Lacs)

6. SBI IRCTC Rupay

Variant: Rupay Platinum
Limits: 4 Visits/Year (Maximum 1 Visits/Quarter)
Joining Fee: ₹500 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹300 + GST

7. IDFC First Bank Credit Cards

Credit Cards Names – IDFC First Bank Millennia/ Classic/ Select/ Wealth
Variant: Visa
Limits: 4 Visits/Quarter
Joining Fee: NIL
Annual Fee: NIL

8. AU Bank Zenith

Variant: Visa Infinite
Limits: 2 Visits/Quarter
Joining Fee: ₹7999 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹7999 + GST (Waived off on annual spends of 5 Lacs)

9. AU Bank Vetta

Variant: Visa Signature
Limits: 2 Visits/Quarter
Joining Fee: ₹3000 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹3000 + GST (Waived off on annual spends of 1.5 Lacs)

10. AU Bank Altura Plus

Variant: Visa Platinum
Limits: 2 Visits/Quarter
Joining Fee: ₹499 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹499 + GST (Waived off on annual spends of 80K)

11. AU Bank Altura

Variant: Visa Platinum
Limits: 2 Visits/Quarter
Joining Fee: ₹199 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹199 + GST (Waived off on annual spends of 40K)

*Add-on cardholders can also avail complimentary access to all AU Bank Credit cards within the quota of primary cardholders whereas the same is not allowed and categorically mentioned on the websites of ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank and SBI Cards. So a new entrant like AU Bank is taking an edge for giving the complimentary access but we would not recommend their cards seeing its poor reward rate across the line-up and unjustified annual fees for their Zenith Variant. AU Bank is offering its whole card lineup LTF to employees of select corporates also.

12. Bank Of Baroda IRCTC

Variant: Rupay
Limits: 1 Visit/Quarter
Joining Fee: ₹500 + GST
Annual Fee: ₹350+ GST

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We understand the list is quite exhaustive and certainly, your go-to card for all the spending could be missing from this list. So, First of all, before taking the leap for the card you need to evaluate yourself “How many times I am going to use Indian Railways for my travel needs”? “Will my destination or origin be the same as mentioned in the list”? 

So if you are going to travel around even twice a quarter and your route matches the above list then having one or a couple of eligible cards makes a lot of sense and entitles you to a new experience every time you travel. If you want to have a card specifically for this purpose then TechnoFino recommends going for LTF IDFC Credit Cards or the ICICI Bank MakeMyTrip Signature it’s also LTF and sorts out the scene of accessing the Railway Lounges without shifting your spending from your most rewarding cards to waive off the annual fees.

For frequent rail travellers that too who prefer to travel by A/C only we recommend the SBI Premier IRCTC Credit Card to them. Consider it only if you are doing at least a couple of round trips every month.

What has been your experience regarding Railway Lounges? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Bhavye Goel

Chief Editor, TechnoFino.
Personal finance nerd! Physics enthusiast and trainer. When not into Physics, he is minting points and hunting for the next best credit card for himself.