While booking a train ticket the first preference is always given to those passengers who looking to book tickets in advance. These are called reserved tickets, where a passenger buys train ticket over 120 days in advance, before his or her journey at a scheduled train. After the reserved ticket booking period is over, than preference is given to passengers in waiting list and later tatkal tickets. As a passenger you must note that, Railways reserve seats berths, compartments, or carriage in accordance with the rules and conditions published in the Coaching Tariff. Any passenger who is seeking to reserve their seats, berth on a train, must book their ticket from railway station or IRCTC website or travel agency in advance. However, while doing this procedure, it is of utmost important that you remember 6 important rules of the regulatory, otherwise you would not be able to make successful booking. 

These six important rules are, as per Indian Railways. 

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1. Any one of the passenger booked on a PNR for undertaking journey in any class will have to produce any one of the 10 prescribed proofs of identity in original) during the journey failing which all the passengers booked on that ticket will be treated as traveling  without ticket and charged accordingly.  

These documents are - Voter Photo identity card, Passport, PAN Card, Driving Licence, Photo identity card, Student Identity Card with photograph, Nationalized Bank Passbok with photograph, Credit cards issued by banks with laminated photograph, Unique Identification Card "Aadhaar" and Photo identity cards having serial number issued by government PSUs.

2. Attested photocopy of ration card with photograph and nationalized bank passbook with photographs shall also be accepted as a prescribed proof of identity only in case of reserved tickets booked through computerized passenger reservation system (PRS) counters, for undertaking journey in sleeper (SL) and second reserved sitting (2S) classes.

3. Only one requisition form is accepted from a person at one time. However, if onward/return journey are involved, 2 or 3 forms can be accepted for the same passengers. 

4. Accommodation will not be reserved without purchase of necessary journey ticket. No reservation of accommodation will be made on provisional basis. 

5. Passengers must quote PNR number which is printed on each tickets on the top left hand side for any enquiry or complaint relating to reservations. 

6. Reservation ticket issued by the computerised system against pre-bought ticket must be accompanied by the journey tickets on train. Similarly journey cum reservation tickets bearing zero amount are not valid for journey unless accompanied by the valid authority to travel authorising issue of such tickets. 

Hence, before booking your train ticket remember the above mentioned pointers as they will be needed during the process.