Railway Vacancy 2026: What's Open Now and What Closed

Railway Vacancy 2026: What's Open Now and What Closed

Three Railway Vacancy 2026 forms are open today, 3 November, and the first one closes in three days. NTPC Graduate (CEN 06/2026) shuts on 6 November, NTPC Undergraduate (CEN 07/2026) on 13 November, and Station Master (CEN 08/2026) on 25 November. Every other notice from this year's Railway Recruitment Board cycle has already closed.

If you're a graduate under 33 and haven't applied yet, finish the NTPC form first and read the rest afterwards.

 Railway Vacancy 2026 NTPC Graduate, with 72 hours left

The boards raised the Graduate count from 3,477 to 3,548 posts. Applications opened on 8 October and close at 11:59 pm on 6 November. You can pay the fee until 8 November, and the correction window runs from 9 to 18 November. The age limit is 18 to 33 as on 1 January 2027.

General candidates pay ₹500 and get ₹400 back after the first CBT. SC, ST, PwBD, ex-servicemen, women, transgender, minority and EBC candidates pay ₹250. One coaching site pencils the first CBT into the fourth week of December, but the boards haven't confirmed a date.

The Undergraduate notice covers 1,688 posts at pay levels 2 and 3. Its window runs from 15 October to 13 November, with fees accepted until 15 November and corrections from 16 to 25 November.

Why Station Master deserves a second look

Station Master used to sit inside the NTPC cycle. This year the boards split it into its own notice, and the vacancy table lists 1,265 posts against 615 last year. The summary page prints 1,215, so trust the RRB-wise annexure over the headline.

Pay is Level 6, starting at ₹35,400. Any graduate aged 20 to 33 on 1 January 2027 can apply until 25 November, and the fee window stays open until 27 November. That minimum age of 20 matters: an 18 or 19 year old can sit NTPC but not this one.

Selection is one CBT, then an aptitude test (CBAT) for candidates shortlisted at eight times the vacancies, then document checks and a medical. The medical standard is A-2, and LASIK is not allowed.

If you qualify for both, I'd aim at Station Master. It pays more than the undergraduate NTPC posts and has twice the seats it had last year.

One more notice is about to open. The boards have flagged about 195 posts under CEN 09/2026 (Ministerial and Isolated Categories), with applications tentatively running from 5 November to 4 December. The indicative notice didn't name the posts yet.

Every 2026 notice in one table

Add the Group D notice to the rest and you get roughly 51,000 posts. That's my own sum, and the counts keep moving. The boards lifted Technician from 6,557 to 7,325 on 16 October, and JE went from 3,993 to 4,029.

What the closed notices tell you about next year

The order this year is worth noting. ALP opened on 15 May, Technician on 30 June, JE on 14 August, NTPC on 8 October and Station Master on 27 October. If the boards keep that rhythm, anyone who starts looking in late October has already missed ALP, Technician and JE.

ALP is the entry point for ITI and diploma holders: Level 2 pay of ₹19,900, age 18 to 30, and a five-stage process that runs CBT 1, CBT 2, an aptitude test, document verification and a medical. Technician Grade I Signal and Grade III split the age limits, with 18 to 33 for Grade I and 18 to 30 for Grade III, counted from 1 July 2026. JE covers 36 engineering categories plus Depot Material Superintendent across 21 RRBs, at Level 6 pay of ₹35,400.

None of that helps you apply this year. It does show how much ground a trade or diploma route covers before the NTPC season even starts, so check the age and qualification cut-offs early.

A big vacancy number is not your odds

The ALP notice offered 11,127 posts. One coaching portal reports 8,40,944 applications, which works out to about 75 candidates for every seat.

The railway vacancy 2026 total looks healthy until you split it by exam, and Group D tells a different story on paper. Its 22,195 posts are the lowest in eight years, against 32,438 in 2024 and 1,03,769 in 2019. Yet shrinking isn't the whole picture: Station Master roughly doubled and Technician grew by about 12 percent after revision.

So the better question for any railway vacancy in 2026 is which RRB you pick. Each application is tied to one RRB, and you can't change it later. Vacancies differ a lot between boards, so read the RRB-wise table in Annexure B of the CEN before you choose.

Check ages against the detailed notice too. Early previews of the Station Master notice listed 18 to 30, and the final one says 20 to 33.

Quick answers about Railway Vacancy 2026

Can I still apply for ALP or JE? Both windows have shut: ALP closed on 14 June and JE on 13 September, and Technician closed on 29 July.

Is a new Group D notice out? I found none. The 22,195 post notice came out on 30 January.

What does a correction cost? NTPC charges ₹250 each time.

This week's order of work

Open rrbapply.gov.in tonight and submit the NTPC Graduate form before 6 November. If you're 20 or older, add Station Master and finish it well before 25 November. Use the 9 to 18 November window to fix a wrong photo or category, and put 4 December in your calendar for the ministerial posts.