In this article, an efficient numerical method based on a new class of orthogonal polynomials, namely Chelyshkov polynomials, has been presented to approximate solution of time-fractional telegraph (TFT) equations. The fractional operational matrix of the Chelyshkov polynomials along with the typical collocation method is used to reduces TFT equations to a system of algebraic equations. The error analysis of the proposed collocation method is also investigated. A comparison with other published results confirms that the presented Chelyshkov collocation approach is efficient and accurate for solving TFT equations. Illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the efficiency of the Chelyshkov method.