The government informed the Rajya Sabha last Friday that as per the existing rules, waitlisted passengers are not authorized to travel in reserved coaches of trains. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav replied in a written reply to a question raised by Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh.
Sanjay Singh had asked the minister to provide details of the total number of passengers in the country in the last three years who had to travel on waitlisted tickets due to non-availability of ‘confirmed’ tickets. Singh also sought information about the efforts being made by the Railways to facilitate waitlisted passengers.
There is no details of passengers traveling unauthorizedly
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said, ‘The details of waiting list passengers traveling in unreserved coaches or passengers found traveling unauthorizedly in reserved coaches are not maintained. The waiting list status of all trains operated under Indian Railways is monitored on a regular basis. To meet the additional demand, Indian Railways also operates special trains during festivals, holidays etc. and provides additional seats both at permanent and temporary level in trains for various classes of passengers including sleeper coaches.’
13523 rounds are taken for Holi and summer holidays, 7983 rounds are taken for Diwali and Chhath
The Railway Minister said, ‘Accordingly, special trains made 13,523 trips to transport the additional rush of passengers to their destinations during Holi and summer holidays in the year 2024. In view of the additional demand during Durga Puja / Diwali / Chhath, 7983 trips of special trains were notified during the period from October 1, 2024 to November 30, 2024 to transport about 1.8 crore passengers to their destinations.’
According to the Railway Minister, during 2023-24, 872 coaches were used for increasing train services on a permanent basis, while during 2024-25 (till October, 2024), 664 coaches have been used for capacity enhancement on a permanent basis.
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