Waitlisted passengers not authorised to travel in reserved coaches of trains, govt tells Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: As per extant rules, waitlisted passengers are not authorised to travel in reserved coaches of trains, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

“The details of the waitlisted passengers who travelled in unreserved coaches or who were found travelling unauthorisedly in reserved coaches are not maintained,” Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written reply while responding to questions raised by MP Sanjay Singh.

Singh asked the minister to provide details of the total number of passengers in the country over the last three years who had to travel with waitlisted tickets due to unavailability of confirmed tickets and the efforts being made by the railways for the convenience of waitlisted passengers.

“Waiting list position of all the trains running on Indian Railways is monitored on a regular basis. In order to cater to additional demand, Indian Railways also operates special train services during festivals, holidays etc and augments the load of trains to generate additional accommodation for different segments of passengers, including that with sleeper class coaches, both on permanent and temporary basis,” Vaishnaw said.

He added, “Accordingly, during the year 2024, 13,523 trips of special trains were operated to meet the extra rush of passengers during Holi and summer vacation. To cater to the rush during Durga Pooja/Dipawali/Chhath, 7983 trips of special trains have also been notified during the period October 1, 2024 to November 30, 2024 to serve approximately 1.8 crore passengers.” According to the railway minister, during 2023-24, 872 coaches were utilised for augmentation of train services on a permanent basis, while during 2024-25 (till October, 2024), 664 coaches have been utilised for permanent augmentation.

Talking about the introduction of schemes like Alternate Train Accommodation Scheme known as VIKALP and Upgradation, Vaishnaw said that in VIKALP, confirmed accommodation in alternate trains is provided to the eligible passengers who have opted for the same.

“In upgradation scheme, waiting list passengers of lower class are provided confirmed accommodation in the higher class if there is a vacant accommodation in higher class at the time of charting,” the railway minister said.