Saturday, May 18

Ticketless Passengers Crowd AC Compartment; Frustrated Passenger Posts On Social Media: “This Is the Situation”

Edited by Fazal Rahman Chembulangad
2, 94,115 Vacancies Filled In Last Five Years: Railways MinistryTicketless Passengers Crowd AC Compartment; Frustrated Passenger Posts On Social Media: “This Is the Situation”

Travelling by train in India has been becoming messy nowadays, as one can’t differentiate between the second class, sleeper class and AC coaches. Earlier, ticketless passengers were travelling only in the second-class compartment, making the coach overcrowded and creating cramping. However, due to the suffocating situation in the second class, many travelers with the second-class ticker or without ticker at all started to move to sleeper class, standing in the corridors and extra space of the compartment, causing disruptions to the journey of the long-distance travelers in the sleeper class, who also paid higher to ensure a seamless travel.

This time, the issue reached the premium compartment when a frustrated passenger in the AC1st tier posted a video on social media, which showed allegedly ticketless passengers standing shoulder to shoulder and filling the corridor space, creating hindrance and unease for those who paid higher and secured their space to experience privacy and comfortability in their journey.

Sharing the video on X, Swati Raj, a passenger of the Mahananda Express wrote: “This is the current situation of AC 1st tier in Mahananda 15483. I request management to check this immediately as we are not feeling safe when we are paying extra for it.”

The passenger highlighted the safety concern she experienced in the crowded AC 1st class coach, despite paying significantly higher and asked the management to check the situation “immediately.”

The assured space and comfort by the railway authorities, which are also advertised by the same were not available in train, and many on X (earlier Twitter) pointed out overcrowding in the sleeper class and AC coaches, exceeding the designated limit by Indian Railway has now become common.

Many users have reported the video saying that they too have encountered similar situations. Animesh K, an X user commented: “This is absolutely pathetic by the Railway Ministry of India to let the services slide so much that unreserved passengers are invading 1A coaches. Maybe you guys want to do a “Then and Now” about this. It was never this bad in the previous govt.”

Another user, gzswami lamented that this is absolutely pathetic. “AC1st tickets are close to airfare…and this is the service we get.”

However, the indifference of the railway officials to deal with such cases by strictly enforcing railway law has led to such situations.