Over 2.7 crore passengers could not travel by train in 2022-23 despite having bought tickets due to waiting list, according to a response to an RTI query, indicating a shortage of trains on busy routes in the country. This number was 1.65 crore during the last financial year. The Railway Board said that there were a total of 1.76 crore Passenger Name Record (PNR) numbers against which 2.72 crore passengers were to come in 2022-2023, according to a reply to an RTI petition filed by Madhya Pradesh activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur. The trip was automatically canceled due to waiting list.
In 2021-2022, a total of 1.06 crore PNR numbers, out of which 1.65 crore passengers were to travel, were automatically cancelled. In case of cancellation of PNR, the ticket fare is refunded to the passengers. Inability to provide confirmed tickets to passengers has been a recurring problem with the national transporter.
The number of PNRs canceled in 2014-15 was 1.13 crore and in 2015-2016 it was 81.05 lakh. According to official figures, it was 72.13 lakh in 2016-2017, 73 lakh in 2017-18 and 68.97 lakh in 2018-2019. In the year 2020-21, the total number of automatically canceled PNRs due to remaining waiting list was 38.89 lakh and 61 lakh passengers were booked on these PNRs.
Railways has said that it is making efforts to increase capacity to make trains available on demand. “This will reduce the chances of passengers getting added to the waiting list,” said an official. Officials also informed that before the COVID pandemic, the Railways had run 10,186 trains, which has gone up to 10,678 at present.
“Signaling and track work is going on in the entire network. This is also being done so that more trains can be pressed into service,” the official said.