Last Updated: January 13, 2023, 09:17 IST
The railway authorities are thinking of transforming all those sleeper coaches into regular coaches. (Representative image: Shutterstock)
Railway Board has requested all the divisions of Indian Railways to gather information on the trains whose sleeper class coaches are remaining occupied below 80 percent of the total berths.
INDIAN RAILWAYS UPDATE: Have you ever thought that you can travel in sleeper coaches in long distance trains with general class tickets without any penalty? This may become a reality soon as Indian Railways is likely to announce a new initiative regarding this. Due to winters, passengers are opting for AC coaches instead of sleeper coaches. This has led to a higher demand for AC coaches berths in sleeper coaches are remaining vacant. At the same time, ticket bookings in general class have increased.
In this scenario the Railway Board has decided to utilise vacant sleeper coaches for general ticket holders.
The Railway Board has requested all the divisions of Indian Railways to gather information on the trains whose sleeper class coaches are remaining occupied below 80 percent of the total berths.
To make travelling easier for passengers, the railway authorities are thinking of transforming all those sleeper coaches into regular coaches. Middle berths won’t be permitted to open in these coaches after they have been transformed to general coaches, even though unreserved seats will now be marked outside such coaches.
This is not the first time when Indian Railways has taken such initiative, earlier during the pandemic the unreserved passenger services in the general coaches of Mail and Express trains were reinstated by the East Central Railway. The East Central Railway made this choice to better serve passengers, particularly those from economically disadvantaged areas.
Now, passengers who want to travel in the general coaches will be able to board the train even without a reservation in sleeper coaches. They can occupy the seats in those coaches where there are vacant berths available for general class passengers. The passengers boarding such designated sleeper coaches won’t be paying any penalty or extra amount. Thousands of regular passengers who ride in regular coaches will benefit from this decision.
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