The incidents involving overcrowding of coaches in Indian Railways are increasing day by day. It often surfaces when any distressed passenger shares images of the poor condition on social media platforms. To curb the issue, Indian Railways has set a 4-5 year timeline with the goal of achieving its “zero waiting list” vision with 3,000 additional trains.
But the ticketless passengers of the Jodhpur-Mumbai Suryanagari Express achieved this goal faster. The poor condition of the superfast train with aisle sleepers in a reservation coach garnered attention on social media.
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A passenger Jeet Sangam documented his terrible experience on the superfast train where he had to walk over people on the aisle
The distressed passenger Jeet boarded the Superfast train from Ahmedabad late at night at around 3:50 am on Wednesday. He was shocked to see several ticketless passengers sleeping in the aisle making it impossible to navigate the reserved sleeper coaches.
He had to walk over those people to move from one crowded train car to another. He recorded the condition where people can be seen sleeping on the floor. The clip shows the entire coach filled with people sleeping from the aisle through the gangway.
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Sangam shared it on the social media platform, X. He wrote,
train 12479 Suryanagri express in every coach departed from ahmedabad today at 3:50 AM….specially in vacation time peoples are forced to travel like this with family
He tagged @RailMinIndia @RailwaySeva @WesternRly @Central_Railway @RailwayNorthern @NWRailways @PMOIndia in his post.
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train 12479 Suryanagri express in every coach departed from ahmedabad today at 3:50 AM….specially in vacation time peoples are forced to travel like this with family @RailMinIndia @RailwaySeva @WesternRly @Central_Railway @RailwayNorthern @NWRailways @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/vQmo0mW55a
— Jeet (@jeetsangam) May 21, 2024
Mumbai Matters, a civic issue-focussed community on X, reshared Sangam’s video
They reshared it saying,
Indian Railways moving rapidly towards “ZERO WAITING LIST” for passengers.
#IndianRailways moving rapidly towards “ZERO WAITING LIST” for passengers.
Scene inside the “RESERVED” coach of 12479 Suryanagri “Super Fast” Express which departed from Ahmedabad today at 3:50 am.pic.twitter.com/Oo7qNjRc2a
— मुंबई Matters™ (@mumbaimatterz) May 22, 2024
Western Railway (WR) responded to the viral clip
They replied that many passengers traveling without reservation were detrained later en route to Mumbai. A Railways spokesperson wrote,
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“After this came to our notice, waitlisted passengers were removed from the reserved coach of 12479 Jodhpur – Mumbai Suryanagri Exp with the help of RPF staff at Vadodara, Surat & Vapi stations.
Summer Special trains are being run by Indian Railways for the convenience of passengers and to clear the heavy rush during this Summer season.
Besides this, regular checks are being conducted by the WR Staff to decongest the trains on daily basis.
Passengers are requested to avail the facilities of these summer special trains for planning their journeys.”
After this came to our notice, waitlisted passengers were removed from the reserved coach of 12479 Jodhpur – Mumbai Suryanagri Exp with the help of RPF staff at Vadodara, Surat & Vapi stations.
Summer Special trains are being run by Indian Railways for the convenience of…
— Western Railway (@WesternRly) May 22, 2024
However, the measures undertaken were not comforting to the distressed passengers who have experienced such a plight.
Here is how netizens reacted to the unpleasant video:
Scary!
— SATYA (@ssatyatweets) May 23, 2024
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Trains should be only available to income tax paying families. It is being misused by non tax payers.
FYI, this looks like exam, huge mobility issue everytime
— Sran (@shbkran) May 22, 2024
Look for same scene in all Mumbai Pune route were in each and every coach atleast there are 50 people who are either traveling on unreserved tickets or without tickets.
— Hitesh Khandelwal (@Advhiteshrk) May 23, 2024
This type of Supreme class and facilities will see nowhere in the world.
P.s.: comparing with equivalent countries only.— Girish Arun Pande (@GirishArunPande) May 23, 2024
IndianRailways moving rapidly towards “ZERO WAITING LIST” for passengers.
Why @AshwiniVaishnaw @PMOIndia @indianrail @IndianRailMedia @RailMinIndia There are hardly 5 Sleeper Bogie, but the waiting list extends to 572 approx. Why you are making journey in Sleeper class a trauma— Sanu Singh (@singhsanusays) May 24, 2024
Train moving towards UP Bihar coach condition is miserable public are travelling in very compromising condition sleeping between passage bathroom etc etc
— manoj shrivastav (@s_midc15) May 23, 2024
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Up Jane Wale train me to halat our bhi kharab hai toilet Jane ki jagah nahi railway Wale kab dhayan denge
— Yadav Ankit suresh yadav (@suresh_ank27179) May 24, 2024
Railways representing the state of this country
— The grand wizard ✨️ (@ElPhantismo) May 23, 2024
This type of scenes are not uncommon nowadays. Why the railway authorities are unable to control unauthorised boarding into the reserved coaches. They are tight-lipped in this regard, but talking about zero-waitlisting.
— P.Ramachandra Rao (@prrao1945) May 22, 2024
I saw Vikas traveling in the train. Can you spot Vikas 😀
— Aviraj Singh (Blue Tick) (@avirajsingh) May 22, 2024
From ZERO WAITING LIST, IR should change the tag line as
It doesn’t matter if it’s WL. All are welcome.
— Sridhar Joshi (@brahmmajoshi) May 22, 2024
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When the railway minister is only interested in key projects like vande Bharat. This is what happens.
India doesn’t just need fast trains.
We need more trains.
Buckle up or move out @AshwiniVaishnaw
— Kinus Yttehs (@kinus_yttehs) May 22, 2024
Looks like the issue of overcrowding in trains is not going to be resolved soon. Have you faced such a dreadful situation. Let us know in the comments.
