Study finds over 10 lakh don’t get confirmed tickets, Rlys denies

Even after persistent efforts of Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu to address several issues pertinent to passengers, the dream of getting a confirm ticket is still a distant dream for railway passengers. According to a latest study report, over 10 lakh people fail to travel daily due to unavailabity of train tickets.

“The demand-supply mismatch on long distance trains has been a well-known assumption for long as there are more people wanting to travel in a particular train than the available number of seats. But the scale of this mismatch has never been quantified,” the study said, which is conducted by RailYatri.in.

Based on the data gathered from train travellers, the study revealed that there are nearly 10-12 lakh potential passengers who could not travel due to non-confirmed tickets on a daily basis. “These are people whose waitlist tickets did not get confirmed. Percentage wise this would translate to nearly 13 per cent of long distance-bound train commuters daily, while during the peak travel season, the number increases to about 19 per cent,” revealed the study said, which has been prepared after comprehensively tracking train ticket booking patterns across the country since January 2016.

The finding of the study has been rejected by Railways claiming that it’s one-sided and the lacks basic understanding of train ticket booking pattern. “The findings are exaggerated and based on adequate facts. The report is one-sided as the firm has no knowledge of railways workings. They are talking about one-day booking data, but on the day the when tickets were booked get confirmed on the journey dates, which is missing in the report. And when a ticket get confirmed, how it would come under unconfirmed category,” a senior railway official said.

Data scientists at RailYatri.in used mathematical models to analyze the travel plans reported by over 30 lakh commuters from over 3,100 railway stations looking for seats in about 2,800 trains. Using prediction models, the firm estimated its overall impact across the nation on a daily basis.

“While we were always aware of the demand-supply mismatch in train travel, the scale of surplus demand, as brought out by this study, has been an eye opener for us,” said Manish Rathi, the CEO & Co-founder of RailYatri.in.

“The ability for citizens to travel in an unconstrained manner is an essential spoke in the wheel of any nation’s economy. Despite increase in several transport options, trains continue to be the most preferred mode for long distance travel. It is tempting to think that adding of more trains would be the ideal solution,” Rathi said, adding that however, this would require hundreds of more trains running every day.