CHENNAI: In a move that aims at reducing the discretion available with Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs), railways is to introduce a facility of transferring vacant berths after a train leaves the originating station. At present, passengers holding unconfirmed tickets are at the mercy of Travelling Ticket Examiners.
Explaining the new measure, a top Southern Railway official said waitlisted passengers at intermediate stations are not even aware that there are berths which are vacant. “We are in the process of implementing the automatic transfer of vacant berths, after the second charting process at originating station, to subsequent stations where there are waitlisted passengers,” the official told Express.
The official said that besides clipping the wings of TTEs, the new measure would benefit the travelling public, especially those who had booked on long distance trains and help raise additional revenue for railways. “At present, there is little chance that waitlisted passengers from the stations en route get their seats confirmed, hence they usually cancel their tickets. But now they stand a chance to be informed by SMS on registered mobile indicating their confirmed berths,” the official said.
However, the new measure would not be applicable to ‘not joined’ berths, where passengers with confirmed tickets don’t board the train. In such cases, the TTE still has discretion to allot the berths to passengers without confirmed tickets.
As per estimates drawn up by the railway ministry, about three lakh berths go unutilised per year, even though there is demand for such berths at intermediate stations.