NEW DELHI: Despite repeated assurances, the number of passengers missing their rail journeys due to unconfirmed waitlisted tickets has continued to rise over the past five years.
In the financial year 2025–26 till April, more than 3.39 crore passengers were unable to travel because their waitlisted tickets were automatically cancelled, particularly online bookings.
The details were revealed by the Ministry of Railways in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by Bhopal-based RTI activist Chandrasekhar Gaur.
The Railway Ministry also shared class-wise data on automatic cancellations, showing that the highest number of unconfirmed tickets belonged to passengers travelling in Sleeper Class and AC 3-tier (3AC). Their tickets were cancelled automatically after remaining unconfirmed until the preparation of the reservation charts.
According to RTI information, a total of 2.19 crore PNRs were cancelled during 2025-26, forcing nearly 3.39 crore passengers to cancel their travel.
Class-wise details furnished in the RTI reply revealed that 2.78 lakh PNRs were cancelled under 1AC, making nearly 3.85 lakh passengers unable to travel. In the same way, the 16.41 lakh PNRs were canceled of 24.21 lakh passengers under 2AC, besides other classes. Approximately 74.55 lakh passengers who had booked waitlisted tickets in the 3AC category were also unable to travel. The highest number of 1.05 crore PNRs were cancelled automatically after the waitlist status failed to get confirmed on the Sleeper class.
According to the past figures, nearly 1.65 crore passengers were unable to travel in 2021–22 as their waitlist tickets were not confirmed at the last moment.
The number of passengers who were not able to travel due to non-confirmation of their waitlist tickets rose sharply to 2.72 crore in 2022–23, 2.96 crore in 2023–24, 3.27 crore in 2024–25, and further to 3.39 crore in 2025–26.
Commenting on the figures, RTI activist Chandrasekhar Gaur said the data highlighted the severe shortage of trains and confirmed berths on heavily used routes.
"It is matter of serious concern that even after 78 years of Independence, the railway has not been able to ensure confirmed railway tickets to the passengers, mostly in sleeper classes," Gaur said.
He added that the data shows that India still faces shortage of train on busy and important routes, which made waitlist tickets to remain not confirmed.
YEAR -------------- Nos. of Passengers not travelled
2021-22 ---------- 1.65 crore
2022-23 ---------- 2.72 crore
2023-24 ---------- 2.96 crore
2024-25 ---------- 3.27 crore
2025-26 ---------- 3.39 crore