CHENNAI: Southern Railway on Saturday began preparing reservation charts eight hours ahead of a train’s scheduled departure. As a result, rail passengers with waitlisted tickets on intercity trains such as the Kovai Express, Vaigai, Pallavan, Brindavan, Madurai Tejas, Lalbagh Express, as well as Vande Bharat and Shatabdi Express, departing between 5.40 am and 7.30 am from their respective originating stations, will now receive their ticket status by 9 pm to 9.30 pm on the previous day. So far, passengers received this information only four hours before departure, often between 1 am and 4 am.
The zonal railway implemented this revised charting policy following a directive from the Railway Board. The move is intended to give passengers more time to plan their travel and to ease overcrowding in unreserved coaches, which often results in unreserved passengers occupying reserved compartments.
Rail enthusiasts said the passengers with waitlisted tickets on overnight trains such as Pandiyan, Cheran, and Nilgiri Express, scheduled to depart between 9.15 pm and 10 pm, will now know their ticket confirmation status by 1 pm. This gives them enough time to explore alternative train services heading to Madurai or Coimbatore, if their overnight tickets remain unconfirmed.
Travellers by early morning trains stand to benefit the most
According to Southern Railway’s revised order, chart preparation timelines are now as follows: For trains departing between 12 am and 5 am and from 2 pm to 11.59 pm, charts will be finalised eight hours in advance; for trains leaving between 5 am and 2 pm, charts must be prepared by 9 pm the previous night.
A section of passengers welcomed the move, saying it ends uncertainty over early morning ticket confirmations.
Frequent traveller S Viniyaga Murthi recalled waking at 3 am to check the status of waitlisted tickets for the Bengaluru Double Decker Express.
“The train departs at 7.25 am. As our tickets weren’t confirmed, we ended up travelling unreserved,” he said.
However, R Pandiyaraja, former Southern Railway Users’ Consultative Committee member, said, “Expanding terminal capacity in Tiruchendur, Tirunelveli, and Madurai and filling vacant loco pilot posts is the real solution,” he added.