Like airlines, Railways will soon show online layout of reserved, vacant seats in trains

Indian Railways will now allow its passengers to check the status of seats that are vacant for booking and also those already booked for a particular train.

New Delhi: In order to further ease ticket booking procedure, Indian Railways will now allow its passengers to check the status of seats that are vacant for booking and also those already booked for a particular train, just like airlines. Railways plans to follow seating layout method used by airlines and buses with booked seats showing a different colour so that passengers could easily identify number of seats that are still vacant for booking and also its exact position. According to a report by news agency PTI, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal has asked senior officials to make reservation chart public with the help of Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS). This move will further improve ticket booking procedure and reduce the number of complaints of passengers regarding clarity in the availability of tickets. A source was quoted in the report saying that as of now, Indian Railways needs to make the reservation status public so that people can see the booking status of a particular train. This will help passengers who are booking seats, with the booked ones reflecting in a different colour. He said that this can be done through PNR and the next option will be of choosing seats. The sources further said that instructions have been issued by the Railway Minister after complaints from passengers about getting wait-listed tickets on certain railway routes, leaving them with no option but to approach the TTEs for confirmed tickets. However, officials also feel that making reservation details public is a security concern and also become a burdensome process. Unlike airlines, railway passengers board and de-board from the train at every station located within small distance, which results in a frequent change in the status of booking. Further for the convenience of waiting listed and Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) passengers, India Railways has recently introduced Handheld Terminals that allows TTEs to update the ticket status of a running train in real-time basis. This help waiting-listed and RAC passengers in getting their tickets confirmed in a running train as well.