Railways To Start Waiting List Tickets In Passenger Trains From May 22; May Run More Trains Soon!

The order from the railway board to the zones indicates that the railways is planning to run mixed services instead of the present all air-conditioned trains.

The Railway Ministry also issued revised guidelines on cancellation of already booked tickets. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: Ministry of Railways on Wednesday issued fresh guidelines introducing the provision of waiting list starting May 22 for journeys not only on its presently operational special trains but also on all its forthcoming services. A PTI report suggested that the development is an indication that IRCTC might soon start mail/express as well as chair car services. However, the authorities capped the waiting list on trains. The Indian Railways, however, capped the waiting list on these trains - up to 100 for AC 3 tier, 50 for AC 2 tier, 200 for Sleeper Class, 100 for chair cars, and 20 each for First AC and Executive Class - truncating the queues for confirmed tickets significantly. Here's the list of maximum limit for all classes of travel: * Maximum waiting list limit for First AC: 20 * Maximum waiting list limit for Executive Class: 20 * Maximum waiting list limit for AC-2 tier: 50 * Maximum waiting list limit for AC 3-tier: 100 * Maximum waiting list limit for AC Chair Car: 100 * Maximum waiting list limit for Sleeper: 200 The order from the railway board to the zones indicates that the railways is planning to run mixed services instead of the present all air-conditioned trains. This also means that it could begin services to smaller towns along with the major cities that its Rajdhani specials cater to now. So far there is no order from the railways to begin more services. The Railway Ministry also issued revised guidelines on cancellation of already booked tickets and refund of fare. The official notice read that relaxation in provisions of refund Rule for PRS counter generated tickets/ e-tickets, (already booked), as a special case, for journey starting w.e.f 21st March 2020 till resumption of passenger services or till further order. Check official notification issued by Ministry of Railways: Earlier this week, the Railway Ministry restarted train bookings and resumed the operations of 15 passenger trains across India. On the very first day of train services' resumption, there was a massive response from the people, with over 1.5 lakh passengers booking tickets till Tuesday evening across India. To be precise, 1,69,039 passengers had booked 90,331 tickets so far. ALSO WATCH | Ground Report Of Special Train Journeys After 51 Days Of Lockdown This data was released by the Railways Ministry and across all the 30 special air conditioned trains that are being run. Almost 48 days after suspension of all passenger train services amid the coronavirus pandemic, two special air conditioned train departed from New Delhi on Tuesday evening, officials said. Such resumption of services happened from other major cities as well. According to Northern Railway officials, the restoration of passenger train services started on Tuesday in a graded manner. The passenger train services had been suspended since March 25. Meanwhile, Railway premises and platforms were sanitized at regular intervals to prevent infection, said Northern Railway spokesperson Deepak Kumar told news agency IANS. "Wearing masks was mandatory and passengers were encouraged to carry their own blankets, water and food for the trip," he added. The railways has issued a time-table for trains to be run between May 12 and May 20. These daily, weekly or bi-weekly trains will run between New Delhi and all major cities of the country -- Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.