Of late, several train passengers have taken to social media to highlight alleged overcrowding by ticketless passengers, even as the Railways has denied the allegations.
In the latest instance, a woman passenger shared a video on X that purportedly showed a sleeper coach filled with passengers, leaving no space for movement. She said she had booked a sleeper seat but people from the general compartment had filled up the coach. Her post quickly gained traction, with comments pouring in from others who spoke of similar experiences. Many users expressed their anger and frustration at the situation, saying it is "too common" in India.
This video was captioned, “Kalesh inside Indian Railways over people are (sic) travelling without a ticket inside Sleeper-Coach.” The video has garnered over 6.5 lakh views and over 3 lakh shares.
A user wrote, “Indian Railway Barbaad ho chuka hai ab, na ticket milta hai aur ab ticket hone per seat bhi nhi milti💀 (Indian Railways is ruined now, no one gets tickets and even if they have a ticket they don't get a seat)."
Another commented, "After govt formation, the govt should take action on this, middle and lower middle-class families facing lots of problems due to this. Make a strict rule with that increase of trains or general coaches.''
A third user wrote, “This is actually a very serious problem. Railways in order to increase their profit largely exchanged sleeper and general coaches with AC class. Result is sleeper class is crowded by urgent general-class travellers.”
"It's getting crazier day by day. Most trains are running at overcapacity. A lot of people have to use an alternate (sic) source of transport due to the unavailability of tickets!" wrote another.