Garib Rath a rich source Indian Railways minting money as waitlist in Pune-bound Garib Rath crosses 700 mark

 

 

 

 

With Diwali festivities coming to an end, the rush is now to report back to work. An over-worked Railway system is grappling with the problem of plenty as the crowd on long distance passenger-carrying trains is almost beyond control. One can gauge the rush from the fact that Railways wait list in some of the popular trains has crossed 700 mark. This indicates the mad rush among travellers to reach in the nick of time before the first working day, post holidays, that is November 20, which is Monday.

 

The train in 12114 Pune-bound Garib Rath of November 19, ex-Nagpur, is popular among the travellers. As it has third air condition sleeper with ticket cost moderately priced, the train is a hot favourite among travellers to Pune. However, Satish Yadav, Member, Central Railway Zonal Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC), questioned the logic of Railways in running up waiting list beyond 700 during the festive time. It is obvious that the Railways do not have space to accommodate so many travellers at a time. The number is much beyond the stipulated 1,000-plus regular travellers who had booked tickets in advance. Yadav said that in other popular trains, when the ticket booking reaches 200 to 250 mark, a ‘Regret’ message is flashed. This means no further ticket booking is allowed in that category of the train. In case some passengers, who have booked tickets, cancel their bookings, the ‘Regret’ is automatically reverted and further waitlisted booking is opened.

 

But in Garib Rath, the Railways are milking the passengers by continuing to issue waitlisted tickets beyond 700. Ashutosh Shrivastav, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Central Nagpur Division, explained the formula saying, two waitlisted numbers are flashed in the railway ticket. The first is WL/---, which mentions the number of the person booking the ticket starting with opening day of booking. The second number is actual waitlisting that is at time of booking on any particular day. About Garib Rath, he explained that after the waitlist crossed 250 the ‘Regret’ message will automatically prop-up.