A huge burst in ticket booking has been registered ever since the advance booking period is increased to 120 days for passenger trains. The seat availability has gone for a toss. In all popular trains - like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Rajdhani, Duronto, and even Mail/Express trains, quotas have been filled up on first day of period for doing advance reservation. People are asking - "Are there any trains in which seats are vacant?" - on railway enquiry. If so - Which train have seat available? What is their name and number?
when steam engine trains ran in India, there were more general coaches (unreserved accommodation) then the reserved coaches. Still the seat availability was never a problem. Wonder Why? |
Increase of reservation period was one of the major highlights of this year's railway budget. It was thought that it will provide much needed breathing space for travelers to plan their journey. Period of 60 days was too small. It tended to force people to make their tour plans in hurry, resulting in airy fairy tourney. People were happy that now they have 60 days extra. They can sit with family, draw out the tour plan, identify the places they would like to visit, would have enough time to apply for leave, and then one day sit in relax mood to book railway tickets on their personal computer. But things haven't turned out that way.
The agents of travel agencies and touts have been busy each day to book as many tickets as possible using fake IDs for journey that will start after four months. They are watching like a hawk and picking up every bit that is available. As soon as the seat becomes available, either due to increased seating capacity of train or due to mass cancellation of tickets, the touts just lock them up. They know that summer holidays are not faraway, and there would be huge demands of confirmed tickets. That is when they will make merry by selling the tickets purchased today at much higher price in black.
All this could be very depressing for anyone who is looking for a family holiday this summer. The question would be coming up -" Isn't there any passenger train in which there is a vacant seat easily available?"
Well, there is always a silver lining among the dark clouds. Even though the possibility of empty seats in trains look tough this summer, there is a chance that still you might get few seats, confirmed seats. Indian Railway and its zones like southern railway, western railway, northern railway, central and eastern railway and other railway zones have plans to run special holiday trains in coming months. The best thing is that these are the trains of future for which no information is available in advance to touts and travel agents. No one knows the train number or name, or from when they will start, or what is the schedule. There is no advance booking available for these trains. Railway will announce the running of these trains through news release, whenever decision to run them is finalized. That is where you need to be alert.
Be the first to grab a seat in these special trains. Don't miss out. Otherwise you will keep on asking the same question - "Which trains have seat available?"