Recently, there has been a huge rush in complaints of overcrowding in trains.
New Delhi: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday that currently, in trains having 22 coaches, 12 are non-AC general and sleeper class coaches and eight are AC coaches. He also mentioned that among all the coaches in service, two-thirds are non-air-conditioned, and one-third are air-conditioned variants.
Railway Minister Vaishnaw responded to questions posed by IUML MP Haris Beeran in the Rajya Sabha. Beeran brought up the problem of overcrowding in low-cost passenger trains, inquiring about the measures the government had implemented to tackle this issue and whether the number of these trains had been decreased.
Recently, there has been a huge rush in complaints of overcrowding in trains.
Vaishnaw stated that passenger traffic experienced significant fluctuations between 2019 and 2024 due to COVID-19. “Nevertheless, Indian Railways (IR) runs a variety of scheduled trains, such as suburban, short-distance passenger trains, and long-distance/Mail Express/superfast trains, each designed to serve different passenger segments,” he further explained.
The railway minister highlighting the existing policy, said that it allows for the composition of Mail/Express trains, having 22 coaches, to be 12 General class & Sleeper class non-AC coaches and 08 (eight) AC-Coaches. This allows for passengers to have greater accommodation using General and non-AC Sleeper Coaches.
Amrit Bharat Trains
Minister Vaishnaw announced that Indian Railways has launched the Amrit Bharat services, which are entirely non-AC trains dedicated to providing high-quality services to passengers. He emphasized that the Railways is committed to offering additional accommodation for travelers by running special trains during festivals, holidays, and peak seasons. Furthermore, to accommodate the surge in demand, the capacity of trains is being increased both permanently and temporarily, the minister explained.
He added, “These are on-going processes on Indian Railways. Keeping in view increased demand, IR has planned to manufacture 10,000 non-AC coaches including General Class and Sleeper Class coaches.”