While almost every passenger has to go through the rigours of advanced booking and sometimes cancellations, the Indian Railways (IR) does not have any data on money earned through ticket cancellations or converting general coaches into third AC coaches. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union minister for railways, told the Lok Sabha that no data or information is maintained by the Railways. This is not true because, in response to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Indian Railways has reported earnings of Rs1,229.85 crore from cancelled waiting list tickets between the years 2021 and January 2024,
according to a report from The Hindu.
Mala Roy, a member of Parliament (MP) from All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), asked about details of revenues earned by railways through cancellation of tickets and conversion of general coach into third AC coach during the past three years.
In a written reply, Mr Vaishnaw, the minister, states, "Amount credited on account of cancellation of tickets by passengers is not maintained separately."
On the second question, he replied, "No information on this account is maintained. Of the total number of coaches being presently utilised for running of train services, two-thirds are non-AC, and one-third are AC variants."
"Additionally, Indian Railways has also started operating Amrit Bharat services, which are fully non-AC trains providing high-quality services to the passengers. Keeping in view of increased demand, IR has planned to manufacture 10,000 non-AC coaches, including general class and sleeper class coaches," he says.
For cancellation of e-tickets more than 48 hours before the scheduled departure of the train, IR, through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), charges between Rs60 for the second class to Rs240 for AC first of executive class. If a confirmed ticket is cancelled within 48 hours and up to 12 hours before the scheduled departure of the train, cancellation charges shall be 25% of the fare, subject to the minimum flat rate. If the ticket is cancelled less than 12 hours and up to four hours before the train departure, the passenger has to forfeit 50% of the fare. These cancellation charges are per passenger.
After the chart preparation, the e-ticket cannot be cancelled. The passenger needs to use the online ticket deposit receipt (TDR) filing and track the status of the refund case through the tracking service provided by IRCTC. There is a time limit of four hours before the scheduled departure of the train for filing TDR. Even e-tickets booked through IRCTC include a service charge component which is non-refundable. This means the passenger will not receive the money paid as a service charge when cancelling the e-ticket.
According to the newspaper, in 2021, about 25.3mn (million) tickets on the wait list (WL) were cancelled, resulting in earnings of Rs242.68 crore for the Railways.
"The following year, the number of cancelled tickets surged to 46mn, with revenue reaching Rs439.16 crore. In 2023, the trend continued, with 52.6mn waitlisted tickets being cancelled, contributing to earnings of Rs505 crore. Even in January 2024 alone, 4.6mn tickets were cancelled, generating Rs43 crore for the Railways. Altogether, this accounts for more than 128mn cancelled waiting list tickets during the specified period," the report says.
Madhya Pradesh-based activist Vivek Pandey had filed the RTI application.
Quoting a former official from the Railways, the newspaper says, "An 18-coach train has 720 seats in the sleeper compartment, and the Railways allots a waiting list of 600. There will be no scope for accommodating such a large number, and tickets are bound to get cancelled, so they should recalibrate their waiting list thresholds."
