Good catch by Railways - Our chances of getting a ticket went up
Your chances of securing confirmed train tickets on popular routes just went up. The Railways has zeroed in on the biggest reason behind the perennial complaint of passengers not being able to get confirmed tickets even after turning up at the ticket counters at 8 am, when they open across India.
An internal investigation revealed that every day, 4,000 confirmed berths would be hoarded by touts within one minute of the computer reservation system being thrown open to public.
The probe found that the touts, who sell tickets at a higher price to passengers in need, were exploiting a “facility” in the passenger reservation software. The facility allows someone who has already purchased a ticket to alter journey details and book another train within seconds at the last moment.
Touts would buy tickets for relatively less popular trains a day earlier, and then swap them for tickets on popular trains — Rajdhanis, Durontos and other long-distance trains — between 8 am and 8.01 am. This would take seconds since their booking details were already fed into the system.
“Touts would buy any ticket a day in advance and the next day, they would get ticket details changed. The booking clerk merely had to generate another PNR with the passenger details already fed into the system a day earlier. This took seconds,” Ajay Shukla, Member (Traffic), Railway Board, told The Indian Express. “We have now disabled this facility for the first hour after the system opens,” he added.
The probe, launched after the Railways Ministry found a huge number of tickets being booked this way, also indicated that booking clerks and other insiders were involved in the racket. The ministry plans now plans to pinpoint the culprits and take action.
After disabling the facility for the first hour, the Railway Board officials monitored the booking pattern across the country for the past few days. Now, instead of 4,000 journey/train changes in the first minute, only a few such changes are made in the course of the day. “We believe those are genuine transactions by passengers altering their journeys,” Shukla said.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/railways-blows-lid-off-racket-to-hoard-4000-tickets-in-a-minute/ more
An internal investigation revealed that every day, 4,000 confirmed berths would be hoarded by touts within one minute of the computer reservation system being thrown open to public.
The probe found that the touts, who sell tickets at a higher price to passengers in need, were exploiting a “facility” in the passenger reservation software. The facility allows someone who has already purchased a ticket to alter journey details and book another train within seconds at the last moment.
Touts would buy tickets for relatively less popular trains a day earlier, and then swap them for tickets on popular trains — Rajdhanis, Durontos and other long-distance trains — between 8 am and 8.01 am. This would take seconds since their booking details were already fed into the system.
“Touts would buy any ticket a day in advance and the next day, they would get ticket details changed. The booking clerk merely had to generate another PNR with the passenger details already fed into the system a day earlier. This took seconds,” Ajay Shukla, Member (Traffic), Railway Board, told The Indian Express. “We have now disabled this facility for the first hour after the system opens,” he added.
The probe, launched after the Railways Ministry found a huge number of tickets being booked this way, also indicated that booking clerks and other insiders were involved in the racket. The ministry plans now plans to pinpoint the culprits and take action.
After disabling the facility for the first hour, the Railway Board officials monitored the booking pattern across the country for the past few days. Now, instead of 4,000 journey/train changes in the first minute, only a few such changes are made in the course of the day. “We believe those are genuine transactions by passengers altering their journeys,” Shukla said.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/railways-blows-lid-off-racket-to-hoard-4000-tickets-in-a-minute/ more
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I had been to Bangalore in March 24, 2015. When I booked my ticket for my journey on 24/3/15 by 12245 Duronto Exp on 1/2/15, all the AC classes were showing WL. Since my journey was very much essential I made my reservation in SL class. On the date of journey, I could find many passengers of SL class have been auto-upgraded to travel in 3A. I wonder how after accommodating all the WL passengers, Railways are left with so many vacant berths that required to be filled up by auto-upgradation process ! more
Apr 09
I did not understand this system of swapping tickets from one train to another and all that stuff explained above by the Railways Spokesperson. Can anybody explain as to how it works for personal use in future please? Tks a lot more
Apr 06
Even now a local circle member of ours complained of getting a wailtisted ticket no 105 at 08.01 hrs. If things have been put into place as claimed above, then how come this happened again??? more
Apr 06
Why Railways are not getting their reservation regularly audited by our international audit firms ,if we get it regularly audited we do not see any reasons why these loop holes are not plugged are we deliberately leaving them unattended to get them exploited . We are confident that with the efforts now putting in things will be much better in near future. more
Apr 01
Quite surprising to see the investigation report and the culprits to be punished suitably which deters anyone else to indulge in such activity at a later date. Many a times in India only the corrupt officials are caught even for a bribe of 100Rs, but the man behind who could be the Politician is never punished and thereby the corruption goes on and many straightforward honest officials either leave the jobs or commit suicide. Unless this is done, one can assure the public such mistake or the wanton error won't be repeated anytime in the future! more
Apr 01
