Railways may allow wait-listed passengers to use alternative trains: report

Indian Railways has finally decided not to let go its prospective passengers who are often forced to cancel their train tickets at the last minute because of the uncertainty over getting ticket confirmation.

The woes of the wait-listed passengers might soon end as the railways is thinking of back-up trains to ferry the left over passengers.

According to a report in The Times of India, the Railways is contemplating a back-up train for those passengers on wait-list who still want to travel on the same day to the same destination.

Railways may provide accommodation in other trains running on the ''same route, on the same ticket'', the paper quoted, additional director general of the Railway Board, Anil Kumar Saxena, as saying.

Saxena said passengers will be given the option to mention the train numbers of alternative trains other than the one he / she wants to primarily take.

"Implementing the plan is not an easy task. For this, major upgradations have to be made in the CRIS (Center for Railway Information Systems)," he added.

Once the project gets the go-ahead and becomes operational, passengers will be given the option to complete their journey on different trains without having to bother about cancellation of tickets and refunds.

The idea is to run all trains with full capacity, but that would benefit passengers as well.

The report, however, said the proposal was ''at the initial stage'' and nothing has been finalised.

The Indian Railways Catering and tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had in June come up with a scheme under which railway passengers who fail to get their wait-listed ticket confirmed will be given an option to convert it into an airline ticket at a competitive fare.

IRCTC  had tied up with budget carrier GoAir and have sold about 100 tickets through this scheme.