Soon, waitlisted passengers may get berths on ‘clone trains’

Imagine arriving at the railway station clutching a waitlisted ticket, hoping there is a vacant berth on, say, the Rajdhani Express. No luck, and the train leaves without you – but no sweat, just wait a while and another Rajdhani Express pulls into the station just to carry waitlisted ticket-holders like you!

Such a heartening scenario could be a reality starting June, when Indian Railways plans to launch 'clone trains' on high-demand routes that will be run within an hour of a scheduled train's departure to accommodate those on the waiting list.

Such real-time demand-driven trains would help passengers reach their destination around the same time originally envisaged. Moreover, they would be informed about their berths in the clone train soon after the reservation charts for the original scheduled train are firmed up four hours before departure.

''We are ascertaining the routes where there is a regular demand. We will introduce clone trains which will be new parallel trains that will run within an hour of the original train,'' a top Railways Ministry official told The Hindu. These trains could originate from Howrah, Mumbai CST, Chennai, Secunderabad and New Delhi, where the Railways have big coaching yards and rolling stock to put together a clone train in quick time.

Some of the identified routes include Delhi-Jammu, Delhi-Bhopal, Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi-Lucknow.

Clone trains may be extended to routes served by Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains as well, and passengers will have the choice to opt for berths in such trains at the time of booking a waitlisted ticket.

In order to run viable clone trains, the Indian Railways will do away with the waiting list limit on the identified routes - currently, the Railways disables bookings after a waiting list for a train touches 400 in sleeper class, 300 in 3AC or chair car, 30 in first class and 100 in second class.

''Doing away with the waiting list restriction would give us a clear picture of the passenger demand on the route and we will be able to know if we can run clone trains in full,'' said the official.

The move will help Railways to lock in more potential revenue rather than refund wait listed passengers.

Railways minister Suresh Prabhu has discontinued the practice of announcing new train routes in the Rail Budget, instead focussing on running special trains. ''The trains are working at a capacity of 170-200 per cent. That's why we need to increase the capacity. The entire plan is to augment capacity,'' Prabhu told The Hindu in an interview this week.

A Railway Board official explained that the concept of clone trains is distinct from the Vikalp service launched for some routes on mail, express and super-fast trains, where waitlisted passengers are given alternative confirmed seats in other trains on the same route.

''We had recently launched a facility named 'Vikalp' to provide seats on alternate trains within twelve hours of the original train. However, that's not enough to tap the huge demand on many popular routes as all trains tend to be booked fully during rush season,'' the official explained.

''This is an excellent idea because a lot of trains are choked at present. Since the trains are running full, foreign tourists deter from using the Indian Railways. So, introducing clone trains, especially on tourist sectors such as Delhi-Jammu, is a step in the right direction. The Indian Railways is becoming very innovative by introducing such special trains,'' Subhash Goyal, President of Indian Association of Tour Operators, told The Hindu.