Parliament Question: Difficulties faced by Passengers travelling in General/Unreserved/Sleeper Class Coaches

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 632 TO BE ANSWERED ON 22.07.2026 DIFFICULTIES FACED BY PASSENGERS TRAVELLING IN GENERAL/UNRESERVED/SLEEPER CLASS COACHES 632. DR. LATA WANKHEDE: SMT. SHAMBHAVI: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) whether the Railway Board has taken direct cognizance of the extreme overcrowding, lack of ventilation and safety hazards faced by passengers travelling in general, unreserved and sleeper class coaches across long-distance trains; (b) if so, the total number of new regular Amrit Bharat and special non-AC general category trains introduced during the last two financial years to manage peak festive rushes particularly in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh; (c) whether the Government is systematically increasing the total number of general and sleeper coaches in existing popular trains and if so, the details thereof; (d) the concrete measures taken/being taken by the Government to ensure functional lights, clean mobile charging points, and hygienic running water in all non-AC public compartments; and (e) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to expand automated ticket vending machines at small rural stations? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) to (e): On Indian Railways, traffic pattern of passengers is not uniform throughout the year and it varies over lean and peak periods. During peak rush periods, the occupancy of the trains especially on popular routes remains full whereas during lean period and on less popular routes, there is sub optimal utilization. With a view to meet the demand of passengers travelling in unreserved coaches, Indian Railways (IR) have significantly increased the facilities for passengers demanding general class travel. During the financial year 2024- § Page 1 of 525 alone, 1250 general coaches have been utilised in various long-distance trains to have at least 4 general class coaches. Similarly, during the year 2025-26 about 870 Coaches including 160 General Class and during the year 2026-27 (up to 30.06.2026) about 190 coaches including 20 general class coaches have been utilised for permanent augmentation. To cater to the travel demand of the low and middle income families, Indian Railways have taken up manufacturing of 17,000 non-AC coaches (general/sleeper). On IR, the percentage of non-AC coaches, is about 70% as indicated below: Distribution of coaches: Non-AC coaches (general and sleeper) ~62,000 ~70% AC coaches ~27,000 ~30% Total coaches ~89,000 100% Moreover, to provide greater accommodation for the passengers using General and non-AC Sleeper Coaches, the extant policy regarding composition of Mail/Express trains provides for 12 (Twelve) General class & Sleeper class non- AC coaches and 08 (eight) AC-Coaches, in a train of 22 coaches, thereby providing greater accommodation for the passengers using General and non-AC Sleeper Coaches. Further, to cater to the needs of passengers desirous of availing unreserved accommodation, Indian Railways (IR) operate unreserved non- AC passenger trains/ MEMU / EMU etc. for affordable travel, which are in addition to the unreserved accommodation (coaches) available in Mail/Express services. Amrit Bharat service: To provide affordable means of transportation to the low and middle income families, Indian Railways have introduced Amrit Bharat services that are fully non-AC modern trains. The present composition of Amrit Bharat consists of 11 General Class coaches, 8 Sleeper Class coaches, 01 Pantry Car and 02 Luggage cum Divyangjan coaches. High Speed and enhanced Safety standards are the hallmarks of these trains with following enhanced features and amenities:  Better aesthetics of seat and berths with enhanced look & feel on the lines of Vande Bharat Sleeper.  Jerk Free Semi-Automatic Couplers.  Improved Crashworthiness in coaches by provision of crash tube.  Provision of CCTV system in all coaches. Page 2 of 5 Improved designs of toilets.  Improved design of Ladder for ease of climbing on to the berth.  Improved LED Light fitting & Charging Sockets.  Provision of EP assisted braking system.  Aerosol based fire suppression system in toilets and electrical cubicles.  USB Type-A and Type-C mobile charging sockets.  Emergency Talk Back system for two-way communication between Passenger and Guard/Train Manager.  Non-AC pantry with enhanced heating capacity.  Fully sealed gangways with quick release mechanism for easy attachment and detachment. As on 30.06.2026, the following 36 pairs Amrit Bharat Express services are being operated on the Indian Railways network: SN Train No. and Name 1 11015/11016 LokmanyaTilak (T) – Saharsa Amrit Bharat Express 2 13697/13698 Gaya - Delhi Amrit Bharat Express 3 15293/15294 Muzaffarpur –Charlapalli Amrit Bharat Express 4 15557/15558 Darbhanga – AnandVihar (T) Amrit Bharat Express 5 15561/15562 Darbhanga –Gomtinagar Amrit Bharat Express 6 15567/15568 BapudhamMotihari– Anand Vihar (T) Amrit Bharat Express 7 22361/22362 Rajendranagar (T) - New Delhi Amrit Bharat Express 8 13433/13434 SMVT Bengaluru - Malda Town Amrit Bharat Express 9 13435/13436 Malda Town –Gomtinagar Amrit Bharat Express 10 15133/15134 Chhapra– AnandVihar (T) Amrit Bharat Express 11 14047/14048 Sitamarhi - Delhi Amrit Bharat Express 12 14627/14628 Saharsa –Chheharta Amrit Bharat Express 13 19623/19624 Madar – Darbhanga Amrit Bharat Express 14 16601/16602 Erode –Jogbani Amrit Bharat Express 15 19021/19022 Udhna–Brahmapur Amrit Bharat Express 16 15671/15672 Kamakhya – Rohtak Amrit Bharat Express 17 20609/20610 New Jalpaiguri - Tiruchchirappalli Amrit Bharat Express 18 16597/16598 SMVT Bengaluru – Alipurduar Amrit Bharat Express Page 3 of 519 11031/11032 Panvel– Alipurduar Amrit Bharat Express 20 16107/16108 Tambaram –Santragachi Amrit Bharat Express 21 13065/13066 Howrah – AnandVihar (T) Amrit Bharat Express 22 22587/22588 Sealdah - Banaras Amrit Bharat Express 23 20603/20604 New Jalpaiguri – Nagercoil Amrit Bharat Express 24 15949/15950 Dibrugarh - Gomti Nagar Amrit Bharat Express 25 16121/16122 Tambaram - Thiruvananthapuram Central Amrit Bharat Express 26 16329/16330 Nagercoil – Mangaluru Amrit Bharat Express 27 17041/17042 Charlapalli - Thiruvananthapuram North Amrit Bharat Express 28 16619/16620 Podanur-Dhanbad Amrit Bharat Express 29 16357/16358 Nagercoil-Charlapalli Amrit Bharat Express 30 15673/15674 Charlapalli– Kamakhya Amrit Bharat Express 31 17065/17066 Charlapalli - Shalimar Amrit Bharat Express 32 22589/22590 Banaras- HadapsarAmrit Bharat Express 33 22111/22112 LokmanyaTilak(T)- Ayodhya Amrit Bharat Express 34 14663/14664 Amritsar- New Jalpaiguri Amrit Bharat Express 35 19725/19726 Khatipura- Darbhanga Amrit Bharat Express 36 11431/11432 Pune –Danapur Amrit Bharat Express Special Trains IR also operates Special train services during festivals, holidays, etc. to cater to the extra needs of passengers and supplement the accommodation available by regular services. Accordingly, the number of Special trains operated across the Indian Railways network, to facilitate the passengers during Summer/winter vacations, festivals like Holi, Durga Puja, Diwali, Chhath, Christmas, Sabrimala, Id-ul-fitr etc. are as below: Year No. of trips 2023-24 ~40,500 2024-25 ~85,400 2025-26 ~80,500 Page 4 of 5The measures taken by the Government to ensure functional lights and mobile charging points are as under: - i. It is ensured that 100% of lights and mobile charging points in coaches are functional before placing the rakes on platforms. ii. Lights of the coaches are switched on from nominated stations. iii. In case of receipt of passengers’ complaints, action is taken to address not only complaints there and then itself but also to reduce them further. iv. Special Drives like Summer and Pre-Monsoon Drives are conducted to ensure that preventive measures are taken well in time and to avoid occurrence of faults/failures in electrical equipments. v. Name and mobile number of divisional control and concerned staff are displayed at prominent locations of coaches for quick assistance and disposal of complaints. Indian Railway (IR) makes every endeavour to maintain availability of water in toilets. Regular water filling in overhead tanks of coaches is ensured before train departure at maintenance depots as well as at en-route nominated watering stations. To improve overall passenger experience, Railways has launched RailOne App on 01.07.2025. The App can be downloaded from Android Play Store and Apple App Store. This App enables passengers to book reserved as well as unreserved tickets on mobile phone. This App combines all the public facing services of Indian Railways like reserved ticketing, unreserved ticketing and platform ticketing, train enquiry, PNR enquiry, Railmadad, etc. into a single platform. This, in effect, brings the Passenger reservation system facility to passenger's palm. Till date more than 4.55 crore downloads of this app have been done. On an average, about, 9.65 lakh tickets are being booked on the RailOne App Daily (2.75 lakh reserved and 6.89 lakh Unreserved). The passengers can book both reserved and unreserved tickets very conveniently using this app. ***** Page 5 of 5