Kochi: The Southern Railway has stopped issuing sleeper class tickets to short-distance commuters in long-haul trains via Kottayam to avoid inconvenience to Sabarimala pilgrims from other states that has led to protest from routine passengers.
“I reached Karunaga-pally station to travel to Ernakulam in the Island Express and asked for a sleeper class ticket as usual. However, the counter staff told me sleeper class tickets in trains via Kottayam route are not being issued. Many others like me too didn’t get any of the ticket,” said Anil Kumar, an IT employee and regular commuter.
The officials of the Southern Railway admitted to imposing the restriction but said the same is not due to Sabarimala pilgrimage alone.
“It’s true we’ve received an increasing number of complaints from the long-distance reserved commuters that the short-distance commuters were occupying their reserved seats. All the trains through Kottayam become full upon reaching Chengannur station,” a senior railway official said.
However, the railway authorities pointed out that the restriction would come into place on a permanent basis in all long-haul trains soon as part of the inter-mediate booking initiative.
“This means if there is any vacant seat in a train starting from Thiruvanthapuram upon commencement of its journey, then automatically the ‘vacant pool’ gets transferred to next major station say—Ernakulam. This means one can reserve tickets from Ernakulam and other stations northwards till the train reaches there. If we dole out sleeper tickets to short-term passengers, the system cannot be implemented,” the official said.
Already the inter-mediate booking facility is enabled in trains such as Janshatabdi, Chennai Express, Thiruvananthapuram-Bilaspur Express and Kochiveli-Lokmanya Tilak Garib Rath Express among others.
The railway officials, also concerned about the protest from short-distance passengers. “We can issue sleeper tickets but with a seal in the tickets highlighting the condition ‘subject to availability of seats,” the official said.
