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Advance reservation of tickets in trains originating from the southern districts to Chennai on January 15 jumped to the waiting list status in a matter of minutes on Monday after the bookings were opened.
Tens of thousands of people vied with each other to book confirmed tickets for their return journey to city a day after Pongal next year. The booking trend came close on the heels of the mad rush for tickets in trains departing from Chennai to the south on January 11, a few days ago. Several people waiting in serpentine queues at the Computerised Passenger Reservation Centres returned empty handed.
“The second class sleeper tickets between Tiruchirapalli and Chennai in Rockfort Express were sold off when I visited the reservation counter at ICF around 8.20 am,” a railway employee claimed. “Tickets were available only in upper classes such as air-conditioned coaches, though they also got over in the following hours,” he added.
According to railway sources, tickets for the popular long distance trains such as Pandiyan Express and Nellai Express were sold off within barely 10 minutes. “Data on the mode of ticket reservation to ascertain whether the tickets were booked at counters or online was not available immediately,” a Southern Railway official said.
However, 50 to 60 per cent of tickets that were booked for south-bound trains originating from Chennai on January 11 were reserved online when the bookings opened a few days back, the source added.
T Ravi Kumar, president, All India Train and Bus Passengers Welfare Association, stressed the need for selling 75 per cent of the tickets at the counters.
“It is true that Internet has penetrated far and wide in the cities. But still, authorities should also think in terms of the migrant labourers hailing from remote villages, who depend largely on the reservation centres to accessing train tickets,” Kumar added.
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