Indian Railways adds 267 general coaches for unreserved passengers on Central Railway and Western Railway

Railway officials say additional coaches are benefitting over 10,000 passengers daily. File Pics/Atul Kamble

The Central and Western Railway have each added over 100 general class coaches to multiple pairs of mail/express trains within a year to boost the capacity of trains carrying an increased number of unreserved passengers. The Railways, over the last few years, have received sharp criticism following the introduction of high-end Vande Bharat trains and increasing the number of first-class and AC coaches.

Following this, to meet the growing demand for general coaches, a special manufacturing programme was launched, aiming to produce 12,000 general coaches. Out of this, more than 900 have already been added this financial year, with a target of manufacturing 10,000 more, ensuring convenience for unreserved category passengers.

As a policy, the railways have now emphasised on maintaining a ratio of 2:3 for non-AC coaches and 1:3 for AC coaches. "One hundred and seventeen additional general coaches have been added to 37 pairs of mail/express trains running on CR with 79 trains. These are benefitting more than 10,000 additional passengers daily. The changes, which started in June and July 2024, gathered pace in November 2024 with an addition of 81 coaches in 26 trains that month, and we hope to augment the coaches further to better serve the passengers at large," Central Railway (CR) chief public relations officer Dr Swapnil Nila said.

According to Vineet Abhishek, Western Railway's chief public relations officer, in view of the ever-increasing demand of the general public towards rail travel, the process to augment additional general coaches is going on in all rail zones and divisions across the country.

"In this sequence, the Western Railway has added almost 150 new additional coaches of general category in 78 pairs of trains in the last six months, i.e., from July to December. Thousands of additional passengers are being benefited from this every day," he said. Overall, Indian Railways has augmented 385 pairs of trains with 957 second-class or general seating coaches being attached to 635 rakes.