Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: Indian Railways has reported earnings of Rs 1,229.85 crore from cancelled waiting list tickets between the years 2021 and 2024 (up to January). This information was disclosed in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by activist Vivek Pandey from Madhya Pradesh. The Railway Ministry’s data also indicated a consistent increase in revenue from this source over the specified period.
In 2021, approximately 25.3 million tickets on the waiting list were cancelled, resulting in earnings of Rs 242.68 crore for Indian Railways. The following year, the number of cancelled tickets surged to 46 million, with revenue reaching Rs 439.16 crore. In 2023, the trend continued, with 52.6 million waitlisted tickets being cancelled, contributing to earnings of Rs 505 crore.
In January 2024 alone, 4.586 million tickets were cancelled, generating Rs 43 crore for the Railways. Altogether, this accounts for more than 128 million cancelled waiting list tickets during the specified period.
During the Diwali week last year, from November 5 to November 17, Railways witnessed a significant surge in ticket cancellations, amounting to 9.618 million tickets. Notably, nearly half of these cancellations were from passengers on the waiting list across all quotas, according to data from the Centre for Railway Information Systems.
