New Delhi: Indian Railways has introduced a new facility allowing passengers to start their journey from a station before their designated boarding point, provided the seat is vacant. This initiative, aimed at enhancing passenger convenience, has been initially rolled out in the Eastern Railway zone and will be expanded to other zones, including West-Central Railway, from April onwards, according to Dainik Bhaskar.
Passengers will be able to board the train from a preceding station without any additional charges. For instance, if a passenger has a confirmed ticket from Bina to Delhi but wants to board from Bhopal, they can do so if the seat remains unoccupied before reaching Bina. Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (DCM) Saurabh Kataria confirmed that the Railway Board has issued directives to General Managers of all railway zones to implement this system.
Indian Railways has also introduced new ticket validation measures to prevent ticket fraud and streamline operations. If a passenger fails to meet the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) at their designated boarding station, their seat will be reallocated to a passenger from the Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) list, and their ticket will be cancelled. TTEs will now use handheld terminal devices to mark absent passengers, and the system will automatically assign the seat to the next waiting passenger. Before reallocation, a message will be sent to the original ticket holder to notify them.
Passengers traveling without a valid ticket can now pay fines and penalties via QR codes on the TTE’s handheld device.
