Number of RAC berths in all trains to go up

There are five RAC berths in sleeper coaches, which have been increased to seven and now 14 passengers can be accommodated instead of 10

NEW DELHI: To accommodate more passengers, Railways has decided to increase reservation against cancellation (RAC) berths in all trains. Railways has decided to revise the number of berths to be earmarked as Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) and it will help in allowing more passengers to travel in the train, a senior Railway Ministry official said on Monday.

According to the official, the decision would be be implemented from January 16 next year. Currently there are five RAC berths in Sleeper coaches, which has been increased to seven and as a result 14 passengers can be accommodated instead of 10 only.

Passengers are provided sitting accommodation at lower side berths marked as RAC and two passengers can sit in one berth. In the 3AC coaches, there were only two RAC berths which has been increased to four to accommodate total eight passengers instead of four only.

For the 2AC coaches, RAC berths has been increased to three from the existing two. Now six passengers can be accommodated in 2AC instead of four only. Even though Railways trying its best to make available confirm ticket, passengers are not getting as over 10 lakh people fail to travel daily due to unavailability of train tickets. According to a study report, there are nearly 10-12 lakh potential passengers who could not travel due to nonconfirmed tickets on a daily basis.