Passengers Occupy Woman's Confirmed Seat. How Railways Helped Her

Travelling in the trains of Indian Railways has been a memory of many of our childhood days. However, lately, this experience has been blotted with frequent train overcrowding incidents. There have also been many multiple allotted seat incidents. 

One such nightmare turned true in the first experience of a young girl who was travelling alone for the first time in YNRK-HWH Express on February 18. A Twitter user shared her younger sister's experience of travelling alone for the first time with Indian Railways and how she was forced to move by other older passengers to sit with three other men on an upper berth despite her confirmed seat. 

Passengers Occupy Woman's Confirmed Seat:

X (Formerly Twitter) user who goes by the name @Avoid_potato on the microblogging site shared the ordeal of her younger sister in a thread of tweets with photographs and a video attached to it that show several passengers occupying her sister's confirmed seat as she later on also shared her ticket with PNR status and number. 

For the first time my younger sister is travelling alone by train.
Anyhow we got our ticket confirmed at the last moment and train arrived 3hrs late.
She went to her seat and it was not vacant, an uncle ji with her whole family was sitting there. pic.twitter.com/ECEbllMKXp

— Potato!🚩 (@Avoid_potato) February 18, 2024

The woman claimed that when these passengers were asked to vacate the confirmed seat of her sister they allegedly refused to let the passenger who is entitled to her confirmed seat have her seat. The woman also claimed that "Uncle Ji" who was sitting with his whole family in her sister's confirmed seat started to scold the young woman meddling with her to occupy some other seat. 

The young woman was then shifted to be seated on an Upper Berth of the same coach with three other men despite the young traveller's confirmed seat. 

The X user also shared her sister was travelling alone for the first time for her practical exams and was not well. She also shared her sister was not comfortable with the inconvenience caused by her fellow travellers and sought help from the netizens if she could help her sister sitting apart at her home. 

Railways Vacate The Passengers Occupying A Young Woman's Confirmed Seat:

Many netizens suggested the X user seek help from Rail Madad and Rail Seva as she can dial 139 which is the helpline number of Rail Madad while travelling in the train as well and can lodge the complaint on their app. 

The woman a few hours later updated that her sister reached safely and shared how she contacted 139 (Rail Madad) through their helpline and a team of Railway Protection Force (RPF) reached the train to her sister within 20 mins of her complaint as they asked for the traveller's contact number and vacated her sister's occupied seat within 20 minutes. The woman also thanked Indian Railways in her thread. 

Internet Reacts:

However, many netizens were not pleased by the swift action of Indian Railways and RPF as they expressed their frustration and anger on the incident as they claimed this is "too common" in train travel these days. 

Many users blamed the woman and her sister for booking the seats for Sleeper coaches of the trains and suggested women travelling alone or men with their families must book tickets for AC coaches. The X user then shared the ticket was booked in urgency and AC tickets were unavailable along with raising the question about the ones who cannot afford tickets for AC coaches. 

Many other users also shared their ordeal of similar experiences and expressed their disappointment towards the Indian Railways as a user wrote: "So unfortunate but not surprising - Indian railways is consistently decreasing the number of sleeper/general bogeys and increasing 3rd ACs hoping for more revenue, expecting half of India to just put up with it."

Many other users pointed out the degrading conditions of train travelling especially in the trains travelling to North India a user wrote "Majority people in comments are asking why didn't you book 3AC or 2AC. She has a confirmed ticket in the sleeper, paid money for it and still struggling to get her seat. Railways especially in the north is doomed!"