I have been a frequent traveler from railway but till now I can say that my experience is nothing less than a torture. My entire childhood memory of railway is filled with haunted incident happened with us during our travel in many occasions. If you also get a chance to travel from railways especially in north india then probably you would understand it much better. Except in few of the premium trains like Rajdhani and Duronto express, if you travel from any other general train probably you will get to see the reality.

Travelling from railway is nothing less than a torture on a busy route

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I still remember travelling in one of the daily train where people are treated like animals and TTE and other railway staffs does not seem to bother about the difficulties people faces especially those who spend their hard working money to buy tickets. Ticketless people seems to take over the entire train in few of the festivals like holi, dussehra or if there is any national level exams. The crowd will be so much that there will hardly be any space to move. Elders, children and persons with disabilities were the worst sufferers.

I always used to think what kind of rule railway follows to protect the rights of law abiding passengers who always travels with valid ticket and how those laws are implemented in that dreaded crowd. In many occasions, I observed that no railway officials were present when crowd comes in and as a result no one was available to protect the rights of passengers. Many times passengers start fighting with each other for a seat. Sometimes a small quarrel even get uglier and not a single RPF(railway protection force) personnel or any other railway staffs will be there to solve the problem.

Many times if you are travelling in night and if you have reservation then in some of the stoppages where station seems to be quiet and sometimes dark, you won’t be able to board the train as gate will remain closed from inside. Even if there is an attendant in train, he would either be sleeping or not available to help you in those kind of situations. This has happened with me many times in the past. In few cases, I had to leave my train and then suffer for my entire journey. There is no rule made to handle this type of situation and no one would be willing to help in this scenario.

Till now, there is no rule exists which surely tells after these many passengers in a coach, no further entrance is allowed in that coach and the rest of the passenger will be shifted to some other coach or if not able to board then money will be returned to them or an alternative coach or train will be arranged. This arrangement does exists but in very special scenario and it is entirely up to railway to decide in which of the cases they would arrange a special train or coach which means for rest of the days passengers continue to suffer.

Usually, when we pay to buy something, we are guaranteed to get that product but in the case of railways even after taking money for travelling, railways would not provide any guarantee that you would be able to get on your seat and travel on the same. If someone else sitting on your seat then it is entirely upto you to handle that situation which further decides how your journey is going to be.

As soon as my financial conditions allowed me, I altogether left travelling from railways and now only travel long distances via air and short distances via road. It is said that by travelling through railway will always save lot of your time and money but nobody talks about the trauma a middle class person who pays all his/her taxes on time has to go through while travelling in a train with no safety and security provided.

At last, I just hope railway improve their services (not just in premium trains but in all types of trains especially on a busy route where so many persons travel on daily basis) so that a middle class person like me does not have to go through all this.