Despite the Indian Railways claims of taking steps to ensure that all waitlisted tickets are verified, over 2.7 crore passengers were unable to travel by train in 2022-23 due to the non-confirmation of their waitlisted tickets. In response to an RTI complaint filed by MP-based activist Chandrasekhar Gaur, its IRCTC wing stated that in 2022-2023, a total of 1.76 crore Passenger Name Record (PNR) numbers were generated in the waiting category to ease the journey of roughly 2.72 crore passengers. However, they were not confirmed at the time of chart creation, their waitlisted tickets were automatically cancelled.
Due to a lack of seats and berths in various areas of the country, 1.06 crore PNR numbers generated in the waitlisted category for 1.65 crore passengers were automatically deleted in 2021-22. The Railways also experienced a major income loss as a result of the large number of automatically revoked tickets, since fares were refunded to customers.
According to Railways authorities, 1.13 crore PNR numbers in the waitlisted category were cancelled in 2014-15, and 81.05 lakh in 2015-2016. It had to cancel around 72.13 lakh such PNR numbers in 2016-2017, 73 lakh in 2017-18, and 68.97 lakh in 2018-2019. According to official information made available to the media, the Railways deleted 38.89 lakh PNR numbers booked for 61 lakh passengers in 2020-21 after the waiting status for those tickets was not confirmed.
According to a senior official, the Railways is making every effort to accommodate as many waitlisted customers as possible by running trains on multiple routes.
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