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0 pointsinapis5y ago0 comments

Tickets are non-transferable but bribery is still a thing, especially where demand far outstrips the supply.

Second, fake IDs are easy to make.

Third, it's impractical to enforce on the ground. Indian Railways is relatively open access compared to airlines. On average, trains begin boarding 15-30 mins prior to departure and have a very high number of passengers. With an avg of 16 coaches per rake, with each coach having 60-100 passengers, each train is carrying 960-1600 passengers. Some trains are even longer and most trains are over capacity because 2nd sitting has no reservation and people just pile on as far as there is room in the coach. It's pretty impractical to verify tickets of 1000+ people along with their ids. If you are departing out of a major city, its usual for TTEs to verify tickets after 2-3 hours (and after smaller stations have been crossed.)

Tickets have been hogged and scalped for a long time in India. I'm the first in my family who has no concept of bribing or buying scalped tickets or engaging an "agent." Everyone of the previous generation has plenty of stories about their experiences before. There is still a long way to go to improve access but I will also not deny that there has been a significant improvement compared to my parents experience.

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michaelt5y ago

So the government-run rail services don't provide enough capacity, the government's employees are corrupt, the government-issued ID documents are easily faked, and the solution is... to make government's train website slow and unreliable?

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sriku5y ago

I don't recall a single instance of corruption with the Indian railways at the consumer level in nearly 2 decades including an instance when I was fined for not purchasing a platform ticket which would've been an opportunity for the officer to ask for a bribe but he didn't.

I don't think I'd faking or bribery are big issues with ticketing any more. It is most likely equitable access between the "internet haves" and "the internet have nots".

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