For RailFans, the Journey itself is the Destination. - Sreerup Patranabis

Train Number / Name: 12296 / SANGHA MITRA EXPRESS Class: 3A Journey Date: 17th November 2012 Boarding Point: Allahabad Junction (ALD) Destination: Chennai Central (MAS) PNR Number: 6704617039 My grievance is in connection with the travel details mentioned above. I booked this ticket on 19th July 2012, i.e. 4 months before the journey date, through IRCTC website, with my login ID. At the time of booking, the status allotted to me was W/L 4 and W/L 5. The status further improved to W/L 2 and W/L 3 in the span of the next few days.. On the day of the journey, a few hours before chart preparation, I checked the status online and found it out to be W/L 1 and W/L 2. But when the chart got prepared, I was shocked to find that one of the tickets was confirmed while the other was W/L 1. So two of us...
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had to undertake the 2200KM journey on a single berth, even though I got the ticket booked 4 months prior to the journey. Now what I fail to understand is that when one of the tickets, whose status was W/L 1 got confirmed, why did the one that was W/L 2 not come to atleast RAC, when there were so many passengers in my coach traveling on RAC..? When I asked the TTE at Allahabad Station as to how this could have been done, he said “You write a letter to the Rail Minister and I am not the person who can reply to this query” When I tried to chat with a few other passengers who had waiting list tickets and whose tickets got subsequently confirmed, I was again shocked to find that people with waiting listed tickets up to W/L 27 claimed that their ticket got confirmed on the last day and they got confirmed berths. Please explain as to what is the protocol being followed while confirmation of waitlisted tickets, and also explain how does a waitlist of W/L 27 got confirmed and W/L 5 just moved to W/L 1. What sort of Quota Mechanism is working in the Railways on Busy Routes. Even when MPs, MLAs and Judges are not themselves traveling, they are getting the tickets of all their kith and kins confirmed. Then why at all railways is running for common people? Also, the TTE came to the coach (B3) only once and the rest of the times, the attendant, who did not wear any nameplate / badge, was walking around with a chart in his hand supervising the journey. Dissatisfied with the service, seeking a satisfactory explaination.. SANCHIT KAPOOR