Indian Railways is planning to convert general coaches into AC compartments in long-distance trains. The conversion of the compartments will offer a comfortable journey to passengers who can’t afford to travel in AC coaches otherwise. While Railways is yet to make an official announcement, a source close to the development told Times of India that the converted general AC coaches will have seating arrangements for 100-200 passengers and hence the fares can be kept low allowing common people to use these coaches.
The new AC compartments will have fully reserved seats and feature automatic closing doors. Railways have already started working out a plan and brainstorming sessions are being conducted, reported TOI. While nothing has been confirmed by the Railways, the first of these AC General Class coaches is likely to be manufactured at the Railway Coach factory in Punjab’s Kapurthala.
General coaches of Indian Railways are kept unreserved, however, since the Covid-19 pandemic, all such coaches have been converted to reserved compartments. Railways recently unveiled the AC economy compartments that come with lower fares than the AC-3 tier coaches. The economy coaches were introduced as an option for sleeper passengers.
Meanwhile, Railways also announced its plan to resume regular train services like the pre-Covid-19 area. With this announcement, more than 1700 trains that were suspended due to the pandemic will be restored in the next few days. These trains will run with regular fares and categorisation as before. However, the notification added that the second class of such trains shall continue to run as reserved.
The regular operation of the Railways remained affected ever since the first lockdown was announced in March 2020. The Railways’ operation had come to a complete halt before they resumed with special trains.
Currently, 95% of express trains are back on the tracks, with 25% of these trains still being operated under the “special category.”
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