Thiruvananthapuram K-Rail’s SilverLine will prove attractive to long-distance road and rail travelers. A lot of people on waiting list fail to obtain reservation in A/C compartments. Total of 52 lakh AC Waiting List tickets ended up with cancellation in past six month. Southern Railways cancels an average half-lakh waiting tickets daily, of which a large chunk is booked from Kerala.
The Railways had decided to give an additional of 150 AC tickets. However, numbers of those left with cancelled tickets simply increased. Rail travelers totaled to roughly 4 crore per day in 2019-20. That number rose to 7 crores in 2021. Kerala is set to witness huge spike in road traffic. This was abundantly clear in the aftermath of Centre announcing the old vehicle scrapping policy.
Vehicles numbers will rise to a level that cannot be contained on roads. Widening of roads is a tight spot. K-Rail study shows steady rise in numbers of car travelers spanning above 200 km and though they aim to be traveling more comfortably compared to train or bus journey, traffic jams etc negate that leverage. These travelers are bound to choose SilverLine as a better option.
