Bangladesh to resume selling unreserved train tickets after 2 years of pandemic

Bangladesh Railway will resume selling unreserved tickets for standing passengers on the district trains after two years of suspension due to the pandemic.

The rail authorities on Thursday decided to sell the “standing” tickets for the inter-district trains following a meeting, said Asim Kumar Talukdar, general manager of the western region. However, the new decision will not apply to direct inter-district routes, such as the Dhaka-to-Chattogram line.

“Currently, we’re not selling those tickets but many passengers are already travelling standing on the trains but without paying the fare,” he said.

“We’re unable to control the passengers when they get on board ticketless. And chaos starts when we move to penalise them. That’s why we made the decision.”

Asim, however, said the authorities will determine the date next week to start the ticket sale and how many tickets will be available for standing passengers.

In the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the train communication was suspended for 67 days. On May 31 that year, the railway started carrying passengers to half of its capacity. As the pandemic ebbed, the trains began to carry passengers to their full capacity. But the sale of standing tickets was still on hold.

Now the situation went back to normal, leading to an increase in ticketless passengers. Some railway staffers make money from allowing those passengers to travel without tickets.