A false claim regarding the Indian Railways reducing the sleeper and general coaches to generate more revenue from AC coaches is being shared on social media.
On the X platform (formerly known as Twitter), a propagandist account with the handle name Balram Vishwakarma, tweeted a news story about an incident in Gujarat where a man, holding an AC ticket, was allegedly forced out of the train by ticketless passengers. The account further took the opportunity to criticize Indian Railways and claim that the non AC and general coaches in train have been reduced. The claim stated, “Indian Railways quietly reduced SL class and GEN coaches for shit load of trains & converted them into 3AC and 2AC coaches to increase revenue. Because of this it’s gotten harder and harder for folks to get Sleeper Class tickets.”
He also tweeted (Archived link) a chart that shows the composition of the rake used in the 22-coach train. This chart shows that the train rake’s composition has changed. While the number of AC-3 Tier coaches increased, the number of General, First Class and Sleeper coaches decreased. The number of AC-1 Tier and AC-2 Tier buses has also changed. Dining car and power car/guard room numbers are still the same. The user tried to imply that these changes were made to favor AC coaches over non-AC and general coaches, presumably to increase revenue.
Another account Vinay Aravind (Archived link) quoting Balram’s tweet wrote, “Staggering! The affordable (non-AC) coaches are general and sleeper. As per this table, earlier *some* 22 coach trains would have 11 non-AC coaches and 9 AC coaches. That has been gutted so that now these trains have 4 non-AC and 15 AC coaches. BJP’s priorities are clear.”
The handle Roopali (Archived link) wrote, “The BJP govt is making Indian Railways, the lifeline of crores of Indians, unaffordable & out of reach for ordinary folks… See thread. (This ‘increased revenue’ will probably go towards funding ridiculous vanity projects like bullet trains…)”
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In our fact-checking report, we found an official letter of the Railways Board dated October 2023, where it is clarified that the composition of the 22 coach trains remained unchanged. This letter is about the ongoing standardization process for the composition of Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rake trains. LHB refers to the type of railway carriage used in India. The letter refers to the following points (reference ii) regarding standardization of such trains and the latest letter from the board (reference (i)) has changed the composition of the long distance (non-premium type) Mail Express trains. The composition includes a new variant of coaches, and the changes are detailed in the provided information:
For easy understanding a table is given below explaining “Rake Composition of a 22 Coach Train.”
| Category | Previous Composition | Revised Composition |
| General | 04 | 04 |
| Sleeper | 07 | 07/06 |
| AC 3 | 06 | 06 |
| AC 2 | 02 | 02 |
| AC 1 | 01 | 01/00 |
| Pantry car | 01 | 01/00 |
| Power car | _ | 01 |
| Guard Compartment | _ | 01 |
Furthermore, as per a Business Standards report, railway officials have said that a significant 95.3% of the 390.2 crore railway passengers who traveled between April and October 2023 chose to travel in the general and sleeper classes. On the other hand, just 4.7% opted AC coaches. When comparing April to October of this year to the same time previous year, the railways saw a notable increase in both the overall and sleeper class passenger count. Therefore, the assertion that the railway is generating more revenue from AC class is unfounded. Based on the data, it appears that a greater proportion of passengers are choosing non-AC coaches, suggesting that the railway makes more revenue from this segment.
Moreover, LHB carriages were not widely introduced or used on Indian trains until 2014. To put it simply, LHB coaches offer greater comfort and safety compared to ICF (Integral Coach Factory) coaches. The Ministry of Railways (Archived link) reports that as of September 2023, 31,956 LHB coaches have been manufactured between 2014 and 2023. Prior to that, just 2,337 LHB coaches were produced between 2004 and 2014.
The last nine years have seen the production of more than 31000 LHB coaches by Indian Railways. As part of its modernization effort, the LHB rake was introduced. The national transporter is gradually substituting the LHB coach for the traditional ICF coach, contingent on coach availability and operational viability.
For low-income travelers, the soon-to-be-introduced Vande Sadharan/Amrit Bharat Trains will also be a game changer: The least expensive long-distance travel option will be a 22-coach push-pull train, the first of its kind, with 8 general and 12 sleeper coaches.
Hence, the assertion that the Indian Railways have lowered the number of sleeper and general coaches and are prioritizing AC coaches is false because the composition of 22 coach train remains unchanged.
| Claim | Indian Railways have reduced sleeper and general coaches |
| Claimed by | Balram Vishwakarma |
| Fact Check | false |
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