Just by reading the title, you think that one passenger every minute could not travel in 2025-26 just because they missed their train, well, you are wrong. According to data shared by the Railway Ministry of India, about 3.39 crore passengers in FY 2025-2026 were unable to travel because their tickets in the waiting list were not confirmed. This led to the auto-cancellation of their journey at the time of chart preparation by Indian Railways. Here’s more about this:
Indian Railways: 3 Crore People Missed Travelling In 2025-2026 Due To Ticket Cancellation
Journey Cancelled For Sleeper Class & 3AC Passengers
Bhopal-based activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur received RTI (Right To Information) replies from the Indian Ministry of Railways, which resulted in a shocking revelation about online bookings. It showed that 3.39 crore passengers missed out on travelling because their waitlisted tickets remained unconfirmed, which further led to their cancellations. This meant that 2.19 crore PNRs (Passenger Name Record) were actually cancelled during 2025-2026.
Also Read: Indian Railways Sets 2030 Goal To Double Train Capacity In 48 Cities
If you break down the given data, it shows that about 92,877 passengers every day missed their journey. This meant that about 3,870 passengers every hour, 64 passengers every minute, and almost one passenger every second are missing their train because of an unconfirmed ticket.
Also Read: Indian Railways To Expand Network By 901 Km Across 6 States
Class-Wise Cancellation Details In The Data
The RTI-related document actually shows class-wise auto-cancellation data. This data shows how the biggest burden of these cancellations fell on the 3AC and Sleeper class passengers.
About 2.78 lakh PNRs were cancelled under 1AC, which meant about 3.85 lakh passengers could not travel. Under 2AC, about 16.41 lakh PNRs were cancelled, which meant about 24.21 lakh passengers missed out on travel. Approximately 74.55 lakh PNRs from the 3AC category were cancelled. The highest number of cancellations came from Sleeper Class, which is about 1.05 crore PNRs.
Activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur spoke about how these figures highlighted the severe shortage of confirmed berths and trains on the most popular routes.
Also Read: Indian Railways Tightens Luggage Rules With Weight Caps And Penalties
Summing Up
According to data shared by the Indian Ministry of Railways, about 3.39 crore passengers missed out on travel because of unconfirmed railway tickets, which got cancelled eventually in 2025-2026.
