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Southern Railway has expanded its last-minute ticket booking facility to all 17 Vande Bharat trains that start from its zone. Under this system, passengers can now book vacant seats up to 15 minutes before the train departs. This booking option will be available not only at the train's starting station
but also at intermediate stations along the route. The move is aimed at helping travellers who need tickets at the last moment and also ensuring that more seats do not go empty.
Why has Southern Railway had a last-minute ticket booking facility?
This decision comes after a pilot project was introduced on 8 Vande Bharat trains in July 2025. Southern Railway said the experiment worked very well and led to a big jump in both bookings and earnings. Before the new current-booking system, the average number of passengers using this facility was 16,729 per month during April to June 2025. After the pilot began, this number increased to 30,267 passengers per month from August to October 2025. That means the bookings grew by 80.93%.
The earnings from these last-minute bookings also increased sharply. Monthly revenue from the facility went up from ₹124.80 lakh to ₹222.17 lakh, which is a rise of 78.02%. This showed Southern Railway that many passengers were interested in booking seats just before departure if the option was made easier and more flexible.
Southern Railway's Vande Bharat services have also shown strong overall growth. In 2025-26, its 24 Vande Bharat trains carried 77.38 lakh passengers and earned ₹803.86 crore. In comparison, during 2024-25, these trains carried 54.12 lakh passengers and earned ₹540.65 crore. This shows a major rise in both ridership and revenue within a year.