Despite the assurance from the Railway Board that sleeper coaches in mail/express trains would remain unaffected, there are plans to reduce non-air conditioned coaches in 37 pairs of trains during the 2024-2025 period. This change in composition is attributed to the substitution of traditional Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coaches with LHB coaches. According to an anonymous communication from the railways, among the 37 pairs of trains, six originate from Nagpur, serving routes to Pune, Mumbai, Kolhapur, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad.
The proposed conversion of passenger trains into LHB coaches include Nagpur-Ahmedabad Prerna (22137-38), Nagpur-Jaipur (22175-76), Nagpur-CSMT Sevagram (12139-40), Nagpur-Pune Garib Rath (12113-14), Nagpur-Pune (12135-36), and Nagpur-Kolhapur (11403-04). With the exception of Garib Rath, which currently operates with 16 coaches, the remaining trains typically run with 22-24 coaches, with at least 11 sleeper class coaches. In the new plan, sleeper coaches will be replaced by 11 AC-III coaches. Earlier, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (SrDCM) Ashutosh Shrivastava stated that he had no prior knowledge of such information. It’s worth mentioning that the Railway Board had previously reduced sleeper coaches in Nagpur-CSMT Duronto and Amravati-CSMT express. Although the coaches in Duronto were reinstated following robust protests, no such reinstatement occurred for the coaches in Amravati-CSMT.
The president of Rail Yatri Sangh, Braj Bhushan Shukla, has already brought up the matter in DRUCC meetings. “We are not opposed to LHB coaches but curtailing sleeper class coaches, mostly used by the middle-class sector, is wrong”, he said.