JAIPUR: Ignorance is not a bliss for at least 350 foreign tourists in Rajasthan who were fined while traveling without tickets in various trains run by north western railways (NWR). Fooled by touts, including train ticket agents, who provided waiting list tickets, these foreign tourists were caught for ticketless traveling in various trains in the past six months.

Official sources in the NWR said since June to November 15 this year, railway officials organised stern campaigns to discourage ticketless traveling at various divisions of the region. Authorities including train conductors (TC), train ticket examiners (TTE) and flying squads were asked to deal with all cases of ticketless traveling seriously.

"Though it is difficult to get the exact figure from various divisions of the north western railways but an approximate figure suggested that at least 350 passengers were caught traveling without ticket in past six months. All of them were from different countries including Netherlands, United Kingdom (UK) Belgium and France ," a senior officer of the NWR said on Saturday.

When TOI collected the figures from the TC, TTE and flying squads to find out under what circumstances these foreigners were caught, it was found that these tourists were tricked.

"Majority of them were fooled by the travel and railway ticket booking agents. The touts had told them that they can continue with their journey even with a waiting list (WL) ticket. Onboard, they were found looking for berth and when they contacted the TTE with a WL ticket, they were caught. However, some of them had no option other than continuing their journey as during mid October to mid November, trains were overcrowded due to the festive rush," said an officer with the flying squad of Jaipur division of NWR.

Out of these passengers, many of them were so ignorant that they realized their mistake only after boarding the train.

"The massive campaign against ticketless travelling had good results. Out of these 350 foreign passengers, we spared a few of them on humanitarian grounds as they said they were not travelling with cash and didn't have anything to pay for the penalty," said Ashok Awasthi , a TTE posted at Alwar.

"Some of them who realized that they were traveling without tickets only after boarding the train were also caught," said a senior train conductor who was on duty in various trains including Jaipur-Jammutawi, Aasharam Express, Haridwar Mail and Jodhpur-Howarh express among others.

"Most of them were ignorant and had held the travel agents and railway staff responsible for the fault. A foreign lady who was caught told me that she had to catch the train to Agra and she knew that she was committing a mistake by traveling with a waiting list ticket. There was heavy rush for trains train between October 15 and November 15," a senior railway officer said.

