NOT GETTING LOWER BERTH IN IRCTC BOOKINGS- 37

Did you know why ,  IRCTC does not allow you to choose seats or berths while making reservations for travel  ? It mearly asks for your preference while making the bookings online . What you actually get is left to IRCTC. Would you believe that the technical reason for this is PHYSICS .
Booking a seat in a train is far different from booking a seat in a movie theater  .
Theatre is a stationary hall whereas a train is a moving object . Hence , safety  in motion is a very high priority .
Indian Railways ticket booking software is designed in such a way that it will book tickets in a manner that will distribute the load evenly in a train .
Let us assume that there are S1 to S10 , that is 10 coaches of the sleeper class with 72 berths in each coach .
So , when someone first books a ticket , the installed software will assign a berth in the middle coach S5 between the berth numbers 30 to 40 and preferably lower berths . The software first fills the lower berths so as to achieve a low center of gravity .
The software books seats in such a way that all coaches have uniform load distribution and seats are filled up from the middle of the coach and then extending up to the doors on either sides .
This is why when you book a ticket at the last minute , you almost always end up getting an upper berth in the first or last bay.
Just imagine a situation where S1 to S3 are completely full and S5 and S6 are completely empty and the other coaches only partially full . Most of the modern day long distance trains travel at  100 plus kms per hour , when the train takes a bend , some coaches face the maximum centrifugal force and some the minimum . This is a very high risk derailment inducing scenario . The huge difference in the weight also has a huge difference in the braking load when brakes are applied by the driver of the train .
I HAVE , MYSELF OFTEN COMPLAINED ABOUT THE FACT THAT I ALWAYS SEEM TO GET THE UPPER BERTH WHEN BOOKING TRAIN TICKETS .
THE SOFTWARE AND THE PHYSICS INVOLVED HAS MADE ME BETTER INFORMED NOW AS TO WHY THIS IS SO .



Comments

  1. seshadri23 February 2019 at 07:47

    really well thoughtout reason. one more thing . we are allowed to choose our seat for security reasons, especially in the case of celebrities

    ReplyDelete
  2. Murthy4 October 2020 at 20:37

    This is how a ship is loaded also. If it is a container ship, it will be loaded in this manner, distributing the load evenly so as not to break or tip the ship. Liquid container ships are also compartmentalized in such a manner that at the bottom there are connections ensuring even distribution of load.

    ReplyDelete

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