CHENNAI: In yet another instance of people without reserved tickets occupying reserved coaches, 18 passengers who had booked their tickets in advance were not able to board a Howrah-bound express train from MGR Chennai Central railway station after a group of unreserved passengers forcefully got in and occupied their seats.

According to a Daily Thanthi report, the incident happened on Tuesday night. The passengers were waiting on the platform to board the Chennai-Howrah Superfast Mail. However, as the train came in, a large number of people started barging in even before the train came to a complete halt.

Due to this, several passengers with reserved tickets were not able to board the train. The report said as many as 18 passengers who were allocated tickets on S3 coach were among those who were affected by this.

"If we can't travel despite having reservations, what's the point of reserving? Such incidents are continuously happening on trains from Tamil Nadu to northern states," a passenger was quoted as saying in the Daily Thanthi report.

Such incidents of people without reservation travelling in reserved coaches are being reported often in the recent days. In the most recent incident on June 9, angry passengers of Kanniyakumari Express staged a protest after unreserved passengers occupied their seats. The railway police evicted those travelling without proper ticket and moved them to a different coach to end the protest.

Similar cases were reported from other parts of the country, too, and some of the affected passengers had posted videos on social media showing crowded reserved compartments, which are supposed to be occupied by only those who have booked tickets in advance.