In July 2022, hundreds queued at Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka for advance Eid-ul-Azha tickets. Some waited more than twelve hours before sales began and still went home empty-handed. Others remained at the station for the next day’s 8 a.m. release. In one family relay, a brother arrived at 9 p.m. and his sibling joined at 5 a.m.; together they secured seven tickets.
There were 26,731 daily seats on trains leaving Dhaka during the holiday period. Half were sold at counters and the rest online or through apps. More than 13,000 northern-route tickets had been sold through nine counters by noon; other locations sold about 9,000 by 2 p.m., while 11,600 went online and 1,900 through apps. A large total did not prevent scarcity once travel date, destination and sales channel divided the inventory. The twelve-hour wait was the price of one specific seat, not of the railway’s overall capacity.