Turnstiles at New Delhi

New Delhi Railway Station has begun using metro-style turnstile gates to control entry as Indian Railways braces for the summer travel rush. (indianexpress.com) Northern Railway installed the gates on the Ajmeri Gate side as a pilot, with separate channels for reserved and unreserved passengers and checks tied to valid tickets, according to officials cited by The Indian Express. (indianexpress.com) The station change landed as Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reviewed summer operations in New Delhi on April 23, 2026. The ministry said Indian Railways plans 18,262 summer special train trips between April 15 and July 15, with 11,878 trips already notified. (newkerala.com) BusinessLine reported the extra trains are meant to ease congestion, cut waiting lists and add capacity on high-demand routes during the April-to-July peak window. The same report described the station measures as part of a broader, “systematic” deployment for the season. (thehindubusinessline.com) Turnstiles change how crowd control works at a railway station: instead of large numbers of passengers entering platforms at once, access is metered gate by gate, like a subway system. That lets staff separate ticketed travelers, slow surges at choke points and move boarding lines faster. (indianexpress.com) The rollout follows months of pressure on Indian Railways to tighten access control at busy stations. In March 2025, Vaishnaw said access-control systems would be introduced at 60 stations and linked the plan to recurring overcrowding problems. (timesnownews.com) New Delhi station is one of the system’s busiest hubs, so even a pilot there is a test of whether railways can push airport- or metro-style entry screening into long-distance train travel without slowing boarding too much. Officials are presenting the summer program as a way to keep journeys smoother and safer as passenger volumes climb through mid-July. (indianexpress.com) (newkerala.com)