Is it just me or Railways has actually started reducing SL coaches after converting ICF trains to LHB? Recently, Krishak Express from Lucknow to Varanasi via Gorakhpur is being trimmed by two SL coaches after conversion to LHB.
Even for ICF trains, take the example of Lucknow and Chandigarh. They have two dedicated overnight trains. One goes via the direct route and is preferred first by passengers and has upto First AC accomodation. Makes sense. The second, meanwhile, is treated as a second tier option since it goes via a longer loop...
more... line and fills later. It has only three SL coaches and eight AC coaches. The SL coaches all have significant WL criterion whilst AC coaches can be booked nearly the same day. When there is clearly not enough demand for AC travel in this train, why is IR forcing pax to book into AC? Or, the train currently has sixteen coaches and ICF trains can handle more coaches than this. They can easily add three SL coaches to handle demand.