Travelling
is luxury for some and necessity for most. For a long time Railways has been an
undisputed leader as the best mode of transport, providing the maximum value
for money. It is much more than a mere mode of transport and plays a vital role
in the regional integration of the vastly diverse country by connecting places,
people and hearts together. Hindi tagline, very beautifully reflects all, what
railway stands for “Desh Ka
Mel – Bhartiya Rail”.
Indian Railways has historically enjoyed
a lot of advantages which has helped it in rising up to helm position and
remain there for a long time. Government support, monopoly, bad roads, less and
highly expensive air connectivity, vast pre-independence infrastructure etc.
are the reasons that helped it to gain an unrivalled position. However it suffered
much degradation for quite some time and lost its shine to the newly emerging
competitors i.e. air and road transport sectors. It is a well established fact
that the respect that once Indian Railways used to command over its passengers,
providing them the world class facilities is no more.
One major reason for this decline is
that while the other modes of transport were continuously expanding their
horizons and catering to the smallest of the passenger requirement, Railways showed
its apathy towards the passengers. It remained lost in its own world and the
area of passenger amenities remained neglected.
However, in the recent times, focus
of the railways has shifted back towards improving the passenger services and a
number of reforms for improving quality of service have been initiated.
Passenger friendly initiatives are being introduced in multiple areas. To
simplify the understanding of the extent and impact of these reforms, the whole
process of train journey can be broadly divided in three major stages, namely booking
a ticket, boarding the train and the journey.
Standing
in long queue and waiting for one’s turn, not to board the train, but just to
get a ticket. It is one of those unpleasant experiences that almost everyone
has endured at some point in his life. And the experience becomes worse when
either one misses the train or gets a waitlisted ticket, and has to wait again
in the queue to get the ticket cancelled. Railway has accepted this challenge
with open arms. To facilitate a passenger in getting a ticket with ease, a
number of bottlenecks have been identified and problems have been addressed at
full throttle. To make the process of ticketing easy and hassle free. “Operation
five minutes” has been launched with aim to ensure that a passenger travelling
unreserved can purchase a ticket within 5 minutes of entering the station.
Under it a system has been introduced to get the paperless unreserved tickets
on mobile phones. Modified ‘hot buttons’, coin vending machines and ‘single
destination teller’ have been introduced in railway stations to reduce the
transaction time while taking tickets. GO India smart card have been introduced
to facilitate cashless transaction at PRS (Passenger Reservation System) and
UTS (Unreserved ticketing system). Cash/Smart card operated ticket vending
machines (CCoTVM) have been introduced, where in passengers can book their
ticket using either smart card or cash. Yatri seva Kendra have been launched
which enables private persons to sell the tickets, thus enhancing the ticket
dispensing network further.
Booking
a ticket online, though appeared to be a better alternative, but it was also no
less than a nightmare. The system was fraught with many challenges. The
capacity of IRCTC web portal was limited and the load was high. To make the
matter worse, it was reported in various news reports about the usage of
illicit software by touts/booking agents to book the tickets immediately after
the opening of web portal. These problems have been addressed by the railways.
Capacity of IRCTC web portal has been augmented almost four folds from 2000
tickets per minute to 7200 tickets per minute. Booking of tatkal tickets for AC
and non AC classes has been staggered, so that the passenger not getting a
tatkal ticket in AC class may try to get a ticket in the non-AC class.
Participation of all booking agents in booking of tatkal tickets is banned for
first half hour, so that the genuine passengers may get the tickets. Service of
Cash on Delivery has been started for e-tickets. Automatic refund of
confirmed/RAC e-tickets on cancellation of trains has been started.
Another
problem related to booking of seats is their scarcity. Often passengers getting
a waitlisted ticket, resort to booking of tickets in multiple trains on the
same route. This causes a lot of inconvenience to passengers and results in
wastage of money, as many of the tickets would have to be eventually
cancelled. In order to overcome this
difficulty, railways has introduced a wonderful scheme of alternate train
accommodation – ‘Vikalp’. Under Vikalp waitlisted passengers of a train would
be given option of getting confirmed accommodation in the next train running on
the route. SMS alerts have been started for status of reserved tickets. All these
inventive steps have collectively relaxed the grueling process of booking a
ticket and getting accommodation on train. Thus passengers can now move forward
in peace towards the next step of journey.
Before
boarding the train, passengers spend a considerable time on railway stations.
Here, unlike the airports where the airline staff renders required help, mostly
the train passengers are left on their own. Seating arrangement at stations is
inadequate, information systems are poor, and most stations are devoid of basic
facilities like potable water. The whatsoever facilities are provided at
stations are concentrated to platform no 1. Can it be automatically presumed
that the passengers waiting for the train, at a platform other than platform no
1, will never feel the need to go to washroom? If not, then why no toilets are
provided at other platforms or if at all they provided, why are they kept as
locked?
Railway
stations are an important bridge to provide adequate comfort to passengers.
Their vulnerability and importance in the system has been identified. To
enhance the utility, comfort and cleanliness of stations, adarsh station scheme
has been launched. Under it facilities to improve the passenger service in
stations are provided. All the areas from the arrival, parking, waiting, food,
etc. are taken care off. Railways have gone a step further by deciding to
provide RO water at selected stations.
Wi-fi
has been introduced at selected stations on pilot basis. SMS alerts have been
introduced for cancelled trains. It has been decided to introduce a centrally
managed Railway Display Network in over 2000 stations over the next two years.
The passengers will be intimated in advance about the updated arrival and
departure status of the trains through SMS alerts. Thus efforts for making the
process of boarding of trains as trouble-free and painless have been made. Now
passengers can start their journey in a more contented manner.
Safety
and security are the primary concerns of any traveler. While travelling the
vulnerability of any person is highest, since one is far from the security of
the house. Railways has done a lot to ensure the safety of its passengers. A
24x7 security helpline-182, has been established which is dedicatedly looking
in the passenger complaints related to security. The complaint are registered
and immediate remedial actions are taken. Other than it railways has also decided
to put a first aid kit in the long distance trains to immediately look into the
medical requirements. The front line staff deployed on trains is trained in
rendering First Aid. Trains can also make unscheduled halts, if necessary, at
the stations en-route in emergencies. The Station Masters are advised to
maintain details of doctors, clinics and hospitals, both Government and
Private, in the vicinity of the station, so that their services could also be
availed, in emergencies.
Another
all India Helpline Number ‘138’ for passengers has been provided, to act as
an interface for queries/complaints
related to medical emergency, cleanliness, food & catering, coach
maintenance, linen etc. The concerns of passengers are catered to on a real
time basis. With the objective of facilitating the passengers to book the meal
of their choice, E-catering has been introduced in a number of trains at many
stations. Now passengers have the choice beyond the food offered by regular
pantry car and can select their meals from other food chains also.
Hygine
and Cleanliness is an area having lot of scope for improvement. Swatch
Rail-Swatch Bharat scheme has been kick started to fill in this scope.
Bio-tiolets are being provided in many trains. On Board House Keeping Services
are being strengthened. Mechanized laundry has been installed to ensure proper
cleaning of bedrolls. Take home bedrolls have been introduced to enhance
cleanliness further.
A
number of other facilities to increase the ease of passengers during journey have
been introduced. Mobile phones have become ubiquitous these days, Indian
Railways has also acknowledged this fact by providing mobile charging
facilities in general class coaches. Lower birth quota for senior citizens and
pregnant women has been increased from 2 to 4 in sleeper class coaches. Wi-fi
is being provided in select moving trains. Handheld devices is being provided
to TTE, so as to facilitate the actual position of occupancy, and re allotment
of seats in a more transparent way.
Some
special initiatives worth mentioning have been taken for the differently-abled
people also. In its effort to provide the opportunities for inclusive
development for differently able people infrastructure has been added to
facilitate the process of journey independently. Concessional e-tickets after one-time
registration for the differently-abled travellers have been started. Under
adarsh station scheme, ramps, separate parking and toilet for differently-abled
are provided at stations. Blind friendly trains have been started on pilot
basis in which the seat numbers are written in Braille. As a special
consideration for old, sick and differently-abled people pre-booking of wheelchairs
while booking their tickets online has been started.
The
most important component of any dynamic system is its feedback mechanism.
Without the proper feedback mechanism any system is bound to fail. Railway has
established its own passenger feedback system through Interactive Voice
Response System (IVRS). Through IVRS passenger feedback is collected in six
areas, namely- Train Cleanliness, Platform Cleanliness at Railways Stations,
Quality of food served to passengers in train, quality of bed roll supplied in
AC coaches, Train punctuality and Cooling of AC in coaches. Passengers are
requested to provide their feedback on the aforesaid amenities in three
categories, i.e. (1) Good (2) Satisfactory (3) Bad. Responses from passengers
categorized as ‘Bad’ are conveyed directly through the system, via e-mails and
mobile phones, to the concerned Divisional authorities for effecting remedial
measures promptly. Since 01.07.2015, out of a total of 3,89,342 calls that were
made on an average daily basis to passengers, the solicited feedback was
received in 99,312 calls on an average daily basis. Other than this dedicated
IVRS system, Railways is also quickly providing relief to the
request/complaints being received on social networking sites like twitter and
facebook. Moreover a Compliant Management System has been established
consisting of a web based portal, a mobile application and a sms based system,
linked to CPGRAMS where in customers can register a variety of complaints and
keep a tracking of the actions taken on them. These measures have increased the
pleasure of the travelers, and now happy faces can be seen emerging from train
after the completion of journey.
The
impact of major passenger friendly initiatives has been immense. News reports
about the experiences of satisfied customers corroborate it. But still much
needs to be done. As per press release dated March 16, 2015 the overall
occupancy of all categories of reserved trains on Indian Railways during FY
2013-14 & 14-15 (upto Feb 2015) was more than 100 %. This is a shameful
statistics, as even after paying for full value, passengers are forced to
travel in deplorable conditions due to the shortage of available accommodation.
But as it is said that Rome was not built in a day, it takes a long time to do
an important job. Beginning is important, and Indian Railways has started its
journey by taking the first step.
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