And for those travelling outside Mumbai the travel agent might become an endangered species. The latest berth availability and scheduled arrival and departures of trains is on a website called www.cr-mumbai.com. Mumbai's stations are in for amakeover as well. Nine suburban stations including Ghatkopar and Kurla will be beautified. Private sector sponsors have been roped in to paint the station, add greenery and keep them clean. All in return for some prime advertising space.

In the last year, CR has aggressively looked at business opportunities in passenger services. Capacity utilisation in premium products such as the Shatabdi has been increased from 30 per cent at the beginning of the year to almost 90 per cent now by targeting the corporate customer who earlier preferred to fly. A concerted ad campaign, taking advantage of the DAVP rates that it is entitled to helped.

As Ranbir Kashyap, who looks after all marketing initiatives in CR says, "since we lose money on passenger services, the least we can do is ensure that they run full, so we make the most we can." And to ensure that the customer does not go back where they came from, their needs will be constantly surveyed (through a beautifully designed form) and services will be upgraded.The tatkal, now extended to 11 trains has started mopping up the money ticket touts were making. Although earning from the scheme are not available, and they are not expected to be very high, money earned is money earned.

Practically every day, CR has a new plan up its sleeve. And despite the fact that the highly-centralised structure of the bureaucracy has left the zonal railways as little more than operating arms, there is room for manueover, as the CR shows us every other day.