Indian Railways lists 15 passenger-friendly measures it has taken to enhance your rail experience

Indian Railways, the national transporter has recently highlighted a slew of steps that it has taken to enhance passenger comfort. Even in Union Budget 2018, which was presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1 in the parliament, Modi government had announced the highest ever capital expenditure for Indian Railways at Rs 1.48 lakh crore. For railways, the focus of the Union Budget 2018 was on capacity augmentation and safety. It was announced that as many as 600 railway stations will be redeveloped and facilities such as CCTVs for safety and Wi-Fi for entertainment would progressively be provided. From online ticket booking, automatic ticket vending machines, to comfortable air-conditioned coaches and wheelchair services, here are details of major passenger-friendly initiatives that Railway Ministry says it has taken:

1. In order to boost digitization, which is also Modi government’s one of the top priorities, Indian Railways came up with a facility under which passengers can book reserved and unreserved tickets through their mobile phones.

2.Indian Railways has also taken digitization to another level by introducing various cashless modes of payment like net banking, e-wallets, credit or debit cards through Point of Sale (POS)s machines using Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and others.

3. For dispensation of railway tickets, Indian Railways came up with Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) across railway stations.

4. In order to assist people with disability, senior citizens, ladies, former Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assemblies, accredited press correspondents and freedom fighters, Indian Railways launched separate counters at various Computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) centres in order to deal with their reservation requisitions.

5. The national transporter has introduced the system of automatic preparation of first reservation charts, which will be done atleast 4 hours prior to the scheduled departure of train.

6. Also till second reservation charts are prepared, passengers can book tickets through internet and also through PRS counters, depending on the availability of tickets.

7. Indian Railways also introduced an SMS system under which passengers will be informed about the change in passengers’ reservation status from waiting list or RAC to confirmed, train cancellation, train delays, etc.

8. In another facility introduced by Indian Railways, passengers can cancel their computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counter tickets through official web portal of IRCTC or through 139. On cancellation of trains, railway passengers who are e-ticket holders will get an automatic refund by Indian Railways.

9. Indian Railways’ bid to ensure optimal utilization of available accommodation, the national transporter has introduced ‘VIKALP’, which is an alternate train accommodation scheme under which confirmed accommodation will be provided to waitlisted passengers in alternate trains.

10. In order to accommodate more passengers, Indian Railways has increased the number of berths, which has been earmarked as RAC.

11. To make the railway journey more comfortable for senior citizens, pregnant women and female passengers 45 years of age and above, Indian Railways introduced combined quota of 6 lower berths per sleeper class coach, 3 lower berths per 3 tier AC coach and also 3 lower berths per 2 tier AC coach. In addition to this, under this quota 4 lower berths per coach are earmarked in Rajdhani, Duronto and fully Air Conditioned or Express trains. In a bid to provide better service to people with disability, Indian Railways introduced reservation quota of 2 berths in 3 tier AC class and 4 berths in sleeper class.

12. Indian Railways’ Garib Rath Express trains have kept a reservation Quota of 6 berths in 3 tier AC class for exclusive use of women railway passengers irrespective of their age while travelling alone or in group of women passengers.

13. Indian Railways has also introduced Sarathi Seva to assist old and disabled railway passengers and also made it easy for such passengers to book Battery Operated Car (BOC), porter services etc. on a paid basis. This is in addition to the existing pick up and drop facility and wheelchair services. Also, to book such wheelchair services cum porter services, Indian Railways came up with Yatri Mitra Sewa across major railway stations.

14. Indian Railways has installed electronic display boards across A-1 and A category railways stations. Also it has introduced public address systems at A-1, A and B category railway stations, which could be extended upto D category of stations.

15. In order to encourage internet booking of tickets, Indian Railways introduced many steps like withdrawing of service charge imposed by IRCTC, enhancing the server capacity, increasing the options available for making payment while online ticket booking and others. Due to these efforts by Indian Railways, online ticketing now constitute around 65 per cent of total reserved tickets issued by the national transporter.