Indian railway minister Suresh Prabhu unveiled a slew of measures today (Feb. 25) to woo customers, promising an overall improvement in travel experience on trains.
Indian railway minister Suresh Prabhu unveiled a slew of measures today (Feb. 25) to woo customers, promising an overall improvement in travel experience on trains.
Prabhu’s plans could potentially transform train travel in India over the medium to long term. They follow his initiatives from his last year’s railway budget—from something as simple but vital as better maintained platforms and railway premises to use of social media to reach out to customers.
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Yet, interestingly, Prabhu has kept away from tinkering with passenger tariffs.
The following are some of the new measures the minister proposed to introduce in the coming financial year.
Prabhu began his second budget speech referring to a grateful cleaning staffer at one of the railway stations he visited. In the past year, Indian Railways has focused on keeping train stations and compartments clean.
In keeping with this approach, the minister announced several steps, including:
The railways had in its last budget proposed having private food companies providing catering services on trains. This budget goes beyond those services:
“We would like to mitigate the hardships that mothers undergo while travelling with their infants,” Prabhu said in his speech, indicating his focus on women and children. For this, the railways would make available:
Besides, the railways will also enforce reservation in catering units for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, and those with physical disabilities. There would be a sub-quota of 33% for women in each of these reserved categories.
In keeping with Prabhu’s emphasis on passengers’ travelling experience, plans are afoot to change the very design of compartments.
There is a distinct attempt on the government’s part to improve its communication with customers. Hence, we have:
“Porters play a key role in making our journeys comfortable. We intend to provide them with new uniforms and train them in soft skills,” Prabhu said in his speech. Indian Railways will ensure:
Prabhu announced a few new categories of trains, although the routes on which they would ply were not mentioned. These are some of them:
