Improving Indian Railways

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While India is well known for its hospitality, relaxed and gentle people on the positive side; on the negative side it is also known for chaos, disorder and crowding. It is therefore not surprising that similar values have entered one of the largest railway networks of the world, the Indian Railways. While the new Dynamic Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi and the dynamic Rail Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu have done a lot to improve the situation, a lot still remains to be done. Here are four brief suggestions that are easy to implement and would improve the service quality manifold, increase earnings and save costs for the railways

1 Forum for Suggestions

A new web portal is needed linked through the IRCTC web site on - Forum for Your Suggestions. The best of services in our world have improved through suggestions of users and there is no reason why the Railways should not do so similarly. It can be Facebook style, where a registered user can post a comment and even a picture with option for replies by others to promote a discussion. Some dedicated railway officers can then look through and forward any useful ideas to relevant department, even the Minister himself if felt necessary, while other railway personnel can also look through to see what the public thinks.

2 The IRCTC Website

Recently this author used the IRCTC web site. The site worked extremely well which is a remarkable feat given the huge amount of data it has to tackle. Hundreds of thousands of travelers benefit from it daily and are grateful to it. That includes this author. Therefore it is with a sad heart that this author feels obliged to mention a  shortcoming. The idea is that it may be rectified soon and this excellent website win glory, not just across India but across the planet.

The shortcoming was the interface. One was aghast to see the customer interface design. It was an overcrowded and confused web page typical of the traditional Indian Bazaar. The site was fully functional and worked efficiently but the interface design was horrible. While many an Indian user used to similar things may not notice, it must surely cast India in very poor light to an International audience. Some of them leave the site soon as they see the mess instead of proceeding. Following is a screen shot of a part of the opening page.



The page that opens after logging in is even more crowded. However some of the linked pages such as for FTR services is well designed but it is the first two pages that one uses most. It is suggested that IRCTC immediately seek help of International experts to remove this shortcoming. If reluctant to do so, this author will do it for them free in a spirit of public service, just send over the web master with a lap top to him for a few days for guidance (this blogger will contact if a name and contact number is left as comment to this post).

The workings of many a leading English language website is the work of Indian professionals but the man-machine interface of it is the work of western ones. This is because in general (there are exceptions) the former have the brains for the job but at the present time the latter are more likely to have  the sense of beauty, order and simplicity required to design the interface. The precise reason for these cultural differences perhaps arise from the history of their recent generations, things such as weakness in governance, poverty etc. It shall change when these things change as they have begun to now. More on this is not the subject of this blog but another one by the author

In the meantime the following tips would help

  1. Look up International websites of similar services as a guide to designs
  2. Use less information per page, moving it to addition pages if necessary and include blank spaces on the page for pity on mind of visitors.
  3. Use larger and clearer fonts and lighter colors
  4. Give large space to the services such as login area and plan my trip, not small tiny pieces of the page
  5. The captcha in clear letters as used by the website is of no use to stall robots; it is easily decipherable by machines. See google blogger for examples on how to design these
  6. Move all but a few of most used links from top to a side bar, look up facebook or twitter left side bar as an example of design. The twitter web page is an excellent example of a good web page design

Following is an example of an International website. Compare the two designs to realize what is being said in this note. These screen shots show only parts of the page because the full pages were too big to capture in one picture.

3 The Waiting List

It seems laws dating back to the past century have hung around in Indian law books and similar seems the practice of waiting lists for booking. There is no need for one in the new system that has Tatkal and computer bookings. It only creates additional work for the railways, stress for the hapless traveler and confusion for all. Here is how it can be done away with

  1. After reserving a percentage of seats for Tatkal and any special quota, release all seats for confirmed bookings. When seats are filled message that no more seats are available but a passenger may try tatkal one day before journey
  2. Transfer any bookings that are cancelled prior to a day before the journey to Tatkal quota. It may be considered if refunds should be allowed only if claimed 24 hours before scheduled journey.

No doubt some die hard traditionalists will point out the advantages of the waiting list system and try to retain it but they forget a far bigger advantage – The Joy and ease of simplicity and certainty.

4 Not Permitting Humans to sink to Animal levels

Many trains have an unreserved general portion and it seems that the Railways issues unlimited tickets for these to the extent that some have suffocated in unreserved bogies, or climbed on train roof tops. All of India’s millions should not be allowed to buy a ticket for a single train and suffocate each other in the process. Rather, common sense demands that there must be a limited number of tickets that are sold for general unreserved class, to the extent that the journey remains a humane one. This will require a somewhat complex algorithm to take care of sales at intermediate stations but it is something almost any computer science IIT graduate can do with ease.




UPDATE October 25, 2017

IMPACT of this Blog


After writing the present note, this blogger tweeted the link several times to the present and past railway Ministers. The previous one ignored it seems but the present new dynamic Minister the Right Honorable Piyush Goyal has listened and there is a complete new revamp of the railway website announced as described here,

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/new-rail-website-app-soon-to-help-book-tickets-faster/articleshow/61211234.cms

Now this blogger requests that the Minister consider the other suggestions of this note also. They are equally valuable


UPDATE October 10, 2018

 Today after a gap of almost a year I visited the IRCTC website again and was pleasantly surprised at the huge improvements. It is now on global standards. Following is a screenshot. The credit for this no doubt goes to the inspirational PM Shree Narendra Modi ji and his dynamic young Minister Shree Piyush Goyal   
 


Note: This author has been  an IIT Professor and an International Professor as well. He has also been a paid consultant in past to Indian Railways Safety organization for an extensive study on bearing failure after a mishap near Mathura.

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