Improving Indian Railways –II

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https://www.irctc.co.in



Last year this author in public interest had written a note (here) with a few suggestions for improvements in Indian Railways. Links to that note were sent to concerned including the railway minister Shri Piyush Goyal ji. One of the suggestions was for improving the user interface of the IRCTC website where passengers book tickets online. It was a rather untidy and crowded interface although its workings were efficient. To the delight of this author and hundreds of thousands of users everywhere, this interface has now been improved. It has been updated to the best global standards that prevail in our world. The Dynamic Railway Minister Piyush Goyal deserves many compliments for this.

There were two other suggestions in the note mentioned, that have not been addressed yet. It is hoped that the Railway Minister can inspire his ministry to make improvements here too. These are mentioned next,

Waiting list System:

The railway minister by insisting on confirmation probabilities to wait listed tickets has eased the pain of travelers. It nevertheless remains a complicated and cumbersome wait listing system that intimidates travelers and creates tensions and uncertainties for them, while creating much avoidable work for the railway computing and administrative systems. A suggestion was made that perhaps wait-listing system can be done away with all together and only confirmed tickets issued.

 If reservations begin three months in advance, any cancelled tickets along with unused special quotas could just be shifted over to the tatkal quota for last day bookings. To make it practical, the cancellation fees may be increased suitably to discourage frivolous or exploratory bookings. If the canceled tickets are being transferred to tatkal, then the tatkal period may be increased to three days.

Interim Step:

However, existing procedures of railways have developed around the existing wait listing system and a sudden transformation may not be feasible. In the meantime, two other things can be done to simplify the system

  1. Scrap the RAC category and associated practices and just have a single WL category. There are several categories like RLWL, PQWL, GNWL etc. that need to be scrapped too as far as the passenger is concerned so he has to deal with a single category called WL only. These latter may be retained for back end work by railways but there is no need to intimidate passengers with it.
  2. Since confirmation probabilities are now calculated, if confirmation probability is less than 50% the railways could stop issuing even wait listed tickets and just list ‘sorry no more tickets available’ on the website
https://www.irctc.co.in


 Unreserved Tickets

Aside from reserved tickets the railways also run unreserved coaches. One gets into an unreserved compartment like in a local bus and stands or finds any available seat. While this is an excellent idea for urgent travelers, it becomes a horrible one if an unlimited number of unreserved tickets are sold and humans get packet in coaches like sardines, some even suffering grave injuries. The only way to prevent this tragedy is to sell train specific unreserved tickets in a limited number that eliminates chances of suffocation. Overloaded coaches also increase the possibilities of train derailments.

True some passengers would be disappointed if not even an unreserved ticket is available at a station but in time alternatives like greater travel by bus will develop once this shame on humanity stops. There may be a little loss of revenue too but no revenue should ever be made through human distress. A better service in the long run will become a more profitable service too. A train passes through many stations and stops and a determination would have to be made as to how many tickets to sell at each station. It is not a difficult task

These are just humble suggestions of this author. He does not know enough about the Railways to make more specific or better suggestions but as long as there are Ministers like the present Railway Minister interested in public good there is hope that improvements can continue in this largest railway system of world on which millions depend.

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