The Hindu Business Line : Rail passengers may have to wait four months to get new benefits

CUSTOMERS would have to wait for at least four months before they can avail themselves of the recently announced benefits of the Indian Railways including free upgradation of waitlisted passengers to higher classes, among others.

The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), the IT arm of Indian Railways that would carry out the required software changes, is yet to get the procedural specifications from the Ministry. "We are waiting for the specifications of the scheme (from the Ministry) and expect to get it by this week," Mr M.R. Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, CRIS, said when contacted by Business Line.

On the required timeframe for implementing the likely changes in the software, Mr Ramakrishnan said that it would vary depending on the specifications. "From the suggested changes, it appears that we would take about four months to incorporate them," he added.

In the face of increasing competition from low-cost airlines and with an aim to turn into a customer-friendly organisation and increase its earnings, the Railways plans to start a slew of offerings that include free upgradation of waitlisted passengers to higher classes that have vacancies and issuance of "open-like tickets," among others.

To ensure that there are no vacancies, the Railways plans to upgrade customers to the higher layers of travel, free of cost, at the last moment. This was announced by the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, in Parliament recently. Broadly, occupancy levels are 47 per cent in AC I, 62 per cent in AC II, 72 per cent in AC III and 112 per cent in Sleeper Class. These levels vary broadly based on different trains and different seasons.

To have "at least some earnings" from these vacancies, the Railways plans to upgrade waitlisted passengers to the higher classes (if there are vacancies) through a computerised random selection process undertaken just before the final charts are released. Passengers would be informed through SMSs/phone calls from the Railways' call centre.

The Minister also said that passengers would be able to rebook their waitlisted tickets to other trains, dates, classes and destinations, without having to seek refund for the ticket. At present, if a customer wants to book a new ticket against a waitlisted ticket, he is required to cancel the waitlisted ticket and get the refund even if he plans to rebook his ticket for another date, train or destination. This happens since the two actions are not linked in the Railways reservation software.

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