The Hindu Business Line : Make rail booking senior-friendly

There is a popular train that operates daily between Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, with a first AC coach that accommodates 16 passengers in three cabins of four berths each and two cabins of two berths each (coupes). On that train, and only for the first AC only, when the ticket is booked and when accommodation is available, the reservation system does not specify the berth but simply notes ‘confirmed’. Berth allocation is done some five hours prior to the depar ture of the train, when the chart is prepared.

Many think the procedure is excellent, as it could serve one general and one specific purpose. The general purpose is to ensure proper allocation of lower and upper berths, to take care of the special needs of the elderly and families. The specific purpose is to make sure that political leaders are allocated the coupes (twin-berth cabins) to afford them privacy, safety and security. Is the practice worth emulating on other trains? Not just yet, as the following will show.

A man above 60 who had to travel twice a month recently on that train, and who was denied a lower berth on both occasions, took the time and trouble to copy the data on the age of passengers and the berths allocated to them from the charts. Based on the data he acquired, he concluded that a far higher percentage of travellers in the 40-55 age group were being allotted the lower berths (at times as high as 66 per cent), while only 25 per cent of seniors (59-66) got the same facility.

Undoubtedly, the chart-maker must have used a lot of logic and strategy to take care of the needs of families travelling together, special requests and even political pressure. The net result is inconvenience for the seniors, and the less connected.

Thanks to IT, life in many ways has become a wee bit easier. For instance, it is so convenient to book tickets via the Internet, and avoid the waiting at railway reservation counters. Yet, something is not right in terms of our reservation system if senior citizens are routinely not allocated the lower berths.

Here is one possibility. The Railways could introduce a passenger registration system for senior citizens on the basis of submission of an acceptable identity card to a designated railway officer, and then give an option on the IRCTC site to book a specific berth. Surely, there must be some way seniors could be assured of lower berths.

(The author is Visiting Faculty, Sri Sathya Sai University, Prasanthi Nilayam, and Professor Emeritus, GITAM Institute of Foreign Trade, Visakhapatnam. He can be reached at bhanoji@gmail.com)

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