Railways to revamp enquiry system, TTCs to help passengers

With the heavy winter fog causing train cancellations and leaving passengers in the lurch, the Railways are planning to provide electronic devices to its staff to convey information about train movements at stations for the benefit of the travellers.

To begin with, train ticket checkers at New Delhi, Nizamuddin and Old Delhi stations would be provided hand-held electronic devices for mobile dissemination of information about train positions as part of a major revamping exercise of the railway enquiry system.

"We are revamping the enquiry system in a big way to facilitate passengers at the three major stations in the capital," Aswhani Lohani, divisional railway manager, Delhi division told PTI.

During the recent fog, a major problem area has been dissemination of correct information on the running of trains to the travelling public.

The absence of correct information caused a lot of inconvenience to passengers. "Our aim is to provide reliable information to the public at least three hours before the departure or arrival of any train, the platform number and other related information," he said.

Besides providing hand-held devices to TTCs manning gates, Railways are installing computer terminals at enquiry counters at these stations which will be connected to the central server at the control room for speedy transmission and consistency in information about train positions.

Large electronic screens would be set up at stations for providing information during emergencies as per the plan, Lohani said.

Besides efforts are on to improve the dissemination of information through 139 service, the National Train Enquiry System, he said.