A lots of initiative and a great lot of buzz is around the Indian railway has been happening in the Indian Railway since the last 2 years. From swatch abhiyan to the 1 rupees travel insurance and there are many such initiative to improve the passengers condition travelling the train. There was a time when we would be hesitant to travel in the railways. It might be because of the dirty trains and stations or many other reasons you might think, but think again if you have travelled in a railway in the last 1 year and found some changes and fealt happy for it.

This list of factors is going to affect the Indian railway over a long time

1. One Rupee Travel Insurance:

The Indian Railways today launched a scheme allowing a person to get an insurance cover of upto Rs 10 lakh on booking a train ticket online by paying less than one rupee. This scheme is surely going to help travellers who travel quite often and many who get with accidents. A person booking a train ticket through the IRCTC website will be able to opt for travel insurance cover for a premium of 92 paise only.

2. Retiring Rooms Facilities:

Earlier if you had booked the retiring room you had to book on a slot of 12 to 24 hours slot only. But now as the demand for the lodging facilities on railway stations have increased. Suresh Prabhu has come up with unique facilities of booking the retiring room from a minimum of 3 hours to a maximum of 48 hours. The service is currently available at Mumbai, Ahmadabad, Surat, and Vadodara stations and will be expanded to other stations in a phased manner. This will result help in better and effective utilization of retiring rooms and will also increase revenues for Railways.

3. CLEAN MY COACH:

Remember times earlier, you were going in the train and just because of some of the fellow passengers, the train boggy/compartment became so dirty that you are not able to sit in the train compartment nor you are able to move around. However with this sms initiative you can easily request for cleaning your train. Passengers may demand cleaning staff by entering PNR in the form given above. Passengers may also send their requests as SMS to 58888 by typing CLEAN < Space >< 10-digit PNR number>. The software named OBSERVE (On Board Services) will forward the request to mobile phone of the cleaner present in the particular train directly. The Railway Administration will also simultaneously receive an intimation of such requests for follow up. This scheme is under the swatch bharat abhiyan.

4. Drinking water through self-help groups:

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation have collaborated with the Women and Child Development Ministry. This is to launch a scheme wherein different Self Help Groups (SHGs) will be promoted to provide chilled water to passengers at cheaper rates using vending machines at stations. IRCTC has already installed over 500 such machines at major stations. The WCD ministry will recognise the groups and the agreement has been signed to improve their living conditions. The Railway Minister made these announcements in New Delhi.

5. Train Superintendents for every train:

Railways has also decided that each train will be assigned a Train Superintendent (TS) who will be responsible for the smooth functioning of all on-board services and operations. The TS service has been launched in a pilot phase in all Rajdhani trains originating from Delhi. Senior TTEs will be appointed as superintendents and a seat will be set aside for them on each train. They will be responsible for improving all services available on-board and also to tackle any complaints coming from the passengers. Grievances related to AC, water, mobile chargers, catering, bedrolls, linen, train delays, and security concerns will be addressed by the TS whose contact details will be put up in each coach. The Central Railways Information Service (CRIS) will also develop an app to facilitate the communication between the TS and ground staff, on-board staff, as well as the control offices.

6. Deen Dayalu coaches:

In order To improve quality of travelling in general class, Railways rolled out its first modern unreserved coach 'Deen Dayalu' with facilities like potable drinking water, mobile charging points and bio-toilets among others to be used in mail and express trains.

7. Dropping meals option in the train: For the first time in the railways, Passengers will finally get to decide if they want to eat railway food, and not pay for it either. From June 15, Railways will start a trial where passengers will have the option to drop meals while booking tickets in Rajdhani and Shatabdi express train. So, if you decide railway food is not good, you won't be forced to pay for it. That saves you close to Rs 300 on your ticket, which is added as catering charges by the Railways.
8. 50% refund on cancellation of Tatkal tickets
   Expect 50% refund on the cancellation of Tatkal tickets. Not just that, the Railways has changed Tatkal timings. There is a change of timings, too. The Tatkal window will now be open between 10 am and 11 am, and the timing for sleeper coach tickets will be 11 am to 12 noon.
9. Going paperless
   Forgot the ticket printouts? Passengers needn't worry now. Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains go paperless from this week, which means mobile tickets will be valid on these trains. Not just that, Railways will also start ticket booking in various languages.
10. Increased number of coaches
    You don't have to fret over limited Rajdhani, Shatabdi seats. The Railways has increased the number of coaches in these trains so that more people can be accommodated.