From a lumbering PSU to a smart service provider: How Indian Railways changed the way it serves you

Indian Railways used to be notorious for being tardy and dirty. Add to that its utter indifference towards passengers who had to stoically put up with numerous deficiencies in services. The railways, at its best, merely took you from point A to B — and not often in time or safely. As a public-sector enterprise, it was as responsive to customers as most of its kind.

All that is changing now. Though there's still a lot to be done, the railways have managed to shed the image of a state entreprise impervious to change and aloof to its customers' needs. A large number of new customer services has made the railways more customer-oriented. Here's a list of services introduced during the four years of the NDA government.

1. Free WiFi

To promote Digital India, the railways tied up with Google in 2016 to offer free WiFi at railway stations across India. Today, it offers the service at more than 700 stations and covers eight million people a month. The service offers 30 minutes of free internet access to passengers.

2. No more stinking toilets
The railways has been replacing the conventional toilets in the trains with bio-toilets. It has installed more than one lakh bio-toilets in trains till March this year. Since the excreta gets collected in a box fitted below the train toilet, it doesn't drop on the tracks. This prevents corrosion of tracks and keeps them clean. The railways is also changing the floor of the toilets which will prevent them from getting soiled too soon.

3. Purified water
To provide commuters with purified water at low cost, the railways has so far installed 1,100 water ATMs at 345 railway stations. One liter of water from these ATMs costs Rs 5 and users pay one rupee for a paper cup.

4. Reading lights
A small but very useful addition that prevents arguments between passengers. Among many new features introduced in new train coaches is a reading light for every berth. New trains including Humsafar Express have this facility.

5. No more smelly blankets
After several complaints of dirty linen and blankets, the railways has decided to provide nylon blankets to AC travellers, which will be washed twice a month. Earlier, they were washed once a month. Besides washing, the used blankets would be sanitised on a regular basis.

6. Waitlisted? Here is a Vikalp
IRCTC introduced Vikalp scheme in 2016 to help waitlisted passengers get confirmed ticket in another train running on the same route. The scheme is applicable to all waitlisted passengers irrespective of booking quota and concession. Passengers can opt for a maximum of seven trains under the scheme.

7. Food for thought and pocket
Good food has been a struggle for the public transporter. But it has now taken a slew of initiatives to fix this pain point, the chief among them is a move to cut the quantity of food served. Soup, breadsticks, butter and sandwiches will go off the plate and passengers may get vegetarian and non-vegetarian rice combos as part of the plan to cut costs. This may start with premium trains such as Rajdhani and Shatabdi. The IRCTC has also roped in a startup for delivering food on your seat. It has also decided to use Artificial Intelligence to serve hygienic and quality food on trains. Packaged disposable plates will replace plastic trays for hygiene.

8. Train delayed? You'll be informed
The railways has introduced a service to send text messages to passengers whose trains are delayed or rescheduled. The move is aimed at decongesting platforms.

9. Grievance redressal
The railways has been taking complaints via IVRS and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. However, the national transporter also launched a mobile app 'Madad' to register passengers' complaints. The app allows live tracking of action taken on the complaints.

10. Increased RAC/Quota seats
The transporter has increased the number of berths earmarked as RAC to accommodate more passengers. The quota (reserved) seats for senior citizens, pregnant women and female passengers 45 years and above have been increased to six lower berths per coach in sleeper coach, three lower berths per coach each in AC. Further, in Rajdhani, Duronto and fully AC/Express trains, the number of lower berths has been increased to four per coach.