We are not competing with airlines: Railways
Unfazed by the low fares offered by budget airlines, Indian Railways is not contemplating any move to rationalise passenger tariffs.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Unfazed by the low fares offered by budget airlines, Railways is not contemplating any move to rationalise passenger tariffs.
"There is enough space for everyone to grow. We are not competing with airlines. We continue to have long waiting list and the passenger traffic is ever increasing," Railway Board Chairman Ramesh Chandra said.
Railways ferries about 15 million passengers every day in 8,622 passenger trains whereas airlines numbers are not the same, said Chandra. "So we are not rivals anyway."
At the same time, railways is not complacent about it and our endeavour is to improve the service all the time. Many steps are undertaken to provide better facilities to passengers in trains and stations, Chandra said.
Railways earns about 20 per cent of its total passenger revenue from the upper class segment - 1st class AC, 2nd class AC and AC chair car. With the budget airlines offering tickets equal or even lower than AC train fares in certain sectors, the challenge is clear.
Acceleration of speed, enhancement of pantry services, increased frequencies, extension of routes, frequent traveller scheme, passenger profiling system and e-ticketing are some of the measures undertaken by railways to maintain an edge in traffic.
"Besides improving amenities, we are paying considerable attention to the safety and security of passengers. We have provided adequate number of security equipment to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) as an enhanced security measures," said Chandra.
The RPF is now equipped with 1,233 hand held metal detectors, 142 door frame metal detectors and 79 dog squads at important railway stations.
Powerful CCTV have been installed in about 40 stations across the country. "We are increasing the number of security equipment required to strengthen the security further," said the Chairman, Railway Board.
Beside security, railways is focusing on safety also. "We are installing anti-collission device (ACD) to prevent accidents and our aim is to cover the entire rail network with ACD in the next five years."
A global positioning system (GPS) for rail navigation has been planned in coordination with IIT, Kanpur as a pilot project. The system, called SIMRAN (Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation) is to track every train for its location, speed and direction of movement.
It would also disseminate information on real time basis about trains running, to passengers and to the general public through display boards at stations, Internet and SMS.
"The trial of SIMRAN project is being carried out in Allahabad-Kanpur and Lucknow-Kanpur sections," said Chandra adding some selected superfast trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi originating from Delhi are being tracked daily.
The server is located at IIT Kanpur which gets online information about the trains being tracked. Based on the trial reports, further steps would be taken to expand the system.
However, railways is not setting up GPS on its own and is utilising the services of 24 satellites already launched by the USA. Since the trains are tracked automatically through GPS, there is no need for any manual data to be fed to the information system.
Currently the information has to be fed manually every 30 minutes to the national train enquiry system which is why there is some time lag in the information made available.
"There is enough space for everyone to grow. We are not competing with airlines. We continue to have long waiting list and the passenger traffic is ever increasing," Railway Board Chairman Ramesh Chandra said.
Railways ferries about 15 million passengers every day in 8,622 passenger trains whereas airlines numbers are not the same, said Chandra. "So we are not rivals anyway."
At the same time, railways is not complacent about it and our endeavour is to improve the service all the time. Many steps are undertaken to provide better facilities to passengers in trains and stations, Chandra said.
Railways earns about 20 per cent of its total passenger revenue from the upper class segment - 1st class AC, 2nd class AC and AC chair car. With the budget airlines offering tickets equal or even lower than AC train fares in certain sectors, the challenge is clear.
Acceleration of speed, enhancement of pantry services, increased frequencies, extension of routes, frequent traveller scheme, passenger profiling system and e-ticketing are some of the measures undertaken by railways to maintain an edge in traffic.
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"Besides improving amenities, we are paying considerable attention to the safety and security of passengers. We have provided adequate number of security equipment to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) as an enhanced security measures," said Chandra.
The RPF is now equipped with 1,233 hand held metal detectors, 142 door frame metal detectors and 79 dog squads at important railway stations.
Powerful CCTV have been installed in about 40 stations across the country. "We are increasing the number of security equipment required to strengthen the security further," said the Chairman, Railway Board.
Beside security, railways is focusing on safety also. "We are installing anti-collission device (ACD) to prevent accidents and our aim is to cover the entire rail network with ACD in the next five years."
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A global positioning system (GPS) for rail navigation has been planned in coordination with IIT, Kanpur as a pilot project. The system, called SIMRAN (Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation) is to track every train for its location, speed and direction of movement.
It would also disseminate information on real time basis about trains running, to passengers and to the general public through display boards at stations, Internet and SMS.
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"The trial of SIMRAN project is being carried out in Allahabad-Kanpur and Lucknow-Kanpur sections," said Chandra adding some selected superfast trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi originating from Delhi are being tracked daily.
The server is located at IIT Kanpur which gets online information about the trains being tracked. Based on the trial reports, further steps would be taken to expand the system.
However, railways is not setting up GPS on its own and is utilising the services of 24 satellites already launched by the USA. Since the trains are tracked automatically through GPS, there is no need for any manual data to be fed to the information system.
Currently the information has to be fed manually every 30 minutes to the national train enquiry system which is why there is some time lag in the information made available.
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