E-ordering train food raises bogies

The move by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to provide an ‘e-service’ for train passengers to order food from selected brands at 45 stations is welcome, but hopefully it has factored in certain fundamental facts about the Indian traveller — and trains. The unimpressive track record of the earlier e-ordering service — to be delivered on trains without pantry cars as opposed to specific stations in this new version — suggests that Indian travellers are still partial to carrying home-made food for their journeys. Beverages, fruit, snack packets and cheap and/or quick fillers from local vendors are about as much as most of them buy even now, judging by commonly available platform options.

Moreover, as this new plan envisions people ordering ahead and collecting it at one of the designated 45 stations upon arrival, the question arises whether the touching faith authorities seem to have in the Indian Railways’ punctuality is warranted or misplaced. Long distance trains often run late; so the prospect of passengers arriving at dinner time to collect their breakfast orders is quite real. Given this reality, storing the inevitably large amounts of food waiting in vain for their behind-schedule consumers will present major problems for food outlets, branded or otherwise.