Discontinuing Reservation Chart Preparation
Based on a similar successful experiment conducted by South Western Railway, the practice of pasting of reservation charts on train coaches was discontinued at New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Bombay Central, Chennai Central, Howrah and Sealdah stations of Indian Railways on experimental basis for a period of three months. Keeping in view the positive feedback received from Zonal Railways, it has been decided to discontinue pasting of reservation charts on reserved coaches of trains at all erstwhile A1, A & B category of stations as a pilot project for six months starting from 01.03.2018.
The logic behind doing away with the practice of pasting of reservation charts on reserved coaches is as under:-
(i) Passengers holding confirmed ticket are aware of their coach/berth number as the same is indicated on the tickets at the time of booking itself, except in case of First Class air-conditioned class.
(ii) At present around 65% of the reserved tickets are being issued through internet for which, mobile number is invariably captured on which an SMS is sent at the time of booking.
(iii) Waitlisted and Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) passengers get their status update on their registered mobile number through SMS at the time of preparation of first reservation chart which is at least four hours before the scheduled departure of the train.
(iv) Digital charting system has been installed at major stations and at other stations manual boards are installed for displaying the status of the waitlisted tickets to guide the passengers.
(v) Apart from the above, Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) service through 139, online booking website is available for passengers for checking the status of the tickets on real time basis.
(vi) It will save the cost of stationery as well as savings on account of manpower involved in pasting of reservation charts.
In view of the reasons mentioned above, now there is no need for the passengers to check their reservation status through the reservation charts displayed on the coaches. Moreover, reservation charts continue to be displayed on the station platforms for passengers including senior citizens who would like to view it on charts/ digital charts in all stations including A-1, A & B category stations.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways and Coal Shri Rajen Gohain in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on 14.3.2018.
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