SMS to rail passengers on platforms

Bracing to enhance amenities, railway minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to roll out free SMS services to inform passengers about the platforms where their trains will arrive or depart from in the upcoming Rail Budget. Also, the railways will unveil phone call alerts to inform passengers about their destinations during journeys between 11 pm and 6 am in all trains.

“We are making final preparations to inform passengers about the platform number from where their trains will depart or arrive at at. The information will be provided in the form of SMS to the mobile number of passengers as given during booking of tickets,” said a senior official of the Railway Board.

Initially, the information about platform number will be provided for originating and terminating stations. “It’s easy to roll out the services for the originating and terminating stations because of the surety of their departure and arrival schedules. In the case of the intermediate stations, the feature will have to wait for some time as the scheduling of platforms is done at the level of the local stations and in the event of the trains running late there are changes,” the official said. The railways has completed the pilot rollout of the phone call alert services for passengers about their destinations during train journeys from 11 pm to 6 am in all Rajdhani, Duronto, and Sampark Kranti Express trains. “We will now roll out the phone call alert services to passengers during their journeys in all trains. We have sought the financial allocation after compiling all the data and the cost likely to be incurred in making such calls to the mobile phones of the passengers,” said the official. The railways has also issued instructions that the platform numbers of trains arriving at stations should not be changed in times of excessive rush of passengers as seen during Kumbh or other festivals. There was incidentally a massive stampede at Allahabad station a couple of years ago after the platform number of a train was changed at the last moment.

“The lesson has been learnt, and the recommendations of the inquiry committee accepted and have been accordingly notified,” said the official.