Not all is right with the train services, despite the tremendous hype about the ‘new efficient functioning’ of the railways. Here are some genuine grievances by citizens.

Rohit Jain:

I have noted multiple times in the last 6 months that before a train actually arrives the train system starts showing it as arrived on govt status website as well as via sms status check. In reality, train arrives late sometimes 30 mins late. Even if you look at status later, it shows the original arrived time and not the actual time.

Question is – is train timeliness for reporting purposes using this fake reported time. If that’s the case, the numbers are fudged.

Vadakkuppattu Ramanathan:
This kind of manipulation has been happening ever since I started tracking train running status more than five years ago. Whenever, anyone of my relatives travel by train, I track the train timings and confirm with them whether the status given in the website is the same by calling them.

Generally I find that it correlates with the actual timings mostly in Southern Railway sectors but not so in other sectors especially the Northern ones.

Do not have much experience about western or eastern zones.

Venkatesh B:

If you had tried using any application in real time, which shows Train Status, it is actually not up-to-date, even if you are travelling by that train.

There is an app which is called Rail Yatri. If you seek the status of a particular train, it will ask you if you are travelling by the train or if the info is for some one else. If you are not on the train, most of the time it may show as if the train is on schedule.

I happen to travel between Chennai & Hyderabad, quite often, probably once in a fortnight. My son travels between two cities, every two to three weeks. He will travel for a long weekend of three to four days each time. we follow up the running of trains, as we have to pick him up on arrival or follow up his reach at the destination.

Yes the point that the updates in all the possible websites or apps are that – The train arrived on time or even five to fifteen minutes before time!

Trains which originate from one zone are meted out a step motherly treatment by the other zones through which the trains pass.

Satya Pal Ratti
It’s really sad that long-distance trains are invariably late, some times by 4 – 6 hours or even more.

And this happens on a regular basis. So, why print timings in the time table which cannot be kept? Better to print realistic timings, even if these are four hours longer than declared at present. Passengers would accept longer travelling times than be left in the hope of an early arrival and then cursing the Railways for running late.

Anil Vijay
“This Govt. is now called ‘Fenkoo’ ‘फेंकू ‘| My experience is that all the feedback and solutions that Railway minister Prabhu asked for was a psychological impact to show that this govt. intends to work really hard and deliver results. But the ground reality maybe 10 % max. एक बार तो impress ज़रूर कर दिया |

I was standing at Lucknow after having verified train running from NTES continuously. The display board said the train is coming on platform no. such and such, coinciding with the time shown on NTES. When the train did not come, I phoned my wife. She said the train is standing at Kanpur station. Ha, Ha ! Fenkoo !!!

* सफाई कुछ दिन ठीक होकर रह गई | * Accidents have increased. * Fares have increased. * Cancellation charges have skyrocketed. * Variable fares are called – दूसरे कि मजबूरी का फायदा उठाना | There is no hope for this country. But we will still vote for Modi because others are “tried and tested failures.”

  citizen journalism, Indian railways