Railways: Choice and Competition - IX

I don’t think we need a TTE.  And you may be a bit surprised to hear this, we don’t need guards either. Technology has taken care of a guard’s traditional functions.

Two columns ago, I made a point about food. Why should food be given to everyone, regardless of whether the passenger wants it or not?  There is nothing free. That cost is added onto the fare, even if we can’t see that cost. The same principle applies to bedding and linen. Why should a passenger get it free?  Linen causes cleaning problems for IR, much more than linen used in hotels. Passengers use linen provided on trains for diverse other purposes.  Linen also leads to a bed-bug problem and once there are bed-bugs, it is virtually impossible to eradicate them, especially because methyl bromide is banned. I think bedding and linen should only be given to passengers who want them, on chargeable basis.

Indeed, my proposition is that the fewer employees there are on the train, the better it is. Employees unnecessarily add to costs. Therefore, I think it would be a good idea not to provide bedding and linen on trains at all. Let a passenger pick it up at platform of the originating station, leave a deposit, and return it at the platform of the terminating station, getting the deposit back, a bit like the rent a car example. By the way, no one likes this idea. Instead, IR is experimenting with the idea of disposable packs of bedding and linen.  They don’t have to be cleaned.  A disposable pack costs about Rs 65. You can take it away with you, for an estimated resale value of Rs 25. IR doesn’t want it back.  But of course, someone will bear the costs.

In an earlier column, I asked the question, who is responsible for a station? For most purposes, the answer was no one.  Who is responsible for a train? A few better trains, like Rajdhani, have a train superintendent. As a passenger, you can have multiple problems on a train – food, cleanliness, security (remember what I said about limited powers of RPF), fire, other emergencies. Who do you complain to?

You will say coach attendant (if there is one), or TTE (TT, strictly the travelling ticket examiner), provided you can find the TT.  When catering has been outsourced, there will typically be a sheet of paper, with a telephone number for complaints. But my point is simple. Why can’t there be a single number to call? The call goes to a call centre and let IR figure out who has to solve the problem. Indeed, you will be glad to know that trains will soon have this single number.

This brings me to the role of the TTE, about whom, there are often complaints of corruption. Vacant berths/seats are allotted for a private payment, so runs the complaint. When a train comes into an originating station, there is the image of passengers crowding around a TTE, who has that mysterious piece of paper, on the basis of which, berths/seats will be discretionally allotted. One of the problems with IR is that there are successful experiments in silos. Not only does IR not publicize and disseminate this information. One part of the IR system doesn’t necessarily know what another part is doing. Bengaluru is an instance. There, there is a screen right outside the booking counter on the platform. That shows the current status of vacant berths.

On the basis of this, you buy a confirmed ticket, a few hours before the train will leave, after the chart has been prepared. It is a bit like current and advance booking of cinema tickets. No scope for corruption at all.  Extrapolate that argument. Do we really need a TTE on the train?  TTEs would like to be on a train, because they get travelling allowances. Every check that the TTE does (primarily of identity) can be done on the platform, before a passenger boards. Don’t give me the counter-arguments, I am aware of those. Passengers fight over berths/seats.  There are other issues. If there is no TTE on a train, who will solve these?

I know these counter-arguments, but I am not convinced. I don’t think we need a TTE.  And you may be a bit surprised to hear this, we don’t need guards either. Technology has taken care of a guard’s traditional functions.

Let me give you a simple instance of how matters are unnecessarily complicated.  I have in mind disabled people and making IR disabled-friendly. IR has done this by introducing disabled-friendly coaches. A wheelchair will have to be taken across the tracks to the right platform.  (Many stations now have golf-carts.  This is yet another instance of how IR doesn’t publicize its initiatives. Consumer attention only means ticketing and reservations. Therefore, you won’t even know that a station has a golf-cart. And you won’t know who to get in touch it, to use it.)

Typically, at the end of every platform, there is a dirt-path across the track, to pull luggage carts across. That’s used for the wheelchair. So that the disabled passenger doesn’t have to travel too much, the disabled-friendly coach is therefore right at the end of the train, next to the guard’s van. It has toilets with extra space, to allow a wheelchair to enter. Sure, IR has done this. But disabled passengers don’t necessarily want this.

You never know, in advance, whether an incoming train will have a disabled-friendly coach or not, and may have to wait for ages. In addition, that disabled-friendly coach is completely cut off from the rest of the train. Passengers feel secure. What do some disabled passengers want? In chair cars, for instance, they want the front row, so that there is enough leg space, a bit like aircraft. If the passenger is travelling unreserved, IR cannot be blamed.

But if the disabled passenger is travelling reserved, why can’t the first row be given to him/her?  Because there is a disability concession, graded in accordance with the degree of disability. The TTE has to physically verify this and match the doctor’s certificate accordingly. What if the disabled passenger doesn’t want the fare concession? The IR ticketing system doesn’t allow for the passenger to travel as a disabled passenger, without availing of the concession. A simple fix is needed, but no one thought of it.

A simple fix is also needed to eliminate touts. The system has been improved considerably and thanks to Internet booking, the tout problem has declined. Why is there still a shortage in something like Tatkal? It isn’t that touts have managed to hack the software. It may be true that touts employ multiple people to log in, so that they have a better chance than the honest passenger. But the fundamental reason why you can’t get at Tatkal ticket is that there is an immense shortage. However, to get back to the simple fix, how many tickets can you book at one time? You can book it for a family of six at a time and only the first passenger’s identity is checked. This is a loophole that touts freely use.

I have gone on about IR and IR trains. These columns are supposed to be about competition and choice.  Where is that? A valid question and in the next column, I will focus on the possibility of private trains, both passenger and freight.