BENGALURU:Following the successful trial run of installing a train captain on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru route recently, Bengaluru Railway Division has decided to have a similar head on board all its long-distance trains from Tuesday. Train captains will be the single point of contact for passenger amenities and redressal of grievances on their designated trains.
In the South Western Railway (SWR) Zone, both Mysuru and Hubballi Railway Divisions presently have train captains on Bengaluru-Kannur/Karwar (train no 16511/16513) and Karwar/Kannur-Bengaluru (train no. 16512/16514).
N R Sridharamurthy, senior divisional commercial manager and public relations officer of Bengaluru Division, said, “We launched this service three weeks ago on one long distance train in our division. We now plan to launch this service in our division on all long-distance trains from Tuesday evening. The senior-most travel ticketing examiner in each train will be appointed as the train captain.”
An average of 210 trains run daily from Bangalore Railway Division, of which 109 are long-distance and the rest are passenger trains. The phone numbers of the train captain will be made public to all passengers, said E Vijaya, chief public relations officer, SWR zone.Southern Railway was the first in the country to implement this idea on its Blue Mountain Express (Nilgiri Express) on January 8, 2017.
Their role
The train captain will have a badge to help public easily identify him or her. Cleanliness of toilets and coaches, working condition of fans, ACs, water supply, charging point and housekeeping services can be reported to him through a call or in person. The individual will interact with mechanical, electrical and even with the government railway police and Railway Protection Force to set right the issue.