BENGALURU: Railway passengers heading for Tirupati as well as Bihar had a tough time at the KSR city railway station on Saturday morning due to wrong information provided by a popular ticket booking application, Ixigo. A few passengers heading to Tirupati lost out on their trip due to the wrong info, said a senior railway official. The app, used to book tickets instantly, has a feature in which it provides the live status of trains. For the Tirupati Express (Train no 22617), which departs from Platform Two or Three at 7.40 am, the platform was shown by the app as Platform One.“At least six passengers missed the train by landing on the wrong platform. They were very upset and furious over the issue,” the official said.
A similar error was displayed in the case of Train No 12578 which departs from KSR railway station at 10.05 am to Dharbhanga in Bihar. The train usually departs from Platform Five. “When I checked the live running status of the train on the app, it specified the departure as Platform One,” Vikas Choudhary, a passenger, told The New Sunday Express.
“We are a group of 15 people employed in housekeeping business in Bengaluru. After we reached Platform One with our luggage, we got to know through others that it would depart from Platform Five. We ran to the platform and somehow made it before the train departed. How can such wrong information be conveyed?” he asked.
Asked about it, E Vijaya, Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railways, said that railways was not responsible for such mistakes committed by individual apps.“If you look at KSR railway station, right from the concourse area to the platform, we have bold display of the train arrival and departure status as well as platform number. In addition to that, announcements are made by railway staff.”
The CPRO also added that the trains landed at their nominated platforms only. “There was no change made in the platform number too like we do in case of an emergency,” she said.
When this reporter checked the app late at night, it still showed the wrong platform numbers.Ixigo could not be reached for their response.