110 special trains announced and around 40,000 additional berths generated - SCR geared up to handle passenger rush during this January

110 special trains announced and around 40,000 additional berths generated - SCR geared up to handle passenger rush during this January

Intensified checks against touts, ticketless travelers and other unauthorized persons in Railway premises. 

 In view of the passenger rush due to Sabarimalai and Sankranti season during the month of January,2014, SCR has taken several steps to smoothly handle the passenger traffic. 

 A three - tier approach is being followed to make available as many berths/seats as possible to meet the demand. It  consists of  -

i) Operation of special trains:

            110 special trains have already been announced to be run in the month of January,2014.   67 Sabarimalai specials to/from Kerala will be operated this month.  In addition, 43 special trains will also be run  to take care of the Sankranti festival/holiday rush etc. during the current month. These include 36 special trains to/from twin cities (12 for Kakinada, 12 for Visakhapatnam,10 for Vijayawada and 2 for Gudur ) and 7 specials between Tirupati and Aurangabad.

ii) Generating additional berths/seats by temporary augmentation of trains:

            Based o­n an analysis of passenger traffic demand profile, SCR has augmented the composition of several trains with the addition of extra coaches o­n a temporary basis for the month of January. Around 40000 additional berths/seats have already been fed into the public reservation system (PRS) for this period.

iii) Attaching additional coaches o­n a day-to-day basis:

            The waiting list position in various classes of express trains o­n popular routes is being closely monitored by senior officials daily and extra coaches are being attached to trains with long waitlist within the resources.  It helps in clearing many of the waitlisted passengers o­n the travel day.

            Steps have been initiated to smoothly handle the rush of passengers at major stations in the ensuing festive period. Some of the measures taken in this direction at Secunderabad station include:  

·   Operation of additional ticket booking counters during peak hours to ease out queues. In addition, passengers can utilize the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) also for getting platform/MMTS/un-reserved tickets.

·  Strengthening of enquiry counters by posting more number of commercial staff. Passengers can also meet their enquiry needs from the touch screen kiosks and GPS/GPRS based LED boards o­n platforms.

·   Deploying additional staff from RPF and commercial branches in station premises to assist and regulate the crowds whenever needed.

·   Deputing officers and senior supervisors o­n special duty to camp at the station to closely monitor the traffic flow and for appropriate immediate intervention.

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