Railways to bring new grades for trains’ punctuality

The decision to introduce new grades was taken during a recent deliberation exercise involving general managers and senior officials of the ministry.

For trains running between distances less than 300 km, a delay of under 5 minutes will fetch an “excellent” grade, while a train late by about 90 minutes will be marked “bad” on punctuality.

Based on monthly average of on-time performance, zonal units will calculate their individual punctuality data, thereby recasting the way the national transporter records its performance. Currently, any train that is up to 15 minutes late is considered “on-time”, and that is where the grading ends. According to Railway Board, the new thinking is that this system fails to present a comprehensive picture for the transporter as well as the passenger.

Railways has also decided to depute a “service captain” in its trains as a handyman empowered to solve all problems faced by passengers during long journeys.

As per an internal report, passengers have to grapple with mainly four types of issues on long journeys — housekeeping, quality of linen, airconditioning, and security issues, including alarm chains. “Apart from these, no single person exists for issues such as non-availability of water, functioning of light/fan etc, operational issue like brake binding, alarm chain resetting,” the report says. The Service Captain will have a tool kit and wear a uniform to be identifiable.