As part of its ongoing initiatives to make travel in train a pleasant experience, the Indian Railways has empowered ticket checking staff to slap fine on passengers found smoking or littering on trains.

Among the new tasks entrusted with Traveling Ticket Examiners (TTEs) are ensuring high standards of services and amenities on board besides taking care of passenger safety by coordinating with security agencies like the Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police. This is the first time that the ticket checking staff have been given the authority to take action on passengers resorting to smoking and littering on trains.

Travelling Ticket Examiners have also been told to keep a watchful eye on child trafficking and alert security agencies if they came across suspicious cases, railway sources said.

The revised list of duties for TTEs issued by the Railway Board is focussed on ensuring safety of passengers and cleanliness of trains. Besides checking tickets and preventing entry of unauthorised persons, they will keep tabs on suspicious activities on trains and coordinate with the Railway Protection Force/Government Railway Police personnel in identifying inflammable, prohibited or dangerous goods.

“TTEs will be responsible to take action against persons smoking in public place under the Tobacco Product Act, 2003, as authorised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. They will impose penalty on passengers who resort to activities that affect cleanliness,” a railway official said.

The railways has decided to extend the services of ‘Train Superintendent’ to as many trains as possible. Except engine drivers and guards, all staff in a train would report to the Train Superintendent who will act like a Captain and be in-charge of services, amenities and passenger safety.

Besides ensuring compliance of safety guidelines such as availability of fire-fighting equipment, first aid kits etc, the Train Superintendent would welcome passengers through the public address system before the departure of the train and share his contact details with them for any assistance throughout the journey.

All express trains would have armed personnel of the RPF or GRP on duty to provide security to passengers and assist ticket checking staff. “Complaint books will be available with Train Superintendents and feedback of passengers would be taken to the notice of senior railway.