App to be launched to facilitate passengers to register demands for special trains

The Chennai-headquartered Southern Railway has brought out a detailed timetable for its Summer Special trains in a soft version for the first time in the Indian Railways, providing minute details of all specials it has proposed to run between April-June.

It has also facilitated passengers to get the timetable downloaded on their smart phones through the QR code. The QR code, displayed at all major stations can be scanned using the mobile scanner opening the link containing timetable’s soft copy, said SR’s Chief Commercial Manager (Passenger Marketing) J. Vinayan.

Hitherto, zonal Railways used to announce running of special trains a month or two in advance to enable passengers to book their berths. However, bringing out a consolidated timetable for a particular season is a first.

The CCM said SR has proposed to operate about 700 special services, Suvidha and Special Fare Special Trains during the three months of summer. Special trains are high in demand in Chennai-Tirunelveli, Chennai-Ernakulam and Chennai-Nagercoil sectors within the SR network; while they are in high demand in Thiruvananthapuram-Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai-Guwahati sectors outside the SR zone, he said.

Mr. Vinayan said owing to enhanced marketing efforts, the SR could earn about ₹110 crore through special trains till February in the current financial year and the earnings could touch ₹120 crore by the end of it. The Zone had operated about 1,200 special trains in the last fiscal earning about ₹70 crore revenue.

Passenger profile management

The marketing division has created a database of its passenger profiles on regular and special trains. The zone sends communications and gets feedback from its passengers through the system. The Summer Specials timetable is being sent to all such passengers, Mr. Vinayan said. The Zone would soon be launching a new app where passengers can register their demand for special trains facilitating the Railways to introduce them on demand, he added.

Passengers can get the timetable on Google drive on this link: https://drive.google.c om/drive/mobile/folders/ 1y02bi7_LC2p0xjO bXMltkgsPlCrzy2el.