In yet another effort to improve passenger amenities, the Railway Ministry has started a survey on consumer preference of bedrolls (bed-sheets, towel, pillow, blankets) required during train travel. For this purpose, the Ministry has made available a detailed questionnaire performa on its own official Railway website for online submission of replies by the consumers by August 17, 2015.
The questions asked in the survey include all aspects pertaining to bedrolls like cleanliness and hygienic conditions, colour preference, size preference, design preference, fabric preference and possible charges among others. The survey has been designed in consultation with National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).
“Consumers have been requested to spare some time and fill in the questionnaire. It has been assured that the information so collected could be used only for research purpose and would remain private and confidential,” said a Railway official.
The Railways has also signed an MoU with NIFT to work on quality and design of bedrolls and related issues. The data collected through the survey will also prove to be useful inputs in this exercise.
“Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has always been emphasising on having a better connect between the Railway administration and train users and has been insisting on collecting passenger’s feedback on various issues with a view to improve passenger’s amenities and services in all respects. The present survey is in line with these directions,” said Anil Saxena, Additional Director-General (Public Relations), Ministry of Railways.
Recently, the Railways also started an SMS service to update passengers about the arrival of destinations at night. Besides this it also started mobile app for UTS tickets to save passengers time.
This apart, in a significant financial achievement, the Railways has shown an improvement in its Operating Ratio (OR) for the year 2014-15. The provisional accounts indicate an OR of 91.3 per cent which is an improvement over the Budgeted target of 92.5 per cent and also better than the Revised Estimate target of 91.8 per cent, according to a Railway Ministry release. Moreover, this is also an improvement over the OR of preceding year 2013-14 which had closed at 93.6 per cent.
“This is the first time in the last seven years that OR has surpassed/improved the Budget Estimate target in a year. Simply put, OR indicates how much Railway spends to earn a rupee. An OR of 91.3 per cent means that Railway is spending 91.3 paisa to earn 100 paisa (i.e. one rupee). A lower figure of OR is therefore regarded better and is indicative of better financial health. The improvement in OR will enable the Railways to allocate more resources for their developmental activities particularly safety, passenger amenities, modernisation etc,” said a railway official.
