Trouble on train at night, alert TTE for assistance

Soon rail travellers would have a rail ‘ombudsman’ not to investigate your complaints after journey but very much during the journey to redress the grievance. Southern Railway (SR) would be deputing ‘captains’ for overnight express/mail services shortly. The first captain would go on board Trivandrum bound express train no: 12695/96 from Chennai Central this weekend. On the other end train no: 12623/24 has been selected for the captain enabled service. To begin with, the captains would be sent in six express trains. 

“The captain will be heading and coordinating the team of TTEs manning the trains. The TTE will be travelling from end to the end of the journey. The idea is being tried on a trial basis on overnight trains. Based on the feedback, we might consider extending it to other trains, including long distance day trains,” A senior SR officer explained. The whole idea of sending captains on board long distance trains germinated from a suggestion sent by an aggrieved passenger Anoopa Narayanan who was ‘affected’ during an overnight journey from Salem to Ernakulam in the second week of November.  

“I had sent a mail to the CCM last week. I had suggested that instead of having security on station platforms, we need people on board trains. I am not sure how effective would having captains on board be, but I am glad that they have taken my complaint very seriously and decided to depute a person on board. It is the best thing to do to optimize passenger safety,” Anoopa told DTNext.