7 million rail commuters, 68 complaints

Seven million rail commuters, 138 online complaints in 365 days! So, the cat’s out of the bag: Mumbai’s commuters are not too keen on making use of the online rail travel complaint system.

But, we’re not even at the bad news yet. The website of the city’s railway think tank, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), has been spammed with irrelevant mails and complaints. Only 68 of the 138 complaints are legitimate; 70 others are just ‘junk’ mails.

“Of the total 138 complaints received, about 30 pertain to the Central Railway, 31 to the Western Railway, one each to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd and MRVC, and five relate to other railways,” an MRVC official said. “‘There must be millions of individual complaints filed with individual railways,” he quickly added.

The MRVC is the nodal body of the city’s railway and is responsible for the implementation of various rail infrastructure and planning projects. It is also the main body which co-ordinates between the Central and Western Railways and implements World Bank-funded projects.

One of the most common complaints when the new-age violet trains were introduced was on the crunch in leg space between two seats and the removal of side bars on the new trains. “We immediately acted on the complaints and the integral coach factory, which was designing the trains, incorporated the changes in the design,” another official said.

The MRVC has also now embarked on an online survey of the suburban railway system, seeking feedback from commuters on “satisfaction levels” while travelling in the new trains. “The form can either be downloaded and submitted at our Churchgate office or even filled up online. The survey will help us get leads from commuters,” the officer said.

The survey will focus on in-train rail passenger boarding/alighting, which will look into those trains, stations, sections and corridors where most passengers travel and which require immediate attention; customer satisfaction — on how the existing services can be improved to provide better comfort to passengers; alighting distribution; passenger entry/exit and passengers counts on foot over-bridges during peak and non-peak hours.

The survey will also be done physically, and will cover suburban trains and 37 select stations, including Churchgate, Mumbai Central, Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Mulund, and Airoli stations.