Railway tells staff to serve with smile

Board chairman admits services have been unfriendly

With a view to getting rid of the ‘Babudom’ and better serve the market savvy consumers, railways have asked its employees to be “polite” to those using its services and adopt the “service with the smile” approach.

“In the New Year, our emphasis, then, should be to focus on providing our customers with a pleasant experience in their interaction with the Railways-be it passenger or freight.

‘Service with a smile’ was never so relevant as it is today,” Railway Board Chairman
Arunnendra Kumar wrote on Wednesday, acknowledging for the first time that railway services have been unfriendly and the top brass is willing to address it.

The Chairman Railway Board has, in his message, explained the direction towards which railways want to move into-increased earnings and curb on expenses.

 “Our focus and mission is clear: the earnings of Indian Railways have to go up. Expenses need to be contained. We need to prioritise,” the CRB said.

“So far this year, we have seen a growth of 8.8% in freight earnings and 18% in passenger earnings over the corresponding period of the previous year. Yet the pace needs to pick up further, he said.

“Our resources are limited and hence the need for judicious allocation of resources…
We need innovative financing models. We need to bring in investments by demonstrating success in our PPP initiatives and in our flagship Dedicated Freight Corridor Project,” he went on to state.

This needs to be combined with customer satisfaction, he said. 

“Our customer segments cut across all strata of society. The challenge before us is to meet the rising passenger expectations in the face of financial constraints. More is expected of us…Our passengers should get value for money….We need to deliver quality and on time,” Kumar said in his message to the employees.