The title of this post may come as shock to many who are used to seeing news/blog posts about slamming services of Indian Railways ( juts like me). But things have changed and I am observing this in last two years.
Recently, I was traveling from Mumbai to Jaipur and then Jaipur to Udaipur. The train number from Mumbai to Jaipur is : 12955 and it starts at around 7:30PM from Borivoli and reaches Jaipur next day at around 12:40PM. The train was on time, and it was very clean. And when I say, very clean, I mean very clean. It was pleasant surprise for me. Not only train was clean, but also all amenities worked! Working of amenities in trains may be taken for granted in western countries, but in India it was always a question mark.
My travel from Jaipur to Udaipur by train number 19665 did not start well. First the train as not on time, late by approx 1 hour. The train was supposed to reach Jaipur at 11PM, but it reached at 12:40AM! And it was not clean.
Also, I was not given bedroll for at least 30 minutes and I was waiting for someone to appear either to ask or check if new passengers have boarded at Jaipur station, but none came. So, I tweeted about my plight tagging Railway Ministry as well as Minister. Within few minutes, I got reply not only from twitter handle of railway Ministry, but also senior official from DRM Office, Jaipur. In between, I got the bed roll. But after few mins, I got call from railway official asking if my issue got resolved or not. After that, I got their tweet I also thanked them.
It was really a pleasant experience for me. Indian Railways has become responsive to complaints from its passengers. Any help from Indian Railways is just a Tweet Away now! This was unthinkable few years ago.
Thank You Indian Railways!
I,too, felt the improvement.