When it comes to punctuality, most passengers seem to be happy with the services operated by Southern Railway, a recent survey conducted has revealed.
As part of the recently concluded Rail Humsafar Saptaah — rail passenger week — Southern Railway officials conducted a passenger feedback survey on eight topics — punctuality, information display, staff behaviour, security, facility for senior citizens and women, passenger amenities, cleanliness and catering.
While punctuality was rated topmost, it was followed by information display and staff behaviour. Passengers ranked amenities, cleanliness and catering very low. Officials at the Southern Railway headquarters said a team of staff travelled on suburban and long-distance trains and issued questionnaires to passengers, asking them to rank their services from ‘excellent’ to ‘poor.’
Suburban passengers informed officials that their main concern was inadequate services during the lean hours — around noon on the western and northwestern lines — from Chennai Central (Moore Market Complex) to Tiruvallur and Gummidipoondi. Many stations lacked basic amenities — some did not even have drinking water and shelters.
Around 31 per cent of the participants in the survey rated punctuality as ‘excellent’ and 37 per cent rated the quality of information display signage ‘very good.’ However, 25 per cent of them rated cleanliness of trains and stations ‘fair.’
Catering on long-distance trains too was a real problem in the absence of pantry cars, especially on trains between Chennai and the southern districts, passengers said.
The passenger feedback survey was conducted on Sewa Diwas — May 28. Though the exact number of passengers who were part of the survey was not immediately available, officials said that throughout Southern Railway, 174 employees travelled by 101 trains and interacted with 1,986 passengers and listened to their grievances.
