Kerala Rajdhani passengers given shoddy treatment

Should you be getting soup with bread sticks and chiplets or just rasam as a starter? Could you insist on a menu card and order from it? And just about how many passengers travelling on the Rajdhani Express have got the welcome drink?

Travelling on Rajdhani, the premium superfast train, on the Kerala route (Thiruvananthapuram to Nizamuddin) is different from the services provided on other Rajdhani routes.

Passengers who had travelled regularly on different routes feel the difference as the Northern and Eastern routes are much better serviced leaving little room for complaints. But passengers boarding from Kerala are either unaware or feel inhibited to ask for the same services that passengers on other routes are provided with.

However, a few complaints had made their way to the Thiruvananthapuram division. But all the division could do is forward it to the Northern Railway that controls the Rajdhani Express.

Only eight complaints were received from the passengers against the services in Rajdhani. Added to it was the complaints of railway officials who had travelled by the train.

The ticket charges inclusive of all the catering services actually provide the passengers to choose from a menu card.

Though announcements are made about menu card, the caterers never provide it on their own. The Senior Commercial Divisional Manager, Thiruvananthapuram Division, V. Sudheesh told The Hindu that no direct action could be taken from here, but it is learnt that a penalty had been imposed on the caterers based on the complaints that were forwarded.

There were complaints on catering service, cleanliness, high rates of tips and also misbehaviour, he added.

The services are being monitored and it is learnt that they have improved in some quarters, said Mr. Sudheesh. The issue of service providers demanding huge tips is also being monitored, he added.

Mr. Sudheesh said that Thiruvananthapuram division had suggested that Train Ticket Examiners on Rajdhani also be changed like other trains that would help bring down allegations of corrupt practices because of the nexus between the TTEs and the on-board service providers. No cases have been registered yet, but the Thiruvananthapuram division had been given permission for vigilance check ups.