The story so far: This year on Mothers’ Day, the Delhi and Lucknow divisions of the Northern Railway introduced foldable berths for passengers travelling with infants as part of a pilot project. Called ‘baby berths’, these have been fitted on the two lower main berths of Lucknow Mail, for a test run. This facility will be extended to other trains based on the response and feedback received from travellers.
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What are these baby berths?
Two main berths of the Lucknow Mail, which runs between Delhi and Lucknow, were fitted with foldable berths that are 770 mm in length, 255 mm in width, and 76.2 mm in height to accommodate infants. These berths provide additional space for parents to accommodate children who might be too young to be left unsupervised on a single regular berth. The berth comes fitted with a stopper in order to keep the children from falling off during travel.
“This has been done on a trial basis and will be expanded once we get positive feedback from passengers. Once we try it out more and record the feedback, we will put the necessary details on CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems) where it can be booked on request,” an official of the Northern Railways was quoted as saying.
Which trains will have baby berths?
At the moment, berths 12 and 60 of the second cabins on both ends of AC three-tier coaches of the Lucknow Mail have been fitted with baby berths. However, there is no mechanism for parents of infants to book these specific berths. “The (booking) system will be like the one we currently use to offer senior citizens lower berths. So, once, a passenger says yes to travelling with a child, we will offer the berth to them. However, it is now at a nascent stage," the official said.
(With inputs from PTI)