Rude railways to train staff in customer service

During the Commonwealth Games next year, railway officials in Delhi will be more courteous, greeting passengers with some well-rehearsed lines in English and be generally more eager to help, reports HT Correspondent.

During the Commonwealth Games next year, railway officials in Delhi will be more courteous, greeting passengers with some well-rehearsed lines in English and be generally more eager to help.

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Northern Railway has decided to train its staff in the etiquette of customer service with an eye on the Commonwealth Games.

“We will train our people so that thousands of national and international tourists who use the railways during the Games get good hospitality experience,” said Vivek Sahai, Northern Railway general manager.

The training programme will include interaction in English and various helpful and courteous ways with which officials can make the railway experience a convenient and enjoyable one for the tourists, he said.

“The onboard staff and the officials at stations will be equipped with information handy for the Games visitors, and the foreign passengers will get added assistance at the Foreign Tourist Bureau,” he said.

Sahai released the new train timetable of Northern Railway effective from 1st November 2009 on Friday.

Earlier this year, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee had directed her officials to “do what they can” to add to the preparations for the Commonwealth Games.

She had also said the Railways would finish all projects related to the Games well in advance.

On the same lines, Sahai also announced the starting of a new service of complaint registration through SMS.

Passengers on Northern Railway could send SMS their complaints on 9717630982.

“This number is linked to a computer and all the complaints will get saved on this computer, monitored by an official all the time,” he said. “The official will forward all complaints to the departments concerned and we will check the status of each complaint daily.”

The salient features of the new timetable include 28 new trains — 11 Duronto (non-stop) trains, 15 Express trains and 2 Yuva trains.

The frequency of seven trains has been increased and eight trains were extended for greater connectivity to farther regions.