Passengers should form a queue before boarding unreserved compartments in trains

15 January, 2013

It is good to see in some railway stations passengers wanting to board the general compartments of mail, express, and super-fast trains are made to stand in a queue, and one by one the passenger begin boarding the general compartment on the arrival of the train under the supervision of the railway protection force.

HOWEVER, THIS system is confined only to a select few railway stations. In many other stations, passengers are always in a hurry to board the general compartments once the train halts; whoever is a bit pushy manages to get in first ignoring all manners of courtesy and decent behaviour.

The most affected people are old people and women with children. It is also found at times the general compartments are jam-packed and people who are standing cannot even move their leg space for hours and they have to stand in the same position till such time some space gets created due to some travelling passengers getting out at their destination station points.

From safety view point, the above happening need to stop. It wouild be better if the concerned people issues a directive to all zonal managers of the railways to mandate railway police force to always supervise passengers to form a line before they try to get into unreserved compartments.

Additionally, directives should also be issued to station masters and zonal manages to ensure that unreserved compartments should be occupied only by the number of seats available and not in excess. This would mean someone has to monitor in every station wherever a train stops to ensure excess people do not board unreserved compartments. All such moves would mean more safety for passengers travelling in train.