Hit by the global ransomware cyberattack, as many as 23 computers of the Southern Railway Divisional Office in Palakkad district were disabled today, said railway officials.

Various services of the division, including those of passenger reservations, ticket booking and the traffic, however, were not affected in the cyberattack, they said.

“Our 23 computers have been damaged. It has affected the routine day-to-day work at the office. But, none of the services were affected due to this,” an official said.

Computers in two panchayat offices in Wayanad and Pathanamthitta districts too were disabled yesterday in the cyberattack.

Four computers at Thariyathodu panchayat in Wayanad and two computers at Aruvappulam panchayat in Pathanamthitta district were hit, but no major damage was caused, the police said.

Over the weekend, the global ransomware WannaCry has hit systems in over 150 countries, including Russia and the UK, in one of the most widespread cyberattacks in history.

A Delhi-based chartered accountant, who had been missing for the past four days, allegedly ended his life by jumping in front of a moving train near Rashu Vihar railway crossing in Muzaffarnagar, police said today.

The man, identified as Ankit Ahluwalia, 30, a resident of Rohini in Delhi, took the extreme step yesterday, Civil Lines SHO Girish Chand Sharma said.

The reason behind Mr Ahluwalia committing suicide was not known immediately, he added.

The victim’s family has said that he had left for Dehradun four days ago.

The body of the victim has been sent for postmortem, Mr Sharma said.

Three coaches of Erode bound Yercaud Express derailed at the town of Arakkonam near Chennai, Southern Railway officials said today.

No one was injured in the incident which took place late last night, according to the officials.

The Yercaud Express started it’s journey again this morning after restoration work, and is running late by five hours, the officials added.

However, the accident has resulted in delays ranging from half an hour to two hours for 18 trains due to arrive at Chennai.

Track restoration work had started and is expected to be completed by today afternoon, the Southern Ralway officers said.

The Indian Railways will launch in July the Utkrisht Double-Decker AC Yatri (Uday) Express, a special class service for overnight journey that will ply on high-demand routes.

The Indian Railways will launch in July the Utkrisht Double-Decker AC Yatri (Uday) Express, a special class service for overnight journey that will ply on high-demand routes.

Equipped with comfortable reclining chairs, the 120- seater AC coach will have large automatic food and tea/cold drink vending machines for passengers.

Uday service will ply on high-demand routes like Delhi- Lucknow and the fare will be lower than that of 3AC class in regular mail/express trains.

The USP of the double-decker Uday is providing better passenger amenities in less than 3AC fare, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Since the train will have 40 per cent more carrying capacity than other trains, it will help the public transporter clear the rush in high-demand routes.

Though it will not have sleeper berths despite being an overnight service, measures have been taken to make the journey comfortable with many added facilities, the official said.

There will be comfortable seats with adequate leg space to relax at night. The interior of coaches will be aesthetically designed to give a modern look besides being equipped with bio-toilets.

As far as catering is concerned, there will be facility for providing pre-cooked hot food from food vending boxes in each coach.

The train announced in rail budget 2016-17 is slated to run at a speed of 110 km speed per hour on high density routes.

IRCTC has offered delivery of rail tickets allowing passengers to make payment through any payment mode, including cash.

Broad-basing the customer service, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has now introduced pay-on- delivery service allowing passengers to book train tickets online and pay at the time of delivery.

IRCTC through its website and mobile app has now introduced pay-on-delivery as one of the payment options for its customers, said a senior IRCTC official.

Delivering tickets at the consumer’s doorstep by offering the pay-on-delivery (PoD) option will facilitate those consumers who book through travel agents to move to online medium. It will also encourage people who book at railway reservation counters to move to online medium as there is a cost and effort to reach the reservation counters.

The customer will have to do a one-time registration for availing PoD as a payment option. He or she will have to tender either Aadhaar or Pan card to avail this payment option. PoD charges shall be Rs90 plus sales tax for transactions up to Rs5,000 and Rs120 plus tax for transactions over Rs 5,000.

In case of refusal or cancellation before delivery, the customer will be liable to pay the cancellation and delivery charges.

IRCTC is offerring delivery of rail tickets allowing passengers to make payment through any payment mode.

Getting rail tickets will become even more easier from now as the Indian Railways will deliver them at your doorsteps.

IRCTC has offered delivery of rail tickets allowing passengers to make payment through any payment mode, including cash.

Broad-basing the customer service, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation has now introduced pay-on- delivery service allowing passengers to book train tickets online and pay at the time of delivery.

Delivering tickets at the consumer’s doorstep by offering the pay-on-delivery (PoD) option will facilitate those consumers who book through travel agents to move to online medium.

It will also encourage people who book at railway reservation counters to move to online medium as there is a cost and effort to reach the reservation counters.

The customer will have to do a one-time registration for availing PoD as a payment option. He or she will have to tender either Aadhaar or Pan card to avail this payment option.

PoD charges shall be Rs 90 plus sales tax for transactions up to Rs 5,000 and Rs 120 plus tax for transactions over Rs 5,000.

In case of refusal or cancellation before delivery, the customer will be liable to pay the cancellation and delivery charges.

The Indian Railways will use radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) for tracking of wagons, coaches and locomotives to ensure effective and transparent functioning.

Leveraging information technology in a big way, the public transporter has issued instructions for equipping all wagons with RFID tags to begin with.

Six major global players have shown keen interest in developing ultra high-speed trains in the country, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said here today.

Six major global players have shown keen interest in developing ultra high-speed trains in the country, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said here today.

“Using technology is… the next big thing, which is going to happen in the transportation sector… We just had a meeting in Delhi on September 2. We got six top global companies to come and talk about technological transportation technology that we will develop, co-develop, manufacture and use in India and then maybe, use outside the country,” Prabhu said while addressing the India Economic Summit here.

He spoke of the challenges of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, for which the need of the hour is “local solution with a global approach”. Technology, Prabhu said, is something which is going to “revolutionise the entire stream”.

Indian Railways had floated expression of interest for developing ultra high-speed trains in the country in which top global companies have shown interest.

Now, the Railways is finalising an action plan to develop a short-track for testing these ultra high-speed trains which are expected to travel at a speed of more than 400 km per hour.

However, the Railways is going ahead with its plan for introducing bullet train that will run at 300 km per hour between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, for which Japan has placed loans as well as technology.

Stressing on the need for solutions to mitigate the adverse impact on environment and society, Prabhu said: “We must have space to find out how these two fundamental issues would be compatible.”

He maintained that India has always been open to new technology and “that is how India was the largest economy in the world some centuries ago”.

In a bid to make rail journey more convenient, Indian Railways has made several changes to the AC 3-tier coach – Check out 10 key features.

New Delhi: In a bid to make rail journey more convenient, Indian Railways has made several changes to the AC 3-tier coach.

As per a report in the Indian Express, the first coach is awaiting the Railway Ministry’s nod ahead of its run on the tracks on  Humsafar Express.

The newspaper has also reported about the major and minor design changes that have been made by Indian Railways.

1. The old signature blue upholstery has been replaced by a beige-cream-grey colour scheme

3. For every cabin of eight berths, there are two plug points and six USB ports

4. Each berth has been provided a reading light

5. For easy access to the top berth, ladders with comfortable footrests and additional handles have been included

6. The toilet floor is made of a material which does not soil easily and the steel mug chained to a pipe has been replaced by a faucet

7. The toilet walls are graffiti resistant. The steel water-bottle holder has been replaced by a plastic clip

8. The coaches will have separate urinals for men and women. Foldable nappy-changing tables for babies will also be available in the women toilets.

9. The coaches will have features like toilet occupancy indicators, CCTV cameras, special fire and smoke detection and control system

10. The coaches will also be equipped with a small pantry unit having coffee/tea/soup vending machine, a heating chamber and a refrigerating box

The Indian Railways will use radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) for tracking of wagons, coaches and locomotives to ensure effective and transparent functioning.

Leveraging information technology in a big way, the public transporter has issued instructions for equipping all wagons with RFID tags to begin with.

There are about 2.25 lakh wagons, 50,000 coaches and 9,000 locomotives in the railways. Railways have sanctioned Rs 57 crore for the first phase of rollout of the system.

The tag designed by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) is estimated to cost Rs 1000 per tag. Using RFID devices, it will be easier for the railways to know the exact position of wagons, locomotives and coaches.

Currently, such data is maintained manually, which leaves scope for errors.

While the RFID tag will be fitted in the rolling stock, trackside readers will be installed at stations and key points along the tracks to read the tag from a distance of about two meters and transmit the wagon identity over a network to a central computer.

In this way, each moving wagon can be identified and its movement tracked.

With the introduction of RFID, the issue of shortage of wagons, locomotives and coaches is expected to be addressed in a more transparent and expeditious manner, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the automatic vehicle identification project.

At the time of wagon condemnation, RFID tags have to be removed and can be reused as they have a life of 25 years. Henceforth it would be a standard practice for all new wagons coming out of manufacturing units to be equipped with RFID tags.

Railways had implemented the RFID system on the Vishakhapatnam-Talcher-Paradeep section as a pilot project.