Railways on Tuesday said rail traffic has grown 16 times while its infrastructure has increased by about four times since Independence.

“We have carried 1,108 million tonnes of goods in the fiscal 2016-17 which is highest ever loadings,” Railway Board Chairman A K Mital said at the railway week event here.

Railways celebrated the 62nd Railway Week here with giving away awards to 188 staff including sports-persons for their outstanding performance during the year 2016-17.

Hoping that the public transporters performance will be better in the fiscal 2017-18 than the previous year, Mital said railways growth is linked to the growth of the country.

Congratulating the awardees for their outstanding performance, Mital said their efficiency will not only encourage all others to emulate them but will also push them to work harder to achieve the goals.

He urged all Railway men and women to join hands to work together to make Indian Railways one of the best organisation and employer in the country.

The state consumer commission has asked the Indian Railways to pay Rs. 75,000 to a man for the inconvenience he suffered when his reserved seat was occupied by unauthorised persons for most part of his journey.

The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) has upheld the district forum’s order which had asked the Railways to deduct one third of the compensation from the salary of the ticket checker who apparently failed to ensure that the reserved seat of the aggrieved passenger was not used by anyone else.

“The compensation of Rs. 75,000 awarded by the district forum is reasonable and appropriate. The same has been awarded by considering the facts and circumstances of the case,” the bench headed by its president Justice Veena Birbal said.

The commission, however, refused to enhance the compensation awarded to Delhi resident V Vijay Kumar.

Mr Kumar, in his complaint, said that when he travelled by Dakshin Express on March 30, 2013 from Visakhapatnam to New Delhi, his reserved seat was occupied by someone else.

Mr Kumar, who claims to be suffering from knee-joint pain, had booked a lower berth.

It was further alleged that the unauthorised passengers created lot of nuisance and caused inconvenience to him as well as to his co-passengers.

He tried to complain to the TTE or any other railway official but no one could be found, Mr Kumar had claimed in his complaint.

The district forum passed the order after the Railways failed to appear before it saying it was guilty of deficient service.

The introduction of ‘Deccan Queen’ between the two premier cities of Maharashtra on June 1, 1930 was a major landmark in the history of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway.

This was the first deluxe train introduced on the railway to serve 2 important cities of the region and was aptly named after Pune, which is also known as ‘Queen of Deccan’ (‘Dakkhan ki Rani’).

Initially, the train was introduced with 2 rakes of 7 coaches each one of which was painted in silver with scarlet mouldings and the other with royal blue with gold lines. The under frames of the coaches of the original rakes were built in England while the coach bodies were built in the Matunga Workshop of the GIP Railway

The Deccan Queen, initially, had only first class and second class accommodation. First class was abolished on January 1, 1949 and second class was redesigned as first class, which continued up to June 1955. When third class was introduced on this train for the first time. This was later re-designated as second class from April 1974 onwards. The coaches of the original rakes were replaced in 1966 by anti-telescopic steel bodied integral coaches built by Integral Coach Factory, Perambur. These coaches incorporated improved design of bogies for better riding comfort and also improvements in the interior furnishings and fittings. The number of coaches in the rake was also increased to 12 from the original 7 coaches providing additional accommodation. Over the year the number of coaches in the train has been increased to the present level of 17 coaches.

From its inception, apart from providing high standards of comfort to the passengers, the train has witnessed various improvement such as introduction, for the first time in India, of coaches with roller bearings, replacement of end on generation coaches with self generating coaches with 110 volts system and introduction of first and second class chair cars providing increased accommodation to passengers. The distinctive colour scheme of cream and oxford blue with red band above the window level has been recently adopted as the colour scheme for this train.

With the ever-growing aspirations of the travelling public for better amenities, improved standards of comfort and better quality of service, it was considered necessary to give a complete facelift to the Deccan Queen.

On June 24 last year, young Infosys techie Swathi S lay dead at a busy railway station in Chennai after a savage attack by a stalker who stabbed her repeatedly with a sickle.  Her body stayed at the platform for around two hours, the gruesome scene ignored by scores of train riders and others.

Almost a year later, the murder is the theme of a new movie that Swathi’s family has fiercely opposed and said should be banned.  The trailer of the Tamil movie ‘Swathi Kolai Vazhakku’ (Swathi Murder Case), directed by Ramesh Selvan, was released this week and posters have emerged in the city.

Swathi’s father Santhana Gopala Krishnan has complained to the police against the filmmakers.
It is not fair or legal, the retired central government employee has told the police, saying the producers never asked for the family’s consent. In the complaint, he also questions the intention of making the movie and fears that facts about his daughter could be twisted.

At the launch of the movie’s trailer, Mr Selvan said it was shot in the actual locations where the crime and the investigations took place, right down to the city’s railway station and the house where Ramkumar, the man arrested for killing Swathi, stayed.

Ramkumar allegedly committed suicide in police custody in September last year by putting a live wire in his mouth.

Quoting reports, news agency IANS said while the filmmakers have not taken permission from Swathi’s parents to make the film, they have promised to screen the film for the family by this month-end before releasing it.

Three years ago, a movie based on the 2008 murder of teenager Aarushi Talwar at her home in Noida also provoked a controversy. Aarushi’s parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, who are serving a life sentence, alleged that the movie distorted facts. The Bombay High Court allowed the movie’s release after ruling that the movie had no resemblance with the facts in Aarushi’s case

Railways have decided to provide the `buy tickets now and pay later` service for any Express trains, an IRCTC official said on Thursday.

According to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Ltd official, soon passengers would be able to buy tickets from the IRCTC website and pay later.

IRCTC spokesperson Sandip Dutta told IANS: “IRCTC has collaborated with a Mumbai-based firm ePayLater for adding the new service option.”

“Through this service a passenger can book a ticket five days prior to the journey with a service charge of 3.5 percent and pay it in the next 14 days,” Dutta said.

He also said that this option was valid only on etickets.

Elaborating on the new feature, Dutta said, “The way a credit card is issued after evaluating the CIBIL score of a customer, same procedure will be followed.”

“Those who want to opt for this service have to give their name, email ID, mobile number, their PAN card or Aadhaar details,” the IRCTC official said.

The officer also said that once the customer gets approval to use the feature, they would be sent an OTP (one time password) to enable them to use the service.

A London-bound Eurostar train was halted for at least four hours in France Monday after police were called in to take off two drunken British passengers, French railway authorities said.

The string of events that led to the delays started shortly after the train carrying about 770 passengers left Gare du Nord station in Paris.

A little over an hour into the journey the train was brought to a halt in the northern French city of Calais after several passengers complained about the rowdiness of two British travellers, a spokesman for France’s state railway operator SNCF told AFP.

They were “completely drunk,” local media quoted police as saying.

Police intervened to take the pair off the train but during the operation several passengers got off for a break, forcing staff to clear the train and start the boarding from scratch for security purposes.

“The train was no longer sealed, other people could have come onboard,” the SNCF spokesman said.

The process took nearly four hours, after which the train finally resumed its journey, arriving in London shortly after 4:00 am (0300 GMT) where weary travellers found themselves queueing again — this time for taxis.

The two passengers behind the disturbances meanwhile were sleeping it off in a hotel in Calais, the northern French daily La Voix du Nord quoted a local prosecutor as saying.

Eurostar, operator of the cross-Channel service, was not available for comment about the incident.

On its Twitter account it expressed its “sincere regrets and apologies” to its customers, together with a link to a compensation form.

The offer failed to appease some vexed passengers, who vented their frustration on social media.

“9h travel time from Paris to London; arrival at 4.10am; because of a drunk and poor management,” Twitter user WBertagna wrote, along with a picture of passengers queueing in Calais to be allowed back onboard.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, popularly known as IRCTC, soon after adding cash on delivery service for railway tickets, is all set to add another feature for booking tickets. You can soon buy your railway tickets via IRCTC website and pay later, which could reduce the hassle of going through the payment process at the time of booking.

The new IRCTC feature is being enabled in partnership with Mumbai-based ePaylater which is a provider of “Buy now. Pay later” payment solutions, and is targeted at frequent online purchasers with a credit term of 14 days.

ePayLater says that the “Buy Now Pay Later” feature will be available to eligible customers who can book their railway tickets without paying at that moment. Under the new payment solution, customers at IRCTC can make the payment for their tickets within 14 days from the date of transaction.

Talking about the partnership, ePayLater says that it targets to capture at least 5 percent of the 6 lakhs transactions per day in next six months.

The company explains that in order to be applicable for new “Buy Now Pay Later” feature, users will have fill in basic details including Aadhaar and PAN card details after which they will be able to use the feature with a One Time Password (OTP).

Explaining the process, Akshat Saxena, Co-Founder and Head of Business Development – ePaylater says that eligibility of a customer for the new “Buy Now Pay Later” on IRCTC will be checked through old transactions and other factors.

Uday Somyajula, Co-Founder, ePayLater announcing the partnership said, “We are excited with this development. At ePayLater, it’s been our primary focus to leverage data science to solve real life challenges. Partnering with India’s largest online portal is a strong testimony to our technology and analytics leadership. By providing customers this deferred payment option we not only simplify the checkout experience but also help them manage their short term income-expense mismatches better.”

ePaylater was founded in December 2015 and is based in Mumbai. The company provides 14 days free credit period strategy within which users can make the payment. ePaylater currently accepts payments online through NEFT. The new IRCTC feature was first reported by BusinessWorld Disrupt.

Posing for photos near a railway track turned tragic for a man who lost his life while his relative suffered injuries after they were hit by a passenger train in Secunderabad, a Government Railway Police official said today.

The incident occurred on Sunday when Sampath Kumar, in his mid-30s, came to the city from Godavarikhani city and went to tracks along with his two relatives, GRP Secunderabad sub-inspector Nageswar Reddy said.

“The trio went near the tracks between Alwal and Bollarum railway stations. While Sampath and one of his relatives Sravan stood near the tracks, their another relative started clicking their photos with a mobile phone. After noticing a train approaching towards them their relative warned Sampath and Sravan to move aside from the tracks, but the duo insisted him to continue taking snaps when the train hit them,” the officer said.

While Sampath died on the spot, Mr Sravan has fractured one of his hands, he said, adding a case was registered.