I born and brought up in Railway family and my brother still serves Railway. Now I work as a Manager in a 5B$ MNC and really salute to the people who are serving Railways from ages without having very high exceptions. The perks paid to Railway employees were much below standards for the kind of work they engaged into. From 6th pay commission I started seeing betterment in their life. I witness most of Railway employee run side business either part time LIC agent or supporting family business, they need to do that to survive in society. Now we have lot of industry productivity data available for various type of manufacturing and service industries have we compare the perks for an Railway employee with those industries? I think if all Railway employee started giving their 8 hrs seriously without in a year we can see great turnaround. And this can be achieve through enhance their social status than putting more policies around their jobs. Few suggestions which I feel definitely help Railway as well as crub passengers frustrations.
* Don't keep only two categories of reservation like tatkal and general. Spread all the seats in 2 months timeframe. Release X% of seats quota with predefined price. Right now if one missed 2 months 8AM then only option he has day before tatkal for higher price. Give him more options with slightly elevated prices. Railway can achieve same or more profit this way. It is just like flight tickets release quota as they finishes with elevated price more you go closed to travel date more price one has to pay. To help end user not to burden you can do the maths based on current pricing with general and tatkal and spread across.
* The above will also help to run IRCTC proper and avoids corruptions through travel agent.
* Put limit on baggage and baggages should not go along with traveller inside the cabin. Baggages should go into separate baggage carrier as same as parcel van. This will serve two purposes 1.) Security threat 2.) Maintain hygiene. Many times the baggages contains food items spell over in train and creates mess. Passenger can only allowed to take one hand baggage. This can be easily and quickly implemented in Rajdhani and Durunto. Charge extra for excess baggage. passenger come at-least 45 mins before train to submit the baggage at platform.
* IRCTC quick improvements suggestions - Divide servers as per zones. Right now all traffic goes to single server in Delhi which bottleneck during peak time. Divide server as per trains starting points as per zones. more