Mixed signals for Railway’s Covid-compliant digital booking system
The Railway Department’s ambitious bid to put on track a digital booking system in keeping with the Covid-19 pandemic health guidelines has received mixed signals from passengers, prompting the authorities to take measures to further streamline the system.
With the government relaxing the lockdown on Monday, May 11, enabling state and private institutions in curfew- hit Colombo, Gampaha and other places to resume services with a limited number of staff, the Railways introduced an online registering system completed with SMS notifications confirming the bookings, the seat numbers and other details. At the station, upon showing the SMS messages, the passengers are given tokens indicating their place on the platform where they have to wait until the train arrives. The token comes in different colours to help the passenger to get into the correct compartment.
At present, the system is available only to state sector and private sector employees travelling to Colombo from outstation. But the early results show chaotic scene at some station. Railway officials said some passengers had registered for the service, but had not used it still, while in some instances, unregistered passengers had demanded that they be allowed to travel in the trains allocated for the registered passengers. There were also complaints about difficulties in getting connected to the telephone numbers given in the Railway Department announcement to obtain information.
But, some registered passengers praised the system, saying that it worked well. They urged the Railway authorities to continue with the system even after the curfew was lifted
On the first day of the operation, some 2,900 people registered to travel, but only 900 turned up, leaving the Railway authorities in a dilemma as they were unable to offer the seats to other passengers. They were forced to run the trains with some 1000 vacant seats.
However, the situation improved by Friday. More than 11,000 people have registered to travel from tomorrow.
The facility is open only for state and private sector employees and is expected to be offered to other passengers eventually.
Matara Station Master Gayan Priyadarshana told the Sunday Times that from Matara, 46 passengers had registered to board the Colombo- bound Ruhunu Kumari and another train to Galle, but only 36 turned up, although on normal days 200 passengers boarded these trains from this station.
Some passengers were unable to board the trains as they came late and the registration process was taking time. “We need to enter their names, National ID number, their place of work, the ID number of their work places and telephone numbers. So it takes time,” he said.
R.A. Hemaseeli, 50, a state-sector employee, said she registered to travel to Galle, but she did not get the SMS notification confirming her seat. “An officer in my workplace took down my details and told they would register me to travel by train. But I did not get the SMS,” she said, adding that she was now forced to take a bus to go to office, as she had heard there would be a pay cut if she did not report to work.
The woman had come f rom Kamburipitiya. Explaining her plight, she said, “It is hard to find a bus to Matara and I don’t know whether there will be buses or trains to get back home. I am really nervous. If there are no buses, I have to walk all the way home.”
Dayananda Kariyawasam, 56, a private sector worker, said he had been booked to travel on the Ruhunu Kumari, but when he came to the Matara station he found he been transferred to the short-distance train.
He said the station authorities were not helpful and he had to take a bus to reach his office in Baddegama.
“There is confusion all round. The station master says one thing, and the guard another thing. I did not even get the SMS confirming the booking. It seems the system is ineffective,” he said
Explaining the procedure, Railways General Manager Dilantha Fernando said those who want to register with the system must go to the Railways web page, download the application form, take a printout, fill it and email a scanned copy to the Department.
The Department would then create an account and a password would be sent via an SMS to the applicant, the GM said. However, he explained that the account would be created and an SMS sent only if the applicant’s name had been included in the list sent to the Railways Department by the state institute or the private company where the applicant worked, saying the applicant was needed at the workplace.
“Registered applicants could show the SMS they got to the station’s counter staff and obtain their tokens. If the seats are reserved online, they can get their tokens without waiting in the queue,” he said