Indian Railway Marketing

Railway Segmentation of trains

Let us know all categories and type of express trains which are running on Indian tracks.

Category : Premium Superfast

Type: Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Gatiman, Train 18, Duronto, Humsafar, Tejas and other premium trains.

Category: Superfast

Type: Sampark Kranti, Yuva, Antyodaya, Garib rath, Jan Shatabdi, Mahamana and other undefined superfast trains.

Category: Mail/Express

Type: Intercity and other undefined express trains.

Category : Special Express

Type: Suvidha, Holiday, Summer, Mela, and other undefined special express trains.

This is how trains are divided into various categories and based on this priority and pricing is decided.

Railway Product Management 

1. iTicket - It is the fancy name for a paper ticket bought through IRCTC’s website. You specify the journey details, passenger information, and pay online. The ticket is sent through courier to the delivery address specified. This is the same as the ticket you get when you buy from a railway booking counter.

Downside:

A. You cannot cancel this ticket online. You have to queue up at a railway booking counter and produce the ticket and the booking clerk cancels it for you.
B. You have to buy an iTicket at least 3 days before the journey date. This time is required because the ticket is physically delivered to the customer's address.

 2. eTicket - Stands for 'electronic ticket'. It's a paperless, online-only ticket. The ticket is delivered to you in the form of an email that you can print. The railway authorities also sms your ticket. You simply need to show either the sms or a printout of the email to the TTE. The main theme is to save trees so go paperless and save environment.You can cancel the ticket online and It can be booked upto 30 minutes before the departure of the train from last charting station.

Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) is a type of ticket which ensures certainty of travel, it does not guarantee a berth. A berth is split into 2 seats for 2 RAC ticket holders.

A RAC ticket holder is given an empty berth if:

• If there are any last minute cancellations.
• If any quota remains unsold.
• If any confirmed ticket holders are given a free upgrade according to seat availability in upper class.

If this happens the other RAC ticket holder can then convert the 2 seats into a berth.

RAC8/RAC2 means that when the ticket is purchased, it was the 8th such ticket under RAC category, which has moved 6 places after 6 cancellations.

Only Side Lower Berths are alloted to RAC ticket holders.

Let us know with an example How RAC is decided?

Let us assume an ICF coach train has 11 sleeper class coaches. There are 72 berths in an ICG coach.

i.e., 72 × 11 = 792 berths.

A coach contains 9 side lower berths so No. of side lower berths in all coaches are

11×9 =99 berths

Now, 35 % of 99 berths are reserved for the preferences ( senior citizen , divyang , pregnant women etc.) = 35 berths(appròx).

Now, we have

99–35 = 64 berths remaining.

For the 64 berths, total no. of 128 RAC tickets will be booked and then first waiting list ticket will be issued.

Length of the train;

It is a very interesting question. Few of the writers mentioned that it depends on the loop line but its not true as Indian Railways operates freight trains and Passenger trains both on the same tracks and loop lines are constructed by keeping in mind of a freight train which is generally a 60 wagon train so loop lines can easily handle a 24 or 28 coach passenger train.

Let us know why the length of the passenger trains in India is limited to 24 coaches:-

1. Indian locomotives can pull maximum of 24 coaches easily to run at MPS( max. permissible speed). If the number of coaches will be incrrased , acceleration will be slow and train will take more time to reach at mps. That is why most of the trains running at 130 kmph or above have 16–20 coaches only ( excluding exception). Passenger train locomotives are specially designed for the speed.

Note: WAP-5 & WAP-7 locomotives are well known for the speed and used in passenger trainswhereas WAG-9 is for tractive effort and used in Freight trains ( off links excluded).

2. Length of the platforms is designed to handle 24 coaches only .Few major stations have platforms for 26–28 coaches but majority are made for 24 coaches only.

These two are the major factors responsible for this cap of 24 coaches but it doesn’t like running 25 or 26 coaches will effect alot.

Railway Labeling

It might be very few people who know the significance of the 5 digit number which is written on a coach. Check out the whole answer to know more about it.

As you can see in the above picture that the coach number of this particular coach is 04052. First two numbers 04 indicates the year in which coach is manufactured.The remaining digits in number signify the type of coach whether it is AC two tier or three tier or sleeper.

Let’s look at how that works:

001-025: AC First Class

026-050: Composite 1st AC +AC-2T

051-100: AC 2T

101-150: AC 3T

151-200: AC Chair Car

201-400: Sleeper 2nd Class

401-600: General Second Class

601-700: 2L Sitting Jan Shatabdi Chair Car

701-800: Sitting Cum Luggage Rake

801+ : Pantry car, VPU, RMS mail coach, generator car, etc.

If there are more coaches of a particular type than numbers available in the allotted range as described above, the excess coaches are allotted numbers in the high 800's, usually 875 and above.

Now you can see that the coach number is 98337 which means this coach was manufactered in the year 1998 and it is a sleeper class coach.

In 1999, ER was to get a lot of AC-3T coaches for Rajdhani rakes and the new Sealdah Shatabdi. Hence, its only AC Chair Car of that year was renumbered ER 99181A, keeping 30 numbers between 151 and 180 free for AC-3T coaches (in the event, it turned out that these were not used after all).

Now You might be thinking what is suffix ‘A’ ?

'A' or 'AB' suffix indicates air-braked stock (frame-mounted or bogie-mounted, respectively), especially for coaches upgraded from vacuum brakes.

A 'C' suffix indicates CBC couplers (as with the new LHB coaches).

An 'X' suffix indicates 110V DC electrical systems (upgraded from the older 24V systems).

On SER, many coaches have 6-digit numbers (e.g., 898439/A) where an ‘8’ has been inserted as the third digit into a 5-digit number in the above scheme. ‘8’ is the zonal number of SER in the train numbering system. For some time (1998-99), ER and NFR also followed this pattern, adding a ‘3’ or ‘5’ as the third digit, respectively.

So, next time when someone asks you about these codes, I hope you can give the correct information for their awareness about railway codes.

Railway Pricing strategies

Flexi Fare scheme was introduced by Indian Railways in 2016 for premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and other premium class trains.

Under this dynamic pricing system, the base fare increases by 10% with every 10% of berths sold, with a limit set at 1.4 times the original price. The scheme was applicable to all classes, except AC first class and executive class. The pricing system is still in force.

After the introduction of flexi-fares, the railways lost 700,000 passengers in just 11 months while the additional revenue earned as a result of the scheme was ₹ 552 crore.

The loss of passengers worried the railways and decided to reduce the cap from 1.5 to 1.4 times the base fare. with the removal of few trains from this scheme.

 

Railway Place decisions- Operations management

While travelling by the train we often see different signs, symbols beside the railway tracks. These signs are used for some instructions and are specially for the loco Pilots and other technical staffs.

T/G,T/P and T are circular boards painted with yellow in the back ground and written with black .Such boards are found on the left side of the track.

T/ G's full name is termination of speed restriction for Goods trains, whereas the full name of T / P is termination of speed restriction for passenger trains.

This board shows the instruction to the driver of the train so that the driver can come know that the restriction for speed limit has expired and now the he (driver) can run the train at max premissible speed. On such tracks the maximum speed limit of the train has been set at 30 km/h.

Where such boards are found?

Teminations boards are normally found after bridges,tunnels, and sharp curves. Apart from this you can find such boards on other places as per the requirement.

Operations management - cost issues

Electric locomotives are more efficient and eco-friendly than diesel locomotives.

A diesel locomotive has a mileage of 4–6 litres per kilometre which varies as per the load and geographical conditions like elevation.

Like Diesel locomotives, Consumption of electricity by an electric locomotive also varies as per the load and tracks.

A WAP-4 locomotives has 6 DC traction motors and 3 auxiliary motors and it consumes around

840–1080 KW in an hour.

6500 KW-8500 KW in 8 hours.

Where

3 Phase locomotives like WAG-9, WAG-9H, WAP-7 have regenerative breaking system which saves the consumption of electricity up to 20% .

These locomotives consume electricity around

720 KW -840 KW per hour

5760 KW -6720 KW in 8 hours.

Operations management - symbols for transportations

While travelling by the train we often see different signs & symbols besides the railway track. But many of us are not aware about these signs & symbols. But in this answer I am sharing the details of few such signs & symbols to make you aware.

1.Signal Sighting Board

This signal sighting board is a rectangular reflective board with a circle and two horizontal lines, yellow on black.
The meaning of this signal for the driver is that, this sign warns the driver of a signal ahead and the driver needs to pay the attention of this signal. The next signal will instruct him that whether he need to slow or stop the train.

In lower quadrant territory, there are often two sighting boards used for signals. One, as described, is the goods signal sighting board and is placed 1400m before the signa

l. The other is the passenger signal sighting board intended for use by drivers of passenger trains and is usually placed about 1000m before the signal.

2.Whistle Indicator Board

Often, while traveling in the train, we see Yellow Square colored on the side of the tracks. The boards have W, W / L, W / B or C / F words. These boards are just signal to the drivers for blowing the whistle. The 'W' is a general whistle indicator while the 'W/L' stands for Whistle for Level Crossing.

Normally W / L or C / F board is placed before the 250 meters of the gate. Similarly, the W / B board informs the driver of the train that the bridge is ahead so he need to blown the horn while crossing the bridge.

3. The Sign of “LV” on the last Coach of the train;
On the final coach of the train, there is a small board written in black and white in English or red and white color. This board has “LV” written over it. This “LV” stands for - Last Vehicle i.e. Final coach of the train.

If a train passes through a station or a signal cabin, which does not have a board of “LV” then it is believed that the entire train has not reached and some coaches are left behind. In such situation emergency action is initiated by the concerned authorities.

4. Fouling Mark

A fouling mark is provided between two converging tracks at the point beyond which the centre-to-centre distance of the track is less than the stipulated minimum distance. This minimum distance is 4.265 m for BG and 3.66 m for MG lines. A vehicle standing on a loop line is not stabled beyond the fouling mark, otherwise it may have a side collision with the vehicle standing on the main line.

5.Speed Termination Indicator Board

Often while traveling on the train, we see the circular board written T / G and T / P on the side of the tracks. Generally Speed Termination Indicator Boards are located on the left side of the tracks. T / G's full name is termination of speed restriction for Goods trains, whereas the full name of T / P is termination of speed restriction for passenger trains.

6. Speed Indicator

This sign indicates special restrictions on the track due to temporary or permanent engineering work.These boards are usually painted in black and yellow colour.

Operations Management: Seat management

After successfully logging into IRCTC website you pray your next wish is answered. Your favourite window seat. You see there are almost 300 tickets available. You thank your stars and say no way you are losing a window seat.

Finally when you book, you don't get the window seat you opted for but you still find 299 tickets remaining. So why is this?

IRCTC’ software strictly follows an algorithm and allots seats in a pre- designed way . Imagine there are sleeper class coaches in a train numbered S1, S2 S3... S10, and in every coach there are 72 seats. So when someone first books a ticket, software will assign a seat in the middle coach like S5, middle seat numbered between 30-40, and preferably lower berths.

What happens if tickets are booked randomly?

A train runs at an average speed of around 70km/hr. Assume that S1, S2, S3 are full and S5, S6 are empty and others are partially full, when the train takes a turn, some coaches face maximum centrifugal force and some minimum.

This poses grave danger of derailment. When brakes are applied there will be different braking forces acting at each of these coaches because of the huge weight differences, creating a disruption in the train's stability.

Profiling is also a factor while allocating seats. Let’s we see, how IRCTC allocate a seat on train based on your gender and age.

Seat Allotment for Single Female

Indian Railways has some strict rules to allocates a seat for Female gender. The top rule in the list is a female gender never be allotted seat in the group of man allotted, and also two same age groups with opposite genders never will be assigned with the same compartment.

Female gender berths are always lower or upper berth most of the scenarios. Other cases they will get any berth on the train if they travelling in group ticket or family members.

Seat Allotment for single Female (above 45 years old)

Seat allocation for ladies is most strict part in railway reservation. They always prefer women safety first. As we know, 2 lower berths are allotted for women in each sleeper and who are above 45 female persons are to be allotted with almost lower berths only.

Case 1: If any female gender booking a ticket with above 45 years old and prefer lower berth, she has 80% of chances to get.

Case 2: if two women waiting list tickets are confirmed and have only one lower berth on the train. Then Rules Engine will check their age .It will compare age and allocates lower berth to the elder one.

So next time you see group of gossiping aunties realise its magic of IRCTC’s algorithm.

Seat Allotment for Young Couples

Indian Railways will always prefer to assign the same coach for couples. If there is no availability in the same coach, then at least it prefers to give nearby coaches.

If Couple booking a Reservation ticket, then the system will check first their age and gender. If both are the having same age and opposite gender, then it will look for couple relation. It will check first priority as two side to side middle berths. If it is not available next, it will check for side lower-side upper (or) Lower-Lower (or) Lower-middle Combinations. At worst case, couple seats will be allotted in different coaches

Seat Allotment for Old Couples

Couples are always be allocated in the same compartment. However, here the only change is their Berth priority. If the couple is senior citizens (or) Above 45 years old, the system will check for two opposite lower berths instead of opposite middle berths. If it is failed to allot lower berths, it will check for below combinations.

Lower-middle (or) Side lower-lower (or) middle -middle.

Seat Allotment for Groups

It is clear that always group booking will be allotted in the same compartment (or) same coach at least. Sometimes it depends on the size of the group. If the size of the group is more than four(4), then their first priority will be the same compartment. If it fails to provide the same compartment next priority will be the same coach with back to back seats. Very rare cases only they will get in different coaches.

Seat Allotment for Children and minors.

Children get their Berth always with parents or relatives only. Most of the time, they will get a berth in with surrounded by female genders. There are no strict rules for child/minor. But the priority is the same compartment with parent/relative with lower (or) Middle berth

Lastly if you are a male

Seat Allotment for single male (above 21 years old)

Case 1: If you’re booking a seat in sleeper coach and your preference is for upper berth, Rules engine will check your age and gender first. Then it will check your berth preference. If there are any upper berth availability, it will be allotted to you. Otherwise, it checks for a middle berth, side-upper in respected order.

Case 2: If your berth preference is lower berth with male gender and above 21 years old, then System will check there is any berth around with old aged peoples. If yes you will get a lower berth. Otherwise, it starts from a standard order like Upper, Middle, Side Upper, Side Lower, Lower berths.