Only 1 Ticket Counter Open, Out of 4 to Facilitate Customers Waiting in Long Queue at MJN Railway Station

Only 1 Ticket Counter Open, Out of 4 to Facilitate Customers Waiting in Long Queue at MJN Railway Station

Only 1 Ticket Counter Open, Out of 4 to Facilitate Customers Waiting in Long Queue at Mangaluru Junction Railway Station

Mangaluru : The City of Mangaluru may take pride boasting about its Smart City status, and also Netas promising that the railway stations will be transformed into a World Class Railway stations, but simple problems/issues are always neglected, among which one being that’s causing inconveniences to customers while buying train tickets. Ironically woes of rail commuters never seems to end. Getting train reservations at Mangaluru Central Railway Reservation counters and Mangaluru Junction Railway Station has become a Herculean task due to the shortage of staff and reservation counters. And nothing has been done to fix this problem.

In a month, I make one or two visits to Mangalore Junction Railway Station to purchase train tickets to Margao-Goa- and it has been a nightmare every time you go there. On a rush day, even though there are four ticket issuing counters, only ONLY one counter will be open to serve the customers-Even if a humble request is made to the concerned railway authorities to open one or two more counters , they don’t even care and come up with silly excuses-like shortage of staff, staff are on leave, etc etc. On some days, the queue reaches out of the door into the parking lot. Why to have four counters, when only ONE is put into use every time? And it is much more worse at the Mangaluru Central Railway Station where more people come there to purchase advance train tickets- and even when there are seven ticket counters, only two will be open. Is this what you call World Class Service?

Here is my recent experience- Since Mangaluru was unnecessarily under Curfew, and that internet was down, I decided to take a trip to Goa on Saturday, 21 December, and reaching Mangaluru Junction railway station I found the queue to but train tickets had reached out of the entrance into the parking lot. The day was busy since many students who couldn’t reach Udupi or Kundapur, where also staying in the queue to buy tickets. Luckily since the 12.15 train to Margao was delayed by an hour, me and others were lucky to get our tickets staying in the queue for a long time.

But the railway authorities didn’t had the slight courtesy of opening one more ticket counter, in order to facilitate the commuters waiting in the long queue. At least the counter which was only issuing tatkal tickets could have also issued the days ticket- but it wasn’t done. There were bunch of railway staff sitting behind the ticket counter and chatting but didn’t do a damn thing-they could have at least come forward to help the passengers to get their tickets soon by opening one more counter.

The condition of passengers at the reservation office is pitiable. Though there are 3-4 counters, only one is operational. Seems like there are only a bunch of staff staff besides a supervisor who work in shifts round the clock. This results in long queues and frayed tempers but there is no hope for the harassed people of the city as the railway authorities seem to be in no hurry to improve the situation. Citizens are fed up of complaining to the authorities.At the Mangalore Central Railway Station a quick perusal of the complaint register reveals that several people had requested for opening three or more reservation counters considering that the number of passengers booking their tickets from Mangaluru railway station is growing by the day.

Some others have also questioned the quality of service at the reservation and inquiry centre. 72 year-old Suraj Cherian speaking to Mangalorean.com at Mangalore Central RS said, ” Making a senior stay in the queue for long hours is not a customer friendly service by the railway department. I go through this situation every time I come here to book train tickets. Even my complaints to the concerned supervisor have not been fruitful. They only want money from us, but no courteous service”.

Teresa, a mother with two kids in the queue said, ” I have been in the queue for the last 30 minutes, and the service has been so slow, to issue a ticket to a customer which takes about 5-10 minutes. There are 15 people in front of me in this queue, just imagine how long I have to stay in the queue with my two kids. Only two counters to serve so many customers at the moment, that’s ridiculous. Thanks for your concern on this issue-hope your report in your website will bring some changes soon at this ticket reservation counter”. I hope so!