The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Cellphone to the rescue of travellers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Cellphone to the rescue of travellers

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: When it works, it works admirably well. When it is jammed with too many calls at the same time, one can just forget about it.

The `Integrated Train Enquiry System' (ITES) was supposed to make it easier to track the timings of trains and the availability of seats, but most of the time it is difficult to access the `139' service, travellers complain.

"The recorded options are easy to navigate, but quite often there are too many callers and you are out on `hold' for an endless time and this can be frustrating," says Mahesh, a businessman . The option to directly reach the operator has apparently been suspended because of too many callers and not enough operators. Travellers also find that whenever the Railways' server goes down, calls are automatically transferred to an operator, which again results in delays. "Being told that you are number 39 in the queue is not exactly heartening," is how another traveller puts it.

The ITES was introduced in November last year as a `one-stop' solution for all kinds of enquiries. One needs to dial only 139 instead of other enquiry numbers such as 131, 132 of the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), all of which were later phased out.

Not all passengers are comfortable with a recorded voice and many would like to be able to talk to a real person when it comes to choosing an alternative if a particular train is full.

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Karnataka