South Eastern Railway to do away with reservation charts, depend on digital charting system

Kolkata: The practice of having a reconfirmatory look at the reservation chart on coaches before boarding a mail or express train is set to change as South Eastern Railway will stop pasting charts on its trains from Monday. SER spokesman Sanjoy Ghosh said it has been decided that the practice of pasting of reservation charts on train coaches will be discontinued from 16 October. [caption id=“attachment_2355870” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] “The long-standing practice of pasting charts on train coaches is being done away with at Howrah station primarily to keep the coach exterior clean. It will also save paper, thus making the railways more environment-friendly,” Ghosh told PTI here. SER operates several mail and express trains from Howrah to different destinations in the west and south, including Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad. Reservation charts are pasted on all coaches beside the doors of mails, expresses at stations from where they commence their journey. “People used to queue up in front of coaches earlier for knowing their reservation status and seat/berth allocation. But with the advent of modern forms like SMS services and reservation enquiry through the internet, the old practice of seeing the chart pasted beside coach doors have lessened a lot,” Ghosh said. Tickets with confirmed status at the time of booking have information printed on the ticket itself, while waitlisted and Reservation Against Cancellation(RAC) passengers get their status updated on their registered mobile number through SMS at the time of charting, which is four hours before the scheduled departure of the train, Ghosh said. Further, digital charting system has been installed at the major stations and at other stations, manual boards are installed for displaying the status of the waitlisted tickets to guide the passengers. Apart from these, IVRS service through number 139 are available for passengers for checking the status of their tickets on real-time basis, the SER spokesman said.