Skip to main content

The railway booking counter

 I happened to pass by a railway booking counter - the likes of which were abundant some years ago. Indian railway ticket booking is a good example of how technology changes how work gets done. 

In the olden days (before 90s) one would have to go overnight, 90 days before journey, be perfect with the train number, fill out a form and present it at the counter. My father would go sleep in front the counter the previous night (like many others), rush when the gates opened at 7, only to find the first 4-5 places on each counter occupied every single time (touts/agents), some how get a ticket and ensure our travel tickets are "booked". And there were limited counters. 

Post 90s, this became a little better as more and more counters opened - at one point erstwhile VT station had 100 counters for booking tickets. The forms were the same, but the process was faster. Agents still got tickets faster than ordinary people. But the overnight waiting was eliminated. And counters were opened not just at specific railway stations, but also at other places. 

Then IRCTC happened and online reservation started. Politicians (specifically railway ministers) had immense distrust and wanted to create employment for thousands of booking clerks and it faced hurdles depending on dispensation. 

But over the years, much of it has been streamlined and yesterday as I passed by this huge space for railway booking at a BDA complex in Bangalore - it had all of 5 people hovering about. At the peak, this place would have had 200-300 people. 

And just two days back, I had booked a train ticket in a few mns flat. Earlier this would have been a half days work. Written as I contemplate taking more train journeys (whereever trains go within overnight distance) because flight journeys are becoming more and more irritating with long wait times and time to reach the airport and what not. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Be Civil. Make nice!

Popular posts from this blog

The power of jotting down ideas

 Long long ago, I always used to carry a small letterpad with me. To jot down ideas that might occur. Over the years, it has changed from a notepad to evernote to google keep, but the power of jotting down ideas is immense.  Small ideas go into keep.  Anything to be quickly typed goes into whatsapp as a self message.  Bigger or better formed ideas go into Google docs A few are still written, but I manage to copy them into a digital format sooner rather than later.  But the power of jotting down is immense. My google keep is an encyclopedia of ideas - most of which may never get implemented. 
Post a Comment
Read more

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

No conferences

Decided not to attend any conferences this year. Atleast not the typical ones I have often ranted about here. Will be both choosy and intentional about which ones to attend.  The ones to attend are the ones put up by practitioners of a craft. The rest is marketing one way or other. 
Post a Comment
Read more