Railway Toilet Experience

Toilet Fails

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SAW… HERE’S A PIC FROM THE KOCHU VELI TRAIN LOO! It’s not  about the commode without the toilet seat…see the human feces on the floor!

Now, what should I do? What will you do?
Close to the toilet door quietly and try the next loo. Well, I did the same, not before I took a pic.
So, other than choosing a different loo, what option do I have. Do you think it railway authorities has a system to clean the loo, especially on the basic of a complaint? And who should you tell your grievances? TT or railway attendant?

Simple Option to File a Complaint
Here’s an alternative! Create a mobile app to post the complaint. Imagine an app, which gives power to commuter to post any compliant – from used bed rolls, to rattling noise or even an unruly behavior of fellow commuter or report about a flasher, etc.

Well, making an app would be a hassle for IRTC team. Probably, they can make a new menu inside the current IRCTC mobile app. Well, app should be supported by backend responsive team. The app will have the option where in people can see the resolved complaints, or the pending ones.

Swatch Rail Campaign – Spl Request to Commuters
Seeing all these, I bet we have a long, long way to go as a swatch nation. We might show our might by dispatching hundred satellites on the right orbit from one rocket, but on the ground we fail miserably. The campaigns like Swatch Bharat was nice to hear, but it’s not easy to get the idea etch in the mind of common man.

One more thing about the pic – did you notice the flimsy metal rode used to fix the toilet seat. I wonder if the railway engineers has studied how this rod can hot fat arse.

Ideally any product used by the railway should be backed by a research:

What’s the average life of the product – in the case the toilet seat
Do real time testing ( In this case testing would be ideal)
Find the toilet seat cover used in trains across the world – Trans Siberian Train to ones in Peru! ( Competitor study)

Limitation with Indian Railway

Well, considering the scale of operation of Indian Railway and the budget, it’s not easy to fix everything. However, there are ways to make progress and how to get these little things fixed.

I remember the adage I had once written on a whiteboard – SMALL THINGS MAKE PERFECTION BUT PERFECTION IS NOT A SMALL THING.

How Does Indian Railway Track – Repairs and Fittings? What Kind of Dashboard is Used?
Just wondering if they use a ERP or SAP package to monitor these stuffs?

Probably, IRCTC app should have an option to upload pics so that the problem is rectified in the next station. Having such a facility would make things move on a faster scale than  complaining to TT or bogey attendant.

Another point here!
Maybe, there must be a Lightning Maintenance Squad at every railway station who can do a replacement within the duration of the train stop! It must be like a pit stop crew of Formula 1 team.

Just wishing for a cleaner railway loo!

P.S: Does railway have a job where a persons travels in different railway and takes pics, spy pics of each and every part of bogey, captures the service, best practices, etc. If there’s, I’ll be happy to be globe trotting as the first employee who does clandestine employee of Indian Railway.