Staff of premium trains get new uniform

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ambala, September 22

To give a premium feeling to commuters and staff, the Railways has given a makeover to the train superintendents and deputy train superintendents of premium trains.

Following the instructions of the Railway Board, the Ambala division has implemented the new dress code in its three premium trains, including two Kalka Shatabdi trains and a Chandigarh-New Delhi Shatabdi Express.

As per the new dress code, the staff have started wearing a grey suit with a white shirt and a red tie carrying the logo of the Railways. There will be three golden stripes on each sleeve of the train superintendents, two on the sleeves of deputy train superintendents and an Indian Railways logo badge on the chest pocket. There are 32 officials who man the three premium trains in the Ambala division.

The division has 74 pairs of trains (148 trains), including Shababdi, Superfast and Mail Express trains.

In 2017, the Railway board had issued directions to the general managers of all zones, informing them about the change of uniform colour. But it couldn’t be implemented that time. However, after two years, the dress code has been changed.

The employees are being given Rs 5,000 annually for the uniform. Earlier, they used to get the cloth.

Hari Mohan, senior divisional commercial manager, Ambala, said, “Following the guidelines of the board, the new dress code has been implemented. The idea behind introducing the new uniform is to develop a premium feeling among people travelling in premium trains. So far, the staff of all trains used to wear the same dress uniform. The stripes on the sleeves indicate the rank of the ticket-checking officials.”

“The division has been taking various initiatives in the premium trains. The staff was earlier provided hand-held devices to bring transparency and efficiency. It was to help in updating the charts in the passenger reservation system to benefit waitlisted passengers. Besides, vendors have been recently provided special t-shirts carrying message ‘No Bill, Food is Free’ to bring in transparency and discourage overcharging by catering vendors at the Ambala division stations,” he said.