Indian Railways is planning to start personalized SMS based alerts to passengers in case of any change in their train timings. It would also provide the facility of on-demand wake up calls to select passengers.
The Railways is reported to be developing an Android and iPhone app for its Train Enquiry service, which allows real-time tracking of around 6500 trains using Internet, quotes a report in Economic Times.
“We’re looking at providing services like wake-up calls and informing passengers if there are any changes in the schedule of the train they are booked in like delays or cancellations through SMS or phone calls,” Manish Rathi, CEO and co-founder of RailYatri.in, says. “It can even be to alert someone on the position of a train so they can receive their family at the station on time,” he adds.
At present, RailYatri already offers real-time details on routes, location of trains and even predictions on expected time of arrival for up to 6,500 trains running at any given point of time, on their website called Rail Radar.
They are also working on providing detailed visualised information on how any particular train travels over weeks or months and where delays usually occur online.
The plan is to expand services and features in a way that answers all possible queries passengers may have and provide direct information instead of passengers having to hunt for data themselves.