WHAT RAILFANS CAN DO?
Happy republic day to all, on this eve a few words/tips on what railfans can do to make Indian Railways better. No, iam not suggesting everyone to get jobs in railways, please read on..
1. Most of us here spend a fair amount of our leisure time railfanning but don’t try to bring a few things to notice like say TTE demanding bribe from WL passengers, Catering or other staff behaving rude etc, bring them to the notice of concerned authorities IN WRITING.
....
more...

2. If something wrong has happened to you and you find railways responsible, atleast drop a letter in the complaint/suggestion box in the guard van or hand it over to the guard directly IN WRITING.
.
3. There are many occasions where we don’t mind paying the TTE more to get our ticket confirmed or to get a berth. The situation may demand it but don’t offer such things as in this case YOU(not the TTE) is responsible for increasing corruption in IR. We are encouraging them to do so.
.
4. Make use of RTI if your situation needs factual help. RTI is an amazing tool in our(citizens) hands.
.
5. There is always the grievance portal, lodge a complaint if you feel the need to do so. No point in lodging a complaint after journey stating that your fellow passengers are noisy, however facilities not proper or you didn’t get value for money you spent, its your right to demand an explanation.
.
6. Every railway zone has its own grievance/complaint cell, make best use of it. You need not stay quiet if the bed roll persons yells at you when you demanded replacement of filthy bed roll or something.
.
7. E-mail ids of concerned departments can be found in their respective websites, it doesn’t really take much time to write a mail. There are also SMS complaints and voice complaining system.
.
8. Make sure whatever your are complaining/reporting is in a written form, verbal complaints are not valid and you don’t have any reference to prove your grievance.
.
9. Do not at any cost complain for things which YOU THINK are worth it, example if a LP shoos you away for asking too many questions. In this case its not his job to supply detauls to you besies you are the one diverting his attention from operational duties(Even if he is idle). Never conceal any information or manipulate facts.
.
10. It takes a lot of effort to be responsible, so make sure you report only genuine incidents.
.
As an Indian its our right to demand an explanation for what went wrong if needed, that is the biggest advantage of a democratic country. I wish to see a day when railways really consider railfans as WATCH DOGS of indian railways, like media is considered for socio-economic aspects of the real world.
.
P.S: It takes nothing to let our voice known, however what matters is how responsible you are before pointing fingers. For example, If your coach has a dust bin under the wash basin outside the lavatory how many of us are using it rather than tossing things outside the window. True that they will be dumped outside the track by coach attendants in all probability, but they are atleast dumped in a single place rather than dirty the entire P.Way. Think about it, you would surely end up a happy railfan.
Thanks for reading..