Train enquiry website to get a facelift

New Delhi: The popular train enquiry website of Railways will soon get a facelift, complete with a host of passenger friendly information including the latest train position.

The likely time of arrival at the next station in the event of the train running late will also be provided in trainenquiry.com, helping passengers schedule their plans accordingly.

The search options have also been made much easier, relieving the passengers the bother of remembering the train number etc.

"The other unique feature is that passengers visiting the site can get to know the latest position of the train they are searching for," said a railways official.

Indian Railways, which is the fourth largest railway network in the world, is already in the process of developing smart solutions to keep passenger informed about the real time train running information.

According to railyatri.in, which is powering the refurbished site, the new version has been designed after a study of various user focus groups which include regular passengers, savvy/non-savvy computer users and railway folks over months.

In a posting in an Indian railways fanclub website, it said, "The current version is an outcome based on several rounds of iterations and fine-tuning based on the feedback from such groups and experts from various design schools".

It said the goal would be to keep the screens less cluttered as opposed to the existing one and focus more on information which the user is specifically looking for.

The development comes as Railways are also testing with its The Real Time Train Information System (RTIS) project, based on the much talked-about GPS-based Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation (SIMRAN) technology.

Through this system people can get information about the movement of trains, their speed, delays, the approaching station, the coach position and other details through SMS or by Internet.

While information about 36 train such as the Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto class of trains can be accessed by clicking simran.in, plans are afoot to include all trains in the railway network by 2013.

The sources said Railways will be entering into an agreement with IIT Kanpur soon, which has pioneered the project along with RDSO, to take the project to fruition.

To get a preview of the new website click here