Industry Profile PDF

A Study on Customer Satisfaction on services provided by
Railways
Chapter - 1
D.R. Patel & R.B. Patel Commerce College & Bhaniben Chhimkabhai Patel BBA College 1
Railways
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION TO RAILWAYS
1.1 Introduction:
This chapter mainly contains of history of railways and then brief introduction to
the world railway and Indian railways after this, their comparison has also been
briefed. Then the Industry scenario of Railway has been discussed. Contemporary
issues faced by Indian railways are also being discussed. Then the other Railways
related information such as Market size of the railways, economical earnings, etc.
have also been discussed in the chapter.
1.2 History of Railways:

India‘s first railway proposals were made in Madras in 1832. The Red Hill
Railway, the country's first train, ran from Red Hills to Chintadripet bridge in
Madras in 1837. It was hauled by a rotary steam-engine locomotive manufactured
by William Avery. Built by Arthur Cotton, the railway was primarily used to
transport laterite stone for road-building work in Madras. In 1845, the Godavari
Dam Construction Railway was built at Dowleswaram in Rajahmundry. Also built
by Cotton, it supplied stone for the construction of a dam over the Godavari River.
On 8 May 1845, the Madras Railway was incorporated, followed that year by the
East India Railway. On 1 August 1849, the Great Indian Peninsular Railway was
incorporated by an act of parliament. The "guarantee system", providing free land
and a guaranteed five-percent rate of return to private British companies willing to
build railways, was finalized on 17 August 1849. In 1851, the Solani Aqueduct
Railway was built in Roorkee. It was hauled by the Thomason steam locomotive,
named after a British officer-in-charge of that name. The railway transported
construction materials for an aqueduct over the Solani River. In 1852, the Madras
Guaranteed Railway Company was incorporated.
I. 1853 – 1924: Passenger railway and Expansion

The country's first passenger train, which ran between Bombay's Bori
Bunder station and Thane on 16 April 1853, was dedicated by Lord
Dalhousie. The 14-carriage train was hauled by three steam locomotives:
the Sahib, Sindh, and Sultan. Travelling 34 kilometers, the train carried
Railways
400 people. The passenger line was built and operated by the Great Indian
Peninsula Railway (GIPR). It was built in1,676 mm (5ft 6 inch) broad
gauge, which became the country's standard for railways.
The first passenger train in eastern India ran from Howrah (near Calcutta)
to Hoogly, a distance of 24 miles (39 km), on 15 August 1854. The line
was built and operated by the East Indian Railway Company (EIR). In
May 1854, the Bombay–Thane line was extended to Kalyan with the
Thane viaduct over the Ulhas River (India's first railway bridge). That
year, the GIPR opened its first workshops in Byculla. In 1855, the BB&CI
Railway was incorporated. That August, the EIR Express and Fairy
Queen Steam locomotives were introduced.
South India's first passenger train ran from Royapuram–Veyasarapady
(Madras) to Wallajah Road in Arcot, a distance of 60 miles (97 km), on 1
July 1856. It was built and operated by the Madras Railway. The Madras
Railway's first workshop opened in Perambur (near Madras) that year, and
the Bombay-Thane line was extended to Khopoli. In 1858, the Eastern
Bengal Railway was incorporated.
India's first tramway (a horse-drawn tramway) opened in Calcutta
between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street, a distance of 3.8 kilometers
(2.4 mi), on 24 February 1873. The following year, the Great South Indian
and Carnatic Railways merged to form the South Indian Railway
Company. On 9 May 1874, a horse-drawn tramway began operation in
Bombay between Colaba and Parel. The Calcutta Tramways Company was
incorporated in 1880, followed a decade later by the East Coast State
Railway.
Lighting in passenger coaches was introduced by many railway companies
in 1897. In 1902, the Jodhpur Railway was the first to introduce electric
lighting as standard fixtures. Electric signal lighting was introduced
between Dadar and Currey Road in Bombay in 1920.
Railways
II. 1925–1950: Electrification and further expansion:

The first railway budget was presented in 1925. On 3 February 1925, the
first electric passenger train in India ran between Victoria Terminus (VT)
and Kurla on 1,500 V DC overhead traction. Cammell Laird and
Uerdingen wagonfabrik manufactured the locomotives for this train. The
VT-Bandra section was electrified (with an elevated platform at Sandhurst
Road), the Oudh and Rohilkhund Railway was merged with the EIR, the
first railway budget was presented in the same year. In 1926, the Kurla-
Kalyan section was electrified with 1,500 V DC. Electrification to Poona
and Igatpuri (both 1,500 V DC) over the Bhore and Thal Ghats was also
completed, and the Charbagh railway station in Luckhnow was built that
year. The Bandra-Virar section was electrified with 1,500 V DC in January
1928.
The Frontier Mail made its inaugural run between Bombay VT and
Peshawar in 1928. The country's first automatic color-light signals became
operational, on GIPR's lines between Bombay VT and Byculla. In 1928,
the Kanpur Central and Luckhnow stations opened. The Grand Trunk
Express began running between Peshawar and Mangalore, the Punjab
Limited Express began running between Mumbai and Lahore, and
automatic color-light signaling was extended to the Byculla-Kurla section
the following year. On 1 June 1930, the Deccan Queen began service
(hauled by a WCP-1—No. 20024, old number EA/1 4006) with seven
coaches on the GIPR's electrified route from Bombay VT to Poona
(Pune). The Hyderabad Godavari Valley Railway was merged into
Nizam's State Railway and the route of the Grand Trunk Express was
changed to Delhi-Madras that year.
III. 1951 – 1983: Zonal re – organization and redevelopment:

The re-organization of railways in India into regional zones began in
1951. On 14 April of that year, the Southern Railway zone was created. On
5 November, the Central and Western Railway zones were created. That
year, the post of Chief Commissioner of Railways was abolished and the
Railways
Railway Board adopted the practice of making its senior-most member the
chairman of the board. The government of West Bengal also entered into
an agreement with the Calcutta Tramways Company to take over its
administrative functions that year. The Northern, Eastern and North
Eastern Railway zones were created on 14 April 1952.
Fans and lights were mandated for all compartments in all classes of
passenger accommodations in 1952, and sleeping accommodations were
introduced in coaches. On 1 August 1955, the South-Eastern zone was
split off from the Eastern Railway zone. A divisional system of
administration was established for the zones in 1956, and the first fully air-
conditioned train was introduced (between Howrah and Delhi).
In 1957, after successful trials in France, SNCF proposed 25 kV
AC electrification for India's railways. Indian Railways decided to adopt
25 kV AC electrification, choosing SNCF as a technical consultant. The
Main Line Electrification Project (which later became the Railway
Electrification Project and, still later, the Central Organization for Railway
Electrification) was established that year. In 1958, the Northeast Frontier
Railway zone split off from the North Eastern zone. In 1959, Raj
Kharswan to Dangoaposi was the first section electrified with 25 kV AC
traction. The first scheduled train using 25 kV AC traction ran on the Raj
Kharswan-Dangoaposi section on 11 August 1960. The first containerized
freight service began between Bombay and Ahmedabad in 1966, and 25
kV AC electrification of several suburban tracks around Delhi, Madras and
Calcutta was completed. In 1979, the Main Line Electrification Project
became the Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE)
IV. 1984: Present and Recent Developments:

India's first metro train ran from Esplanade to Bhowanipur (now the Netaji
Bhawan station) in Calcutta on 24 October 1984 and the Calcutta
Metro was the country's first rapid-transit line.
In 1986, computerized ticketing and reservations were introduced in New
Delhi. The Shatabdi Express, India's fastest train, was introduced between
Railways
New Delhi and Jhansi in 1988; the line was later extended to Bhopal. In
1990, the first self-printing ticket machine (SPTM) was introduced in New
Delhi. Air-conditioned, three-tier coaches and a sleeper class (separate
from Second Class) were introduced in 1993.
On 16 January 1995, the first regularly-scheduled service with
2x25kV traction began on the Bina-Katni line. In September 1996, the
CONCERT system of computerized reservations began in New Delhi,
Mumbai and Chennai. In 1998, coupon-validating machines (CVMs) were
introduced at Mumbai CST. The CONCERT system became operational
nationwide on 18 April 1999; the South East Central Railway zone was
established and credit cards were accepted for tickets and reservations at
some stations that year. In February 2000, the Indian Railways website
went online. On 6 July 2002, the East Coast, South Western, South East
Central, North Central and West Central Railway zones were
created. Indian Railways (IR) began online train reservations and ticketing
on 3 August of that year, with Internet ticketing extended to many cities on
1 December. On 5 February 2012, The Western Railway zone (WR) ended
its use of 1,500 V DC traction, switching to 25 kV AC traction. The Tatkal
system of ticketing was extended to all trains on 26 September 2013.
Gatimaan Express, India's fastest train with a maximum speed of
160 km/h, made its maiden journey from Delhi to Agra on 5 April 2016.
The Central Railway zone (CR) ended its use of DC traction in the
Mumbai area and on the country's main-line rail network, switching to 25
kV AC traction on 11 April of that year. On 31 March 2017, IR announced
that India's entire rail network would be electrified by 2022.
1.3 Introduction to World Railways:

The United States has the world‘s longest railway network, followed by China and
India. Railway-technology.com profiles the 10 largest railway networks in the
world based on total operating length.
Railways
1. United States: 250,000km

The US rail network, with an operating route length over 250,000km, is
the biggest in the world. Freight lines constitute about 80% of the
country‘s total rail network, while the total passenger network spans about
35,000km. The US freight rail network consists of 538 railroads (seven
Class I railroads, 21 regional railroads, and 510 local railroads) operated
by private organizations. Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway are
among the largest freight railroad networks in the world. The national
passenger rail network Amtrak comprises of more than 30 train routes
connecting 500 destinations across 46 American states. A plan is in place
to build a 27,000km national high speed rail system in four phases by
2030. Construction of the California high-speed rail, the country‘s first
high-speed rail project, was well underway by the beginning of 2014.
Three more high-speed projects including the Midwest high-speed rail line
connecting Chicago with Indianapolis or St. Louis, Texas high-speed rail,
and the Northeast High-Speed Corridor are under development.
Figure 1.1 (The United States has the world‘s biggest network)
2. China: 100,000km
China‘s rail network, with a route length of over 100,000km, ranks as the
second biggest rail network in the world. The extensive network, operated
by state-owned China Railway Corporation, carried 2.08 billion passengers
Railways
(the second highest after Indian Railways) and 3.22 billion tons of freight
(the second highest after the US railway network) in 2013.
Rail is the principal mode of transport in China. The country‘s rail network
consists of over 90,000km of conventional rail routes and approximately
10,000km of high-speed lines. The total rail network of the country is
targeted to exceed 270,000km by 2050.
Figure 1.2 (China has the biggest high speed network in the world)
The rapid expansion of China‘s high-speed rail network in recent years

makes it by far the largest in the world. The 2,298km Beijing – Guangzhou
high speed line is the world‘s longest high-speed railway line. The total
length of China‘s high-speed rail network is projected to reach 50,000km
by 2020.
3. Russia: 85,500km
Russia‘s whole network, operated by state-owned monopoly Russian
Railways (RZD), runs for over 85,500km. In 2013, the network carried
1.08 billion passengers and 1.2 billion tons of freight – the third highest
freight volume after the US and China.
The Russian railway network incorporates12 main lines, many of which
provide direct connections to the European and Asian national railway
systems such as Finland, France, Germany, Poland, China, Mongolia and
North Korea. The Trans-Siberian Railway (the Moscow-Vladivostok line),
spanning a length of 9,289km, is the longest and one of the busiest railway
lines in the world.
Railways
RZD introduced the Sapsan high-speed rail service between St. Petersburg
and Moscow in 2009, but it has not proved successful due to sharing
existing lines with low-speed train operations. A dedicated high-speed
corridor between the two cities has been planned with a proposed
investment of $35bn. RZD expects to have 2,500km of high-speed rail
between Moscow and Kiev, Minsk and Kursk by 2015.
Figure 1.3 (Russia‘s railway network is the third biggest in the world)
4. Canada: 48,000km
Canada‘s 48,000km of rail lines makes its national network the fifth
longest in the world. Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian
Pacific Railway (CPR) are the two major freight rail networks operating in
the country, while Via Rail operates the 12,500km intercity passenger rail
service. Algoma Central Railway and Ontario Northland Railway are
among the other smaller railways providing passenger services to certain
rural areas in the country.
Three Canadian cities – Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver – have
extensive commuter train systems. In addition, the Rocky Mountaineer and
Royal Canadian Pacific offer luxury rail tours to view the scenic beauty of
certain mountainous areas in the country.
Canada, however, does not have a single high-speed line on its railway
network. Many high-speed lines such as Toronto-Montreal, Calgary-
Railways
Edmonton and Montreal-Boston have been proposed, but none of these

have progressed beyond preliminary studies as of January 2014.
Figure 1.4 (Canada‘s railway network is the fifth largest in the world)
5. Germany: 41,000km
State-owned Deutshe Bahn dominates Germany‘s 41,000km railway
network, accounting for about 80% of the total freight traffic and 99% of
the long-distance passenger traffic.
More than 150 private railway companies apart from Deutshe Bahn
operate on the network, providing regional passenger and freight services.
The S-Bahn serves major suburban areas, while the Hamburg Cologne
Express (HKX) is the major long-distance passenger operator after
Deutshe Bahn.
The German railway network had more than 1,300km of high-speed
railway track operational as of mid-2013 and more than 400km of new
high-speed line under construction. Deutshe Bahn opened high-speed
services, under the name Inter City Express (ICE), for the first time in
1991. The high-speed network, operated at speeds up to 320km/h, now
connects major German cities and neighboring countries such as France,
Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria.
Railways
Figure 1.5 (Germany high speed railway network exceeds 1300 kilometers in length)
6. Australia: 40,000km
The Australian railway network is the world‘s seventh longest at more
than 40,000km. Most of the railway network infrastructure is owned and
maintained by the Australian government either at the federal or state
level. The majority of the trains on the network are, however, operated by
private companies.
Aurizon (formerly QR National), Genesee and Wyoming Australia, and
Pacific National are among the major freight operators on the network.
Great Southern Railway, NSW Train Link and Queensland Rail are the
leading long-distance passenger rail operators. Metro Trains Melbourne,
Sydney Trains, V/Line and Adelaide Metro operate commuter passenger
services in major suburban areas. In addition, a number of private mining
railways operate in the country.
The Australian railway network does not have a high-speed line yet. A
high-speed rail network connecting Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and
Melbourne is proposed to be built with an estimated capital cost of
$114bn, but the first phase of the 1,748km high-speed network will not be
realized before 2035.
Railways
Figure 1.6 (Australia has the seventh largest network)
7. Argentina: 36,000km
Argentina‘s current rail network spanning over 36,000km in length ranks
the eighth largest in the world. Argentina used to have about 47,000km of
rail network at the end of the Second World War, mostly operated by
British and French-owned railway companies. But the decline of profits
and the rise of highway construction in the subsequent decades reduced the
network to the 36,000km of line that exists today. The railway companies
operating on the network were nationalized in 1948 with the creation of
the state railroad corporation Ferrocarriles Argentinos.
The Argentinean railway was privatized between 1992 and 1995 with the
grant of concessions to different private companies for operating six
divisions of the formerly state-owned rail network. Cities such as Buenos
Aires, Resistencia and Mendoza offer extensive suburban passenger
services, as well as the long distance passenger lines in the country.
The much talked-about Argentine high-speed railway is not a reality yet.
An announcement was made in 2006 to develop a 310km high-speed line
between Buenos Aires and Rosario. The project was, however, not
implemented as of 2013. A second high-speed line stretching 400km
between Rosario and Cordoba has also been proposed.
Railways
Figure 1.7 (Argentina‘s railway network is eighth largest network in the world)
8. France: 29,000km
At 29,000km, the French railway network is the second biggest in Europe
and the ninth biggest in the world. The French railway network is
predominantly passenger-centric and more than 50% of the country‘s lines
are electrified. State-owned Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français
(SNCF) is the principal railway operator in the country.
The country‘s high-speed long distance passenger services are known
as Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) and the standard long-distance passenger
services are branded Intercités. The short and middle distance passenger
rail services are known as Transport Express Régional (TER). The
network offers linkages to adjacent countries such as Belgium, Italy and
the UK.
France was one of the early adopters of high-speed rail technology; SNCF
brought into operation the TGV high-speed rail in 1981. The country‘s
current high-speed network exceeds a length of 1,550km. The Tours-
Bordeaux high-speed rail project, which is due for completion in 2017,
will add another 302km into the network.
Railways
Figure 1.8 (France has one of the biggest high speed networks in the world)
9. Brazil: 28,000km
The first railway line in Brazil became operational in 1984. The railway
network was nationalized in 1957 with the creation of Rede Ferroviária
Federal Sociedade Anônima (RFFSA). The country‘s railway network was
divided into different services to be operated by a range of private and
public operators by 2007.
The 28,000km network is predominantly freight-focused and includes
major iron ore rail lines. The country‘s passenger rail services are mostly
concentrated in urban and suburban areas. Eight Brazilian cities have
metro systems, São Paulo Metro being the biggest among them.
In 2012, the Brazilian government announced the construction of
10,000km of new lines comprised of freight and high-speed passenger
lines by 2042. A 511km high-speed rail link between São Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro has been planned for development in the country, but the project is
yet to take off.
Figure 1.9 (The Brazilian railway network is the tenth largest in the world)
Railways
1.4 Introduction to Indian Railways:

Indian Railway is the lifeline of the nation. The system never rests; it has been
working perpetually for the last several decades. The Indian Railway network
connects the social, cultural and economical fabric of the country and covers the
whole of country ranging from north to south and east to west removing the
distant barriers of its people.
The Indian nationwide rail network, the fourth longest in the world, is owned and
operated by state-owned Indian Railways and includes an operating route length
of more than 65,000km. The network carried about eight billion passengers (the
highest in the world) and 1.01 million tons of freight (fourth highest in the world)
in 2013.
The Indian railway network is divided into 17 zones and operates more than
19,000 trains per day, including 12,000 passenger trains and 7,000 freight trains.
The national railway operator plans to add 4,000km of new lines by 2017, as well
as significant gauge conversion, doubling and electrification of its existing aging
lines. It also plans to add 3,338km of exclusive freight network by 2017 with the
implementation of Eastern & Western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), two of
the six identified dedicated freight corridors in India.
Six high-speed corridors have also been identified for implementation in the
country. The 534km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed link is being advanced as a
pilot project with an estimated investment of $9.65billion.
Figure 1.10 (India has the fourth largest network in the world)
Railways
Customer (passenger) satisfaction of Indian railways has its influence on service

quality. Satisfaction is a measure of how products and services supplied by a
company meet or surpass customer expectations. This study tried to find out the
level of satisfaction on services offered by the rail system in Surat city.
The Indian Railways is among the world‘s largest rail networks. The Indian
Railways route length network is spread over 115,000 km, with 12,617 passenger
trains and 7,421 freight trains each day from 7,349 stations plying 23 million
travelers and 3 million tons (MT) of freight daily. India's railway network is
recognized as one of the largest railway systems in the world under single
management.
The railway network is also ideal for long-distance travel and movement of bulk
commodities, apart from being an energy efficient and economic mode of
conveyance and transport. Indian Railways was the preferred carrier of
automobiles in the country with loading from automobiles traffic growing 16 per
cent in 2017-18.
The Government of India has focused on investing on railway infrastructure by
making investor-friendly policies. It has moved quickly to enable Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) in railways to improve infrastructure for freight and high-speed
trains. At present, several domestic and foreign companies are also looking to
invest in Indian rail projects.
1.5 Comparison of Indian Railways with World Railways:

According to a report presented by Christian Walmer (2010), the Railways have
turned the World Economy. Railways have been deemed as a momentous domain
of any country whether developed or developing. Report says that not only
Railways have an impact on the economy, development and growth but also on
political history (Vision, 2020). According to Indian Railways: Vision 2020 report
(2012), Indian Railways lags behind the developed countries, such as USA,
Germany, France and Japan, in terms of route- kilometers per square kilometers or
route-kilometers per million population served which are broad indicators of the
level of rail connectivity in the country. This can be redressed by expeditious
expansion of the network to the unconnected regions. In terms of the productivity
Railways
(traffic units/employees) also, IR is way behind many of the Railways (Martin B,

2010). Figures 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 show an effective comparison of various countries
including position of India on the basis of Railways network, number of
passengers travelling per year and number of passengers km carried, respectively.
Graph 1.1(a) (Total numbers of kilometers)
Graph 1.1 (b) (Annual Numbers of Passengers)
Graph 1.1 (c) (Annual Number of Railway Passengers-Kilometer Carried)
Railways
1.6 Industry scenario of Indian Railways:

a) Market Size
Indian Railways‘ revenues increased at a CAGR of 9.66 per cent during FY07-
FY18 to US$ 27.71 billion in FY18. Earnings from the passenger business grew at
a CAGR of 9.90 per cent during FY07-FY18 to reach US$ 7.55 billion in 2017-
18P. Freight revenue rose at a CAGR of 9.83 per cent during FY07-FY18 to reach
US$ 18.16 billion in 2017-18.
India was among the top 20 exporters of railways globally, as of 2017. India‘s
exports of railways have grown at a CAGR of 27.05 per cent during 2010-2017 to
US$ 303.29 million. Exports of railways in 2018* stood at US$ 278.05 million.
b) Investment/ Developments:
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into Railways Related Components from
April 2000 to June 2018 stood at US$ 920.21 million.
Following are some of the major investments and developments in India‘s
railways sector:
 In December 2018, France-based Alstom announced plans to augment its
coach production capacity at its facility in Sri City from 20 cars per month
to 24 cars per month. Also, it will set up a new production line to increase
capacity to 44 cars per month by the end of 2019.
 In December 2018, the Prime Minister of India laid the foundation stone
for the third phase of the Pune metro.
c) Demand and Supply scenario:

The improvements are recommended based on the percentage utilization of the
railway links. An increase of about 20 percent over the present broad gauge track
capacity was assumed in 2007 due to technological improvement.
The Do-Minimum Network was prepared by including the committed projects to
the base year network.
The committed projects considered for this purpose are as follows:
Railways
i. Metre Gauge to Broad Gauge Conversion of

 Bhuj-Gandhidham Section (commissioned)
 Veraval - Junagadh - Rajkot Section (commissioned with extension to
Somnath).
 Malia Miyana - Dahinsara - Wankaner Section (commissioned)
 Surendranagar - Dhola - Rajula - Pipavav Section (Commissioned)
 Dhola-Bhavnagar Section (commissioned)
 Viramgam-Mehsana Section with BoT (commissioned)
 Mahesana-Patan Section (commissioned)
ii. Additional Broad gauge Track between:
 Godhra and Dahod (work under progress)
iii. Missing link between
 Kapadvanj and Modasa (commissioned)
 Patan and Bhildi work in progress
The projected traffic was assigned on the Do-minimum network for each five
year period, viz. 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017. The network was then evaluated
for the percentage utilization of each link by comparing the traffic flows with
the present capacity of the railway link.
Percentage of links 1997 2002 2007 2012 2017

having % utilization
More than 400 - - - - 1.94
Between 300 and 400 - - - 5.83 18.45
Between 200 and 300 1.94 4.85 22.33 24.27 11.65
Between 100 and 200 28.16 33.98 19.42 21.56 26.21
Less than 100 69.90 61.17 58.25 48.54 41.65
Total 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
More than 100 30.10 38.83 41.75 51.46 58
Table 1.1 (Table summarizes the percentage of links having different percentage utilization.)
Railways
iv. Percentage Utilization of Links

It can be inferred from the above table that around 30% of the links have more
traffic than the capacity in the year 1997 and will rise to 58% in the horizon year.
Around 2% of the railway links will have a utilization percentage above 400 in
2017. These figures are based on the overall loads on the existing network from
ports, industries and the projected passenger traffic.
The Indian Railways is looking to award 6 tenders worth $ 1.2 billion, for setting
up a country-wide electricity transmission network as part of a strategy to reduce
electricity bills.
Two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), one on the Western route (Jawaharlal
Nehru Port to Dadri) and another on the Eastern route (Ludhiana to Dankuni),
have been fast-tracked.
The Indian Railways' passenger earnings in 2017-18 have been the highest ever
and clocked a 4.2% increase to $ 7.2 billion from $ 6.9 billion during the
previous financial year. Indian Railways aspires to add 1.5% to the country‘s
GDP by building infrastructure to support 40% modal freight share of the
economy.
 3,360 km dedicated freight corridors by 2019
 700 stations to be fed with solar power in the medium term
 The Ministry of Railways has decided to redevelop 90 railway stations
into world-class transit hubs
 Track Renewal speeded up - 2148 km old rails have been replaced with
new rails up to November 2017
 Electric Traction of 2367 route kilometer has been achieved
d) Growth Drivers:
i. Rising passenger & freight traffic
Increasing urbanization, rising incomes (both rural and urban), growing
industrialization across the country along with private sector participation
ii. Increasing freight traffic
Growing industrialization across the country
Railways
iii. Dedicated freight corridor

Six high-capacity, high-speed dedicated freight corridors
iv. Mass Rapid Transit Systems (MRTS)
MRTS is planned between Gurgaon and Bawal to provide direct
connectivity to Manesar Bawal Investment Region (MBIR)
v. Diamond Quadrilateral network of high-speed rail
Connecting major metros and growth centers of the country.
1.7 Contemporary Issues:

Although accidents such as derailment and collisions are less common in recent
times, many are run over by trains, especially in crowded areas. Indian Railways
have accepted the fact that given the size of operations, eliminating accidents is an
unrealistic goal, and at best they can only minimize the accident rate. In the past,
Konkan Railway route has suffered from landslides in the monsoon season,
causing fatal accidents. Outdated communication, safety and signaling equipment,
which used to contribute to failures in the system, is being updated with the latest
technology.
Some of the major problems faced by the Indian Railways are briefly discussed as
under:
i. Safety:
Indian Railways have been in the news albeit for wrong reasons. With the
rapid increase in passenger and goods traffic, the frequency of train
accidents is increasing very fast. This has raised serious doubts in the
public mind about safety of Rail travel and the general health of the
railway network. According to the Khanna Railways Safety Review
Committee Report, nearly 25 per cent of the total railway track in India is
over aged and is due for replacement. The tracks suffer from fatigue and
wear and tear in due course of time, and their replacement should be
carried on side by side. In several derailments poor condition of tracks had
been found responsible. The condition of tracks becomes more significant
when one look at the other assets of the Railways.
Railways
ii. Cost and Revenue Problems:

As is the case with most of the government organizations, Indian Railways
face chronic financial crisis. The annual rate of increase in cost has
overtaken that of revenues during the last few years. A study of Railways
finances from 1998 to 2004 reveals that the revenues increased at an
average annual rate of 8.7 per cent against the 9.65 per cent average annual
growth in costs.
In certain years in between, the revenue growth rate did exceed that of
cost. But this position was achieved by providing inadequately for
replacements and severely controlling the costs. Such a situation has long
term implications as it affects the internal generation of resources.
Following are the main causes of costs and revenue problems.
iii. Low level of employee productivity:

Indian Railways face a serious problem of low level of employee
productivity. Transport output in terms of passengers and freight ton
kilometers per employee on Indian Railways is only 400 as compared to
500 for Chinese and 570 for French Railways. An estimated 30 per cent
surplus workforce and operation of a number of lines with low traffic and
assets not essential for the Railways are contributory factors. The
organization has been reducing its workforce since 1992-93 by a paltry
one per cent annually.
iv. Staff Wages:

With the implementation of the recommendations of the Fifth Pay
Commission, staff wages have increased tremendously and have put heavy
strain on the financial resources of the Railways. Staff wages and
allowances which altogether with pension, accounted for 41.7 per cent of
the Gross Traffic Receipts in 1996-97 rose to 47.8 per cent in 1997-98 and
53.3 per cent in 1998-99. With life expectancy going up and wage
escalations taking place periodically, the position will only worsen leaving
little scope for development plans.
Railways
v. Increase in lease charges:

Paucity of funds forces the, Indian Railways to resort to market
borrowings which results in increased lease charges. Market borrowings
started in 1986 and the trend is increasing. At present payout of lease
charges constitute about 8.5 per cent of the revenue.
vi. Slowdown in Revenue Growth:

With saturation of trunk routes and low quality of services and reliability,
the revenue growth has registered a slowdown. The railways are
increasingly becoming a transporter of bulk commodities for public sector
(coal, iron ore, food-grains, etc.) and are consistently losing to roadways.
Most of the national highways run parallel to railways and are consistently
snatching revenues from the railways.
vii. Social Burden:

Indian Railways have to play a dual role of revenue earning as well as
meeting the social obligations. The Expert Group, constituted in December
1998 to study the railway sector, termed it as the ‗split personality‘. On
one hand, the Railways are seen as a commercial organization and on the
other hand, it is treated as a social organization which must perform its
social obligations.
The two functions are diametrically opposite and difficult to reconcile.
There are several social obligations on the railways which are always
running below cost. Suburban passenger services, concessionary travel to
certain section of travelers, concessional freight movement of certain
commodities, particularly to remote and inaccessible areas like the North-
east region, providing rail services to backward regions are some of the
outstanding social obligations on the Indian Railways.
viii. Other Problems:

A large number of miscellaneous problems include late running of trains,
lack of passenger facilities including cleanliness at the railway stations,
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lack of security arrangement on the railways resulting in theft. Political

pressure and interference is a very big problem which the Indian Railways
are facing with increasing impact. Several projects which are not
economically viable have been initiated for political considerations.
1.8 Other Related Information:

a) Size of the industry:
An Indian railway operates 7566 locomotives, 37,840 coach vehicles and 2.22,147
freight wagons. There are total of 6853 stations; 300 yards; 2300 good sheds; 700
repair shops and total workforce of 1.54 million.
The Indian railway industry has registered 13.87% growth in revenue to Rs.
57,863.90 crore in the first nine months ended December 31, 2008. While total
earnings from freight increased by 14.53% at Rs. 39,085.22 crore during the
period, passenger revenue earnings were up 11.81% at Rs. 16,242.44 crore. The
railway has enhanced freight revenue by increasing its axle loading, improving
customer services and adopting an innovative pricing strategy.
b) Total contribution to the economy/Sales:

The Indian railway is aiming at over $500 billion in next 10 – 12 years to increase
capacity in anticipation of faster economic growth. The Indian railway is among
the world largest. Spread across 7,146 stations, the 64,600 kilometer network has
19,000 trains running on a daily basis.
The total approximate earnings of Indian railway on originating basis during 2015
were Rs. 157,880 crore (US $23.68 billion) compared to Rs. 140,761 (US $21.11
billion) during the same period last year, registering an increase of 12.16 percent.
The total approximate earnings from goods during fiscal 2014 – 15 were
107,074.79 crore (US $16.06 billion) compared to Rs. 94,955.89 crore (US $14.24
billion) during the same period last year, registering an increase of 12.76 percent.
The total approximate revenue earnings from passengers during the financial year
2015 were Rs. 42,866.33 crore (US $6.43 billion) compared to Rs. 37,478.34
crore (US $5.6 billion) during the same period last year, registering an increase of
14.38 percent. The total approximate revenue earnings from other coaching
Railways
amounted to Rs. 4,035.56 crore (US $605 million) during fiscal 2015 compared to
Rs. 3,818.03 crore (US $572 million) during the same period last year, registering
an increase of 5.7 percent.
The total approximate numbers of passengers booked during the financial year
2015 – 16 were 8,227.99 million compared to 8,425.09 million during the same
period last year, showing a decrease of 2.34 percent. In the suburban and non –
suburban sectors, the numbers of passengers booked during fiscal 2015 – 16 were
4,503.97 million and 3,724.02 million compared to 4,549.63 million and 3,875.47
million registering a decrease of 1 percent and 3.91 percent respectively during
the same period last year.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into railway related components from
April 2000 to September 2015 – 16 were US $652.2 million. The Indian railway
network is growing at a healthy rate. In the next five years, the Indian railway
market will be the 3rd largest, accounting for 10 percent of the global railway
market.
c) Employment opportunities:
Indian railway industry functions as a major employment generator in the country.
Out of the 27 million people employed in the organized sector, Indian railway
industry accounts for 6% directly and an additional 2.5% indirectly. Indian
Railway employees total about 1.6 million people.
Indian railway industry has divided into 16 railway zones, which has the aim of
operations, construction and maintenance of coaches, railroad construction,
recruitment and maintenance of workspace. Each single zone is headed by a
General Manager who reports to the railway board office. For each single zone
there are divisional offices headed by Railway divisional managers who get the
reports from divisional officer cadres such as divisional officer engineering,
mechanical divisional officers, electrical divisional officers, signal and
telecommunication divisional officers, divisional accounting officer and divisional
personnel.
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d) Top leading companies:

i. Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS)
ii. Container Corporation of India
iii. Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India
iv. Indian Railway Finance Corporation
v. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
vi. IRCON International Ltd.
vii. Konkan Railway Corporation
viii. Rail Land Development Authority
ix. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
x. Railtel Corporation of India
xi. RITES Ltd.
e) Railway projects
Umbrella SPV between Government of Gujarat and Ministry of Railways for
Railways project within the state.
 As per Joint Venture Agreement signed on 17th August 2016 between
Ministry of Railways (MOR), Government of India and Government of
Gujarat (GOG), A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) namely Gujarat Rail
Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (G-RIDE) has been
incorporated for the purpose of development of viable railway projects in
the state.
 Equity Contribution will be as follows: Government of Gujarat: 51%,
Ministry of Railway: 49%
 The Authorized Capital of the following Company would be Rs 100 crore.
v. The SPV G-RIDE has following objectives:
i. To carry on the business of development, financing, planning, operations
and management, implementation of viable projects which may require
VGF that are important for critical connectivity/capacity enhancement,
development of other infrastructure facilities, by undertaking surveys,
preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR), sanctioning of further
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railway projects as identified by the Company or by the private parties, to

act as technical consultants and advisors in all related matters.
ii. Accordingly, to conceive, identify, formulate, initiate, promote, aid,
design, develop, structure, monitor, establish and implement of the,
whether whole railway project or any part thereof, and its support facilities
this project and to finance VGF and/ or to arrange financing of the above
activities.
 SPV would broadly undertake the projects as detailed below:
 Katosan-Becharaji-Chanasma-Ranuj (65 Km) line Gauge Conversion
Project
 Vayor to Koteshwar New Line Connectivity Project (43 Km)
 Bedi Port Last Mile Connectivity Project (14 Km)
 Chhara Port Last Mile Connectivity Project - Kodinar- Chhara 19 Km Line
 Nargol Port Last Mile Connectivity Project (14 Km)
 Surat-Kudsad-New Sanjali DFC Line (44 Km)
 Re-Development of Surat Railway Station as a Multi Modal Hub
 IRSDC, GSRTC and SMC intends to develop a Multi Modal Transport
Hub comprising of Surat Railway Station, GSRTC Bus Depot and SMC
land in Surat (Gujarat) on PPP mode.
 The MMTH shall integrate all public transport modes such as City Bus,
Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), State regional bus service, Metro Rail,
Railways and intermediate public transport modes such as auto rickshaw
and taxis.
 IRSDC, GSRTC & SMC will form project Specific Joint Venture
Company (JVC)/SPV for development of international standard multi-
modal interchange facility.
 MOU is entered on 17th August 2016 by all the three parties with equity
sharing IRSDCL (63%), GSRTC (34%) and SMC (3%).
 Gandhinagar Railway Station Re-development:
 Ministry of Railways has selected Gandhinagar Railway Station for its
redevelopment by exploitation of Railway Station Airspace for
Railways
development of Hotel in integration of Mahatma Mandir and Helipad

Ground owned by the Govt. of Gujarat.
 This hotel aligns to the central vista of Gandhinagar, thus adding to the
aesthetics of the Central axis and complementing Dandi Kutir and
Mahatma Mandir facilities.
 An SPV named Gandhinagar Railway & Urban Development Corporation
Ltd (GARUD) has been formed with Equity Contribution of Government
of Gujarat (74%) and IRSDCL (26%) to work as a Joint Project
Development Company for Gandhinagar Railway Station, development of
Hotel on the Airspace above Railway Station and Management of
Mahatma Mandir and Exhibition Centre at Helipad Ground.
 The present estimated cost of the project is approx. Rs.610 Crores whereby
grant of 40% of total project cost equivalent to Rs. 122 Crores would be
contributed by GoG and Ministry of Railways in equal proportion.
 The authorized equity capital shall be Rs. 100 Crores and paid up Equity
shall be approx. Rs. 30.4 Crores to be contributed by GoG and IRSDC in
74% and 26%respectively. The figure of paid up equity is subject to
finalization of the detailed project cost.
 The license rights for Mahatma Mandir and Helipad Exhibition ground
would be given to the SPV by Government of Gujarat for 45.
f) Railway Studies:
 Preparation of Railway Master Plan for the State of Gujarat
All State Governments were asked by Railway Board to prepare its own Railway
Development Scheme to assess the demand/requirement of Railway Infrastructure
(both passenger and freight) in State to close the gap and develop the required
level of infrastructure, an effective rail network & services needed to facilitate and
catalyze economic development in the State. Accordingly, GIDB has already
commenced the study for Preparation of Railway Master Plan for the State of
Gujarat with following objectives:
i. Review the current railway capacity, and establish the gap between this
capacity and the requisite railway infrastructure.
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ii. Assess the demand/requirement of Railway Infrastructure (both passenger

and freight) in State in totality for next 30 years.
iii. Propose a railway development strategy and comprehensive integrated
Master Plan.
iv. Prepare a suitable organizational, regulatory, legal and financial structure
to implement the Master Plan.
v. Assist State Government in implementation of the Master Plan.
Consultants M/s Ernst & Young LLP has been engaged for the Preparation of Railway
Master Plan for the State of Gujarat for duration of 32 weeks.
 GIDB has commissioned following Feasibility studies.

 Pre-Feasibility Study of Vayor to Koteshwar New Line Connectivity
Project (43 Km)
 Feasibility Study of Ankaleshwar-Jhagadia Gauge conversion. Sanctioned
in Railway Budget with extension up to Rajpipla.
 Feasibility Study of Mahesana-Patan Gauge conversion & new link
between Patan & Bhildi. Mahesana Bhildi commissioned.
Name & Description Estimated Completion Status

Location cost (in time
Crores)
Pre- A Joint Venture (JV) process 430 Cr. August, 2018 M/s. Aarvee
Feasibility is already initiated for 101 Associates is
Study of km of Bhuj-Naliya Broad the
Vayor to Gauge Conversion and 25 Consultants.
Koteshwar kms of new line (Naliya- Draft Pre-
New Line Vayor). Now Industry feasibility
Connectivity Association and others have Report is
Project (43 requested to extend this submitted.
Bhuj-Naliya Broad Gauge The
Railways
Km) (BG) Line up to Koteshwar. finalization

Extension of Bhuj-Naliya- is in
Vayor Broad Gauge (BG) progress.
Line up to Koteshwar will
benefit local communities,
industries, Tourist as well as
BSF.
Prefeasibility Gauge conversion of the Completed M/s.

study for existing narrow gauge rail (As on Feedback
developing a link connecting June,2006) Ventures
Borad Gauge Ankaleshwar with Jhagadia. Pvt. Ltd.,
rail link In that regard the consultants New Delhi
between are required to prepare a was the
Ankaleshwar prefeasibility report for the consultant.
and Jhagadia gauge conversion project on Indian
a commercial form at railway had
including operation and sanctioned
maintenance of the same. Ankaleshwar
The study shall assess - Jhagadia-
existing NG rail link and Rajpipla (63
work out traffic demand, km)
appropriate technical details conversion
and designs of the facility, of the
revenue modeling, financial estimated
feasibility, and economic cost of
feasibility, socio-economic Rs.99.7
and environmental crores. The
assessment for the project. Gauge
Conversion
work on
Railways
Ankleshawr-
Rajpipla rail
route has
been
completed as
on January,
2013.
Prefeasibility Govt. of Gujarat is keen to Completed M/s.

study for explore possibilities of (As on Consulting
developing a developing a broad gauge June,2006) Engineering
Broad Gauge rail link connecting Services (I)
link between Mahesana with Bhildi Pvt. Ltd.,
Mahesana - through Patan. In that regard New Delhi
Patan-Bhildi the consultants are required was the
to prepare a pre-feasibility consultants.
report for developing a BG Indian
rail link on commercial form railway had
at including operation and sanctioned
maintenance of the same. this work
The study shall assess under their
alternative alignments and plan head
suggests options for and the
appropriate alignment gauge
between Patan & Bhildi and conversion
work out traffic demand, work has
appropriate technical details duly been
and designs of the facility, completed.
revenue modeling, financial
feasibility, and economic
feasibility, socio-economic
Railways
and environmental
assessment of Mahesana -
Patan – Bhildi rail link.
Table 1.2 (Table containing Railway Master Plan for the State of Gujarat for duration of 32 weeks.)
g) Government initiatives
Few recent initiatives taken up by the Government are:
 As of December 2018, the Government of India is considering a High
Speed Rail Corridor project between Mumbai and Nagpur
 As of November 2018, Indian Railways is planning to come out with a
new export policy for railways.
 The Government of India is going to come up with a ‗National Rail Plan‘
which will enable the country to integrate its rail network with other
modes of transport and develop a multi-modal transportation network.
 A 'New Online Vendor Registration System' has been launched by the
Research Designs & Standards Organization (RDSO), which is the
research arm of Indian Railways, in order to have digital and transparent
systems and procedures.
 The Government of India has signed an agreement with the Government of
Japan under which Japan will help India in the implementation of the
Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail corridor along with a financial
assistance that would cover 81 per cent of the total project cost.
h) Road Ahead
The Indian Railway network is growing at a healthy rate. In the next five years,
the Indian railway market will be the third largest, accounting for 10 per cent of
the global market. Indian Railways, which is one of the country's biggest
employers, can generate one million jobs, according to Mr. Piyush Goyal, Union
Minister for Railways and Coal.
Railways
Indian Railways is targeting to increase its freight traffic to 3.3 billion tons by
2030 from 1.1 billion tons in 2017.
It is projected that freight traffic via the Dedicated Freight Corridors will increase
at a CAGR of 5.4 per cent to 182 MT in 2021–22 from 140 MT in 2016–17.
GR of 5.4 per cent to 182 MT in 2021–22 from 140 MT in 2016–17.
i) Reports
India has the world's third-largest railway network under single management. As
of 2016-17, India‘s rail network had a total length of 67,368 km.
In collaboration with the Government of Japan, a high speed passenger corridor
project between Ahmedabad to Mumbai was undertaken in Railway Budget 2016-
17. Construction work has already begun and the total cost of the project is
estimated at US$ 14.52 billion. The project is estimated to be operational by 2022.
Revenue growth for Indian Railways has been strong over the years. Indian
Railways‘ increased at a CAGR of 9.66 per cent during FY07-FY18 to US$ 27.71
billion in FY18. Freight and Passenger earnings are the two largest components of
revenues for Indian Railways. In FY18, Indian Railways generated US$ 15.70
billion in earnings from commodity freight traffic and passenger earnings of US$
7.55 billion. Passenger earnings and freight earnings of Indian Railways stood at
US$ 4.23 billion and US$ 9.28 billion, respectively, between April-October 2018.
With increasing participation expected from private players, both domestic and
foreign, due to favorable policy measures, both passenger and freight traffic is
expected to grow rapidly over the medium to long term. Government of India‘s
focus on infrastructure is a major factor which will accelerate growth of railways.
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Chapter - 2
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CHAPTER – 2 IRCTC PROFILE
2.1 Introduction:
This chapter contains the introduction of IRCTC which contains Vision, Mission,
Goals, Objectives of IRCTC, Organizational structure of IRCTC, Marketing
practices of IRCTC which includes Product, price, promotion, Place wise
marketing strategies and main business about IRCTC, It contains the
achievements and recent news about IRCTC and lastly the awards given to
IRCTC for its services has been discussed.
2.2 Introduction of IRCTC:

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. has been set up by the
Ministry of Railways with the basic purpose of hiving off entire catering and
tourism activity of the railways to the new Corporation so as to professionalize
and upgrade these services with public-private participation. Rail based Tourism
in India will be the specific vehicle for achieving high growth in coordination with
state agencies, tour operators, travel agents and the hospitality industry. A
dynamic marketing strategy in association with public and private agencies, tour
operators, transporters, hoteliers and local tour promoters is on the anvil. Indian
Railways span global volumes in hospitality and catering sectors with services
provided to 13 million passengers every day.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) is a Public
Sector Enterprise under Ministry of Railways. IRCTC was incorporated on 27th
September, 1999 as an extended arm of the Indian Railways to upgrade,
professionalize and manage the catering and hospitality services at stations, on
trains and other locations and to promote domestic and international tourism
through development of budget hotels, special tour packages, information &
commercial publicity and global reservation systems.
While discharging its mandate, the Company has made a significant mark in its
passenger-services oriented business lines like setting up of Food Plazas on
Railway premises, ‗Railneer', Rail Tour Packages and ‗Internet Ticketing'
bringing great deal of professionalism into the operations. In addition to above,
Railways
IRCTC is managing on Board Catering Services in Rajdhani / Shatabdi / Duronto

and Mail / Express Trains and Static Catering Units such as Refreshment Rooms,
AVMs, Book Stalls, Milk Stalls, Ice Cream Stalls, Petha and Peda Stalls etc.
across the Indian Railway Network.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is a subsidiary of the Indian
Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the
Indian railways, with around 5,50,000 to 6,00,000 bookings every day is the
world's second busiest and highest of 15 to 16 lakh tickets every day.
 Customer service: 0755 661 0661
 Headquarters: New Delhi
 Parent organization: Indian Railways
 Founder: Ministry of Railways
 Founded: 27 September 1999
 Members: 30 million registered users (2015)
i. Vision of IRCTC:
"To be the leading provider of high quality travel, tourism and hospitality
related services, for a range of customer segments, with consistently high
level of customer satisfaction."
ii. Mission of IRCTC:

"Enhance customer services and facilitation in railway catering,
hospitality, travel and tourism with best industry practices".
iii. Objectives
1. To be a customer friendly company through constant innovation,
technology driven and human resource development.
2. Optimize resources, increase manpower productivity through
quality product vending and innovative marketing strategies.
3. Upgrade and consolidate catering services in the organized sector.
4. Expand areas of core competencies; enhance business opportunities
through efficient public - private partnerships to maximize
generation of resources.
Railways
5. Imbibe strong and ethical work culture through teamwork, build

and reposition Indian Railways in the emerging services sector.
6. Evolve high standards of business ethics, quality management and
effective cost control measures.
7. Concern for the environment and heritage
iv. Tourism
Railway Tourism has seen excellent growth in India. Right from IRCTC's
inception, they have undertaken dynamic marketing strategy with major
tour operators and State Tourism as our partners for providing exclusive
tour packages across the country. IRCTC arranges for full train charters,
coaches as well as reserved berth programs through regular trains for
tourism purposes. During this short period we have been able to provide
such facilities to over 50,000 persons.
v. Internet Rail Reservation

There has been a latent demand in the country for ticket availability at the
door-step. IRCTC has already developed this facility at Delhi, Chennai,
Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai. Very soon the facility will spread to
Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. After consolidation at these centers,
further development in the major towns will take place. IRCTC web
enabled reservation site is www.irctc.co.in
vi. Non Railway Segment

IRCTC is diversifying into Non Railway Segment which includes Budget
Hotels, Food Kiosk, Food Parks, Catering Service, Facility Management
Service, Guest House and Hostel management etc.
IRCTC is banking on newly started catering and facility management
division through which it provides a one window solution for catering,
front office, housekeeping, security, laundry, ITES and horticulture
services to government organizations, corporate and educational
institutions. This segment also includes taking up of hospitality project on
turnkey basis. Setting up of IRCTC brand Food Kiosks at DMRC stations
Railways
is also planned. Non Railway Segment has a potential to contribute around

30% to its total revenue in coming years. IRCTC has commenced 65 units
from 2010 to 2012 in Non Railway Segment across India.
vii. Food Plazas

IRCTC has firmed up plans to set up over 50 multi-cuisine food plazas at
major railway stations throughout the country during the current year. The
Food plazas will have contemporary decor, air conditioned ambience and
round the clock operation to suit passenger convenience with market
driven competitive pricing.
viii. Call Center

IRCTC has recently inaugurated a Call Center. A customer can dial 139
from anywhere in the country and get all information from Indian
Railways.
2.3 Organizational Structure:

Corporate Office of IRCTC is situated at New Delhi, which is headed by the
Managing Director. Managing Director is being assisted by three Directors,
Director(Catering Services), Director(Tourism & Marketing) and
Director(Finance) and nine Group General Managers.
For smooth operations of the business across all over the country, five Zonal
Offices are working at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai & Secunderabad.
South Zone Office is headed by Regional Director and all other Zonal Offices are
headed by Group General Managers. All Group General Managers have vast
experience of working in Indian Railways. These Zonal Offices are assisted by ten
Regional Offices at Luckhnow, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Bhubneshwar, Guwahati,
Patna, Bhopal, Ahemedabad, Bangalore and Ernakulam, which are headed by
Chief Regional Managers / Regional Managers.
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2.4 Marketing Practices of IRCTC:

I. Product in the Marketing Mix Of IRCTC:
IRCTC is a vital part of Indian Railways and handles its tourism, catering
and online ticketing operations. It has a diversified product and
service portfolio that includes the following-
 Online ticketing- When introduced it seemed a foreign concept but
with time has proved its worth as it saves time and is hassle free.
IRCTC has an official website and ticket bookings are possible via
its portal and mobile phones through SMS, GPRS and WIFI. It
offers e-tickets and i-tickets and PNR status is also made available.
Booking of season tickets is also possible via its website. RDS is a
ticket-booking scheme for reserving seats in railways against
advance money.
 Tourism- IRCTC is credited with the organizing of deluxe, luxury
and budget package tours for both national
and international tourists. A popular package includes important
destinations via special trains. IRCTC also organizes adventure
packages that include wildlife and adventure treks and water sports.
 Tatkal Booking- Passengers who have to travel suddenly can book
tickets under this scheme via its website. Booking is possible on
the day before departure and its timings are 10.00 AM and 11.00
AM for AC and normal booking respectively.
II. Place in the Marketing Mix Of IRCTC:

IRCTC has the distinction of being one of the largest railway networks in
the world and has spread its presence in every nook and corner of India. Its
operations are extended to reach seven union territories and twenty-nine
states that are covered by an extensive track of nearly 115,000 km and
spread over 65,436 km route. Railways connect India with more than
7,172 stations in cities, towns and areas where stations are in name only.
Indian Railways carries nearly twenty-three million passengers on a daily
basis and freight of 1050.18 million tons on an annual basis.
Railways
It operates suburban and long-distance systems. Railways are the owner of

coach and locomotive production plants that are located at various places.
It also provides international services to neighboring countries like
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Railways offer excellent services because
of nearly 9,013 locomotives out of which 4,568 are electric, 5,345 are
diesel and 43 are steam, 62,924 passenger trains and 239,281 freight
wagons.
III. Price in the Marketing Mix Of IRCTC:

Indian Railways showed estimated revenue figures of rupees 1441.67
billion for the financial year 2013-14 and amongst these rupees 375 billion
were earned via passenger tickets and rupees 940 billion via freight
charges. IRCTC has adopted marginal-cost pricing policy for
its products and services. It has reasonable pricing strategy for its premium
tickets that are for AC Seats. It has adopted economic pricing for three tier
non-AC seats. It also has maintained both reasonable and mid-pricing
policy for tour packages. IRCTC has maintained low-pricing strategy
because it caters to middle and a lower class section of society. In recent
years revenues of IRCTC have increased up to 20%.
IV. Promotions in the Marketing Mix Of IRCTC:

IRCTC has the distinction of becoming fastest and largest growing website
in Asia-Pacific with registered users in the year 2013 accounted to six
lakh. It has several awards and recognitions to its name like Website of the
Year India in the year 2014, Indian e-Retail Awards 2015, Website of the
Year Award for the year 2015 and Best Use of App during
Mobillion event.
Indian Railways has started a loyalty program for regular and frequent
travelers called Shubh Yatra and by paying an annual fee upfront; a
passenger can get discounts on ticket booking for the whole year. IRCTC
can be easily reached via its helpline numbers that are both with toll-free
and paid options. It is a 24*7 service.
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V. People in the Marketing Mix of IRCTC:

It is one of the biggest employers in the world. Their employees comprise
of IRCTC direct employees, Deemed Deputation absorbers, deemed
deputations, deputations and fixed terms employees. There is some Agent
Network across the India.
VI. Physical Evidence in the Marketing Mix of IRCTC:

IRCTC has well developed web site with whole lots of information,
counters and ‗139‘ customer enquiry service, round the clock ticketing
services, food plaza and services.
VII. Process in the Marketing Mix of IRCTC:

Online processing, counter, home delivery facility available, e-ticketing,
SMS based ticketing, Android / window based mobile platform ticketing.
 Main Business Activities:

IRCTC's main business activities are:
i. On Board Catering Services and Static catering units on the Indian

Railway Network:
Hospitality Services covers on board catering services in the trains,
catering services at stations through stalls, food plazas/fast food units &
Automatic Vending Machines commissioned at A, B & C class of Railway
stations.
IRCTC is managing currently 19 Rajdhani, 13 Shatabdi, 16 Jan Shatabdi, 6
Duronto Express , 9 Garib Raths, 205 Mail/Express trains and 118 trains
have train side vending facility. The graphical representation of various
types of trains is depicted below:
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Graph 2.1 (IRCTC‘s services in different trains)
IRCTC has currently 53 Food Plazas, 13 Fast Food units and 1 Quick
Service Food Kiosks, 677 Automated Vending Machine , 2950 Stalls,
3291 Trolleys & Khomchas , 698 Book Stalls, 249 Milk Stall & 7918
Static units spread over 1008 no. of Special A, A, B & C Category of
Stations over Indian Railways network.
ii. Manufacturing Packaged Drinking Water for Indian Railway

Passengers:
Two plants of Railneer packaged drinking water are operating at Nangloi
(Delhi) and Danapur (Bihar).The capacity of the plants was increased from
5,500 cartons per day to 8,500 cartons per day during March, 2009 for
Nangloi Plant and during December, 2009 of Danapur Plant.
iii. New Rail Neer plants:

For Southern Region, Rail Neer Plant of 15,000 cartons per day is being
set up at Palur near Chennai. Tender has been awarded and physical work
for setting up building is in advance stage. For Western region, architect
and plant consultants have been appointed for Rail Neer plant at
Ambernath near Mumbai. The rated capacity of the plant is 25,000 cartons
per day.
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iv. Managing the Departmental Catering units, taken over from Indian
Railways:
Four Rajdhani trains and four mail/express trains were operational as on
31.3.09. Patna Rajdhani train was taken over under departmental operation
from August 2008. Total 518 stalls and 419 trolleys were under
departmental operation during the year.
v. Quality Control and Complaint Redressal System
Figure 2.1 (IRCTC helpline number)
 To maintain quality of services onboard trains, IRCTC has set up

control rooms at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and
Secunderabad. These Zonal Controls have been strengthened and
equipped with phone, fax & PC with broadband connectivity, and
are operational around the clock, seven days a week. Central
Control office at New Delhi regularly coordinates with all the five
zonal offices for effective monitoring of the complaints & catering
activities.
 A toll free no. 1800-111-139 has been launched for swift redressal
of complaints & suggestions conveyed by passengers on phone.
Passengers can call this no. from train as well without any charges
& register their grievance/suggestion.
 In order to facilitate another option of lodging
complaint/suggestion by passenger, facility of receipt of complaint
through SMS on phone number 9971-111-139 has been started.
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This will enable the traveling passengers to have easy access to the
complaints redressal system without any other charges.
 Quality Control Professionals having Diploma/Degree holders in
hospitality with 2 or more years of field experience were inducted/
engaged in August, 2008 & posted in Zonal & Regional offices.
Specific trains have been allotted to them for achieving overall
improvements in on board services.
vi. Food Safety Audit
Figure 2.2 (Food Audit in progress in the pantry car)
An improved understanding of the risk based approach and growing

awareness about the impact of food safety on public health has led to make
significant changes to their food control system in recent years.
Keeping in view the importance of food safety and other related issues of
the food preparation and serving areas on static/mobile catering units, food
safety & hygiene audit were performed against the criteria including
cleaning and sanitation, food storage, personal hygiene, personal practices,
presentation applicable to IRCTC and infrastructure and pest control
applicable to Railways.
Food Safety & Hygiene audit were carried out on 680 catering units
between March 2007 - Aug 2009. Mobile units and Base Kitchens covered
under Food Audits include 540 trains, 115 Base Kitchens & 25 Food
Plazas respectively. Repeat food audit was conducted on Rajdhani,
Shatabdi, Mail/Express trains & the improvement in the ratings is seen as
per the graph ―A‖ indicated below:-
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Graph 2.2 (Food Audit ratings)
 A leading market research firm M/s IMRB International has been engaged to
measure the degree of satisfaction of rail travelers on various aspects such as Food
& refreshment, Bed roll & linen, Staff Behavior & Compartment related aspects to
identify the areas for improvement. The factors responsible for deriving the
overall onboard experience for the travelers have been classified into the
following four broad aspects: (i) Compartment Related Aspects, (ii) Food &
Refreshment Related Aspects, (iii) Staff Behavior Related Aspects & (iv) Linen &
Bedroll Related Aspects. A total of 501 trains have been covered in 6 rounds over
last two and half years.
Legends Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6

Number of 142 115 50 15 80 99
trains
Compartments 2.81 2.71 2.6 2.8 2.8 2.67
Food & 2.71 2.6 2.47 2.74 2.77 2.58
refreshment
Staff behavior 2.9 2.81 2.83 3.11 3.18 3.01
Bedroll & linen 2.88 2.85 2.69 2.89 2.96 2.72
Table 2.1 (table showing the mean scores across the trains covered in different rounds for the four broad
aspects)
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Graph 2.3 (Improvement in services provided by IRCTC in different trains)
Overall improvement of 2.01 % in Rajdhani trains, 1.03% in Shatabdi Trains &

2.24 % in Mail/Express trains have been observed while making comparison of
rating for year 2007-08 & 2008-09.
M/s RITES, a public sector undertaking has been engaged for Certification for
Food Safety Management System (FSMS) as per ISO 22000:2005 in Quality
Management System (QMS) of Base Kitchens, Rajdhani Trains and stalls of
IRCTC. Three Departmental Base Kitchens at HWH, BCT & NDLS have been
ISO 22000:2005 Certified. In addition departmental Rajdhani viz. BCT Rajdhani,
A K Rajdhani & HWH Rajdhani has also been ISO 22000:2005 Certified by the
certification agency.
Licensees have been advised to get ISO certification for their catering units before
the next renewal of the contract. As on date there are about 54 Base Kitchens, 24
Food Plazas and 10 Trains have been ISO certified.
vii. Complaint Management System

On-line Complaint Management System has been introduced to facilitate
the passengers for lodging their online complaint by logging on our
website at www.irctc.com. Complaint is sent directly to the concerned
licensee for immediate submission of comments. A unique complaint
number is allotted to the complainant for viewing the status by the
complainant at any time. An auto-generated reply with the unique
complaint number is sent to the complainant mail id. This system is also
assessable with all the Zonal/Regional/Corporate Officers. In addition to
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this, we are also in process of atomizing inspections in CMS. QCPs &

IRCTC officials will be able to directly feed in their inspections in Mobile
& Static inspection formats in CMS. These approaches of complaint
handling have resulted into appreciations by Rail Users at large.
viii. Pasting of Bi-Lingual Menu Stickers to arrest Overcharging

In order to remove the menace of over-charging by the service provider in
the Mail/Express trains, all India drives on pasting of menu stickers
through Quality Control Professionals have been launched from time to
time. The purpose of pasting the menu stickers in the coaches is to bring
awareness among the passengers on quantity & rates of meal items of the
standard menu as well as other relevant information like Toll Free Number
for lodging their grievances/suggestions, standard rates of tea/coffee, Rail
Neer etc.
ix. Expansion of passenger ticketing and PRS network through Internet /

modern technology based ticketing.
IRCTC provides tickets to the public in the comforts of their
home/residence instead of visiting the Railway Reservation Centers for
booking. The delivery of tickets is made either through the courier or a
person can himself take the print out for travelling. On an average more
than 2, 03,000 tickets are sold through IRCTC's website in a day. By
doing this, IRCTC is not only saving the time of the public but also saving
their cost of travelling to these centers. For Railways it is saving on their
infrastructure like buildings, air-conditioning, electricity, furniture, staff
etc. The spirit behind the project was that instead of the customers going
to Passenger Reservation System (PRS), the PRS should be brought to the
customer.
x. Managing all India Railway Enquiry Call Centre:

IRCTC is managing a Call Center for passenger enquiry. A customer can
dial 139 from anywhere in the country and get all information from Call
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Center related to train timing, PNR confirmation, train routes and other
relevant information related to Indian Railways.
xi. Running of Special Train, Special Charters / Coach and promotion of

Value added tours:
Railway Tourism has seen excellent growth in India Right from IRCTC's
inception, we have undertaken dynamic marketing strategy with major tour
operators and State Tourism as our partners for providing exclusive tour
packages across the country.
2.5 Achievements and Recent News:

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in fiscal year
FY18 took various initiatives on multiple occasions in order to boost Indian
Railways services for citizens. The catering service provider made train travelling
easier right from Tatkal tickets to reserved ones. Not only this, the IRCTC also
enhanced cab services, catering services and also air travelling services. Indian
Railways has been boosting digitization too. This is why they even introduced
ticket booking benefits, if done through Aadhaar cards. Today, IRCTC took to
twitter to list its digital achievements. On its handle, IRCTC listed out 11
initiatives in FY18 with a tagline of Digital India, Digital Railway.
IRCTC said, ―The new initiatives taken by IRCTC for Indian Railways Users
includes modernization of base kitchens, enhancement of ticket booking from
2,000 to 20,000 tickets/min, POS machines for cashless transactions, use of
Artificial Intelligence for kitchen monitoring etc. #RailwaysOnTrack.‖
 These are the 11 key developments IRCTC achieved for Indian Railways in
FY18.
I. High speed Wi-Fi service at more than 675 stations. Soon all stations will
have this service as well. This will benefit youth, women, farmers and
villagers in nearby locations.
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II. Point of sale (POS) machines for cashless transactions. For this 9,100 POS
were installed at about 4,000 locations. Soon POS machines will
implement a compulsory bill called as ‗No Bill, Free Food‘ policy.
III. Capacity of e-ticketing from 2000 per minute in 2014 has reached to
20,000 per minute in 2018.
IV. Service charge on credit and debit cards for purchasing tickets at booking
counters removed.
V. Passengers grievances resolved in real time through social media.
VI. 16 base kitchen already upgraded in 2017-18. IRCTC has made use of
Artificial Intelligence for monitoring food production in base kitchens for
improving quality and hygiene of food.
VII. More than 7000 meals per day are getting booked. IRCTC started e-
catering at 314 stations and 100 more planned.
VIII. Compulsory printing of MRP on all food items started on more than 300
trains.
IX. Asking for tips banned across Railways.
X. Optional catering introduced at 32 Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto and

Gatiman trains.
XI. 1,689 water vending machines installed at 600 stations.
Recently, Indian Railways decided to revamp e-ticketing website Indian

Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) with various features,
which will make train ticket bookings even easier going ahead.
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At present IRCTC is providing following Tourism services across India:

 Buddhist Circuit Special Train
IRCTC has designed a train for the Buddhist Circuit keeping in
mind the profile of Buddhist tourists. It covers important sites
connected to life of Buddha and Agra: Bodh Gaya, Sarnath,
Kushinagar, Lumbini, Shravasti, Rajgir, Nalanda. The train offers
comprehensive on board and off board services comprising of
catering, housekeeping, hotel accommodation, road transport,
sightseeing, trained tourist guides, security, medical facilities,
insurance etc. all inclusive in the package. This train won the
National Tourism Award in Feb., 2009
 Bharat Darshan – Village on Wheels

IRCTC is operating Bharat Darshan – Village on Wheels Train
for Budget Traveler @ Rs 500/- per day (all inclusive packages).
The package includes Train journey, accommodation, road
transport, site seeing, meals etc. The itineraries range from 7 to 20
days covering major tourist and religious places across India.
 Rail Tour Packages

IRCTC offers all Inclusive packages with confirmed Rail
reservation, hotel accommodation, road transportation, meals,
sightseeing etc. At present over 70 packages for important tourist
destinations across India covering Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu,
Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh etc. are being
operated.
 Hill Charters
The Steam trains are operated on Darjeeling Himalayan Railway,
Kangra Valley Railway, Kalka-Shimla Railway and Nilgiri
Mountain Railway. Hill charters showcase the special
characteristics of the respective hill sections with heritage stations,
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seasonal features, breath taking scenery & adventure tourism.

IRCTC offers single window value added services.
 Educational Tours
IRCTC offers Educational Tours Package with rich educational
content and in a caring environment for the students of educational
institutions across the country. The facility is being used by
Kendriya Vidyala Sangathan, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of Tamil
Nadu and West Bengal and Delhi State Government Schools.
 Tourism Portal
IRCTC's tourism portal www.irctctourism.com, is the fast growing
a one stop travel shop and meet all the travel & tourism needs of a
tourist. Online booking of tour packages, hotels and Car Rental
across the country is becoming increasingly popular through this
National Tourism Award winner tourism portal of IRCTC.
 Budget Hotel
IRCTC is planning to develop Budget Hotels through Public
Private Partnership. Budget Hotels are to be set up in the vicinity of
railway stations for tourists and rail users. These Budget Hotels
will provide quality guestrooms with modern facilities, décor and
ambience on affordable prices, choice of food and beverage
services and Web enabled reservation system.
At present four budget hotels are operational at New Delhi,
Howrah, Puri & Ranchi in the existing buildings.
 Luxury Tourist Train

IRCTC has set up a 50:50 JV Company, Royale India Train Tours
Limited (RIRTL) in Participation with M/s Cox & Kings India
Limited. RIRTL will run Pan India Luxury Tourist Train.
Estimated Cost of the train is Rs.49.48 Crore. The Luxury Train
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named as Maharajas' Express is owned by IRCTC. Marketing and

operation of the Maharajas' Express would be done by RIRTL.
The train was officially unveiled at the ITB Berlin in March, 2009.
Figure 2.3 (Interior of Maharaja Express)
The train has started its commercial operation with effect from 6 th March, 2010.
2.6 Awards Given to IRCTC:

i. Awarded the "Genius of the Web Award 2007" for Best E-Gov PSU Site
by CNBC.
ii. Awarded the "Best e-Governed Project G2C - Urban & Rural" by
Computer Society of India in November, 2007.
iii. Awarded the "National Award for E-Governance, 2007-08" jointly by

Department of IT, Govt. of India and Govt. of Haryana.
iv. IRCTC Tourism Unit of West Zone has been awarded the Winner for the
Category "Best Value Leisure Product" in the leading Travel and Tourism
Fair of India i.e. the TTF )TM 2008.
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v. IRCTC awarded with ICWAI National Award of Excellence in Cost

Management-2009 in the ―Public – Service Sector - Medium‖ category.
vi. IRCTC awarded with QCI- D. L. Shah National Award on Economics of

Quality on 19th Feb, 2010.
vii. Awarded with "National Tourism Award of Excellence" by Ministry of

Tourism, Government of India.
viii. Indian Restaurant Awards 2014.
ix. IRCTC Maharaja Express wins CNBC-AWAAZ travel award 2015 for
best luxury train.
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Chapter - 3
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CHAPTER 3 – THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK AND

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
3.1 Introduction:
This chapter contains meaning of marketing as well as customer satisfaction. The
4Ps of marketing mix in accordance to customer satisfaction has also been
discussed. Features, factors affecting, model of and the process of customer
satisfaction has been shown. Then in the end, the literature reviews of various
research papers are discussed.
3.2 Meaning of Marketing:
Philip Kotler defines marketing as Satisfying needs and wants through an exchange
process. The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as "the
management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying
customer requirements profitably."
a) Meaning of Customer Satisfaction:

Philip Kotler defines customer satisfaction as a ―person's feeling of
pleasure or disappointment which resulted from comparing a product's
perceived performance or outcome against his/her expectations.‖
b) 4Ps of marketing are:
Figure 3.1 (4Ps of marketing mix)
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c) Relationship Between Marketing mix and Customer

Satisfaction:
i. Product on Customer satisfaction:
Product quality brings satisfaction, helping organizations to secure
the competitive advantages and attract potential customers,
although it may not be totally true in service sectors.
Branding is a popular topic in marketing literature as brand loyalty
is considered to reduce the product costs compared to the efforts
made to attract new customers and bringing reputation to firms.
Customers also participate in evaluating the brand standards and
providing suggestions for quality enhancements and the
relationship between a customer and brand reflects positive and
negative aspects of a product to loyal customers. Ahmed and
Rahman said that product differentiation might lead to the increase
in satisfaction of customers. Dhurup, Mafini and Dumasi quoted
that marketing success of business depend much on the ability to
continuously improve products with competitive pricing and brand
awareness strategies in order to enhance customer satisfaction and
brand loyalty.
ii. Price on Customer satisfaction

The factor is used for attracting both existing and potential
customers, playing pivotal role in establishing an influential
relationship between both a customer and an organization,
specifically considering affordability of customers and increasing
reputation of organizations in the market. Organizations are
required to B.T.Thieu, N.T.M. Hieu, N.T.L. Huyen, 132 P.C. Binh,
N.V.Hoang carefully balance between maximizing their profits
both internally/externally with adequate pricing and maintaining
customers. Ineffective pricing could cost managers opportunities of
attracting new customers leading to financial decline. Three
popular pricing techniques used to increase customer satisfaction
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are (1) Cost-based pricing, (2) Customer-driven pricing (3) Market-

driven pricing. Said by Cravens and Piercy, the crucial factor in
pricing should base on customer responses of product values.
Factors of overall investment, market influence, pricing predictions
of competitors, as well as customer spending behavior also
significantly affect pricing strategy. Price is related to quality as
customers want the higher product/service quality for their
spending; even it means cost more.
iii. Place on Customer satisfaction:

The supply chain of an organization, including suppliers,
manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and end customers, secures its
competitive position, ultimately increases its ability to satisfy more
efficiently its customers. Promptly production, dispatch and
delivery of goods require various planning and manufacturing
aspects that also should be prioritized to maximize customer
satisfaction. Alom and Haque (2011) have argued the importance
of distribution channels for customer satisfaction and retention,
emphasizing that strengthening distribution network to ensure
efficient and to bring quicker supply of helps in ensuring credibility
and increasing customer satisfaction.
iv. Promotion on Customer satisfaction

Promotion introduces and highlights specific features of a product
or service to customers, helping to reduce the communication gap
between a customer and an organization, influencing the pricing
aspect of a product, playing the role of the key factor of business
success in domestic and global environment. Organizations now
perceive that by sharing information on certain characteristics of
Linkages between Marketing Mix Components and Customer. 133
products through advertising, their competitiveness could be
enhanced.
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Up-to-date, innovative and unique promotional channels (e.g.

digital media, internet services, online forums and networks) are
different from traditional methods, helping to broaden customer
thinking and establishing efficient communication. Recent
integration of online and offline promotional techniques leads to
direct and indirect marketing and produces opportunities to
customers to directly choose the desired products.
3.3 Features of Customer Satisfaction:
Today‘s customers move fluidly across multiple shopping channels, including in-
store and online with laptops, tablets and smart phones. In order to target these
customers we need to know ways of personalizing the shopping experience and
enhance the customer satisfaction.
i. Superb customer support

Help desk is a valuable resource that provides the customer with information and
support concerning your product or service. Better customer service starts with
better communication and customer service is better when it‘s personal and
proactive. Dealing quickly with inbound ticket requests from any channel, email,
web, social, chat or phone rapidly improves the customer satisfaction.
Accordingly to Foresee Experience Index, customers are 83% more likely to
purchase more and 77% more likely to recommend the site to others after
receiving great customer Support.
ii. Purchase content on any platform

Content on mobile devices accounts for more than half of the Internet‘s traffic. It
is important that we can provide relevant multi channel shopping experience
across in-store, web and mobile channels. The easier the journey, the more likely
the users are to navigate all the way from registration to purchase completion.
Merchants are constantly adopting and experimenting with new technologies to
figure out how they can use them to improve the existing shopping experience.
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Yet the majority of retail sales, 90%, still happen offline. The growth of
ecommerce only represents 10% of the total retail market which shows that
consumers want to be able to shop in-store or online, whenever they want,
wherever they are. Progressive retailers are trying to fuse their online and offline
to offer consumers personalized and enriched shopping experience. Imagine what
combining all platforms, online as well as off line, would do for your knowledge
of each individual customer and your ability to up-sell products in the different
purchasing scenarios.
iii. Data-driven customer experience

There is nothing better, when services can deliver a more personalized experience.
Customers are always on the look for something new. Many great services can
suggest products to you either based on your own interest or on the interest of the
community. Platforms such as Steam (a Digital Game store) are constantly
engaging with their community by providing their users with email notifications
when products they have wished for or looked at are sold at a reduced price. The
shift to digital has created unique opportunities to measure, analyse and
experiment in real-time and accordingly to Gartner 89% of companies sees
customer experience as a key factor in driving customer loyalty and retention, it is
therefore important to leverage behavior data and purchase data to produce a true
single customer view. Allowing marketers to manage consumer relationship at the
individual user level across channels, will improve the customer‘s experience with
your service each time they visit your sales channel.
Being able to supply customers with these three features will definitely help to
improve your customer satisfaction on your platform.
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3.4 Model of customer satisfaction:

a) Servqual model of Customer Satisfaction:
Figure 3.2 (Customer satisfaction according to Servqual model)
 Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction:

Customer satisfaction is often defined as the customers‘ post-purchase comparison
between pre-purchase expectation and performance received (Oliver, 1980;
Zeithaml et al., 1993). The relationship between service quality and customer
satisfaction has been discussed in numerous previous papers during the past
decade.
First of all, many researchers present that service quality has positive related
relationship with customer satisfaction. In other words, service quality influence
customer satisfaction and vice versa customer satisfaction influence quality. There
is no doubt that in the world‘s today intensive competition, once a business wants
to survive, they have to improve the service quality that helps them to achieve a
different advantage over their rivalries. Service quality therefore has become one
of the critical factors for satisfying and retaining valued customers in every
industries and banking is not an exception. Many scholars indicate that high
service quality results in customer satisfaction and loyalty with the product or
service. A satisfied customer will have the willingness to recommend someone
else, reduction in complaints and the bank can achieve the customer retention.
Furthermore, a satisfied customer is likely to be a loyal customer who will give
repeating business to the firm. More importantly, according to Bedi (2010), the
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cost of retaining existing customer by improving the quality of product and

services is perceived to be significantly lower than the cost of achieving the new
customers.
On the other hand, when regarding the relationship between service quality and
customer satisfaction in some industries as banking, some scholars point out that
service quality is not related to customer satisfaction under certain circumstances.
b) Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction:
Figure 3.3 (The Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction)
The Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction classifies product attributes based on how
they are perceived by customers and their effect on customer satisfaction. These
classifications are useful for guiding design decisions in that they indicate when good
is good enough, and when more is better. The Kano Model is also known as ―Kano
Analysis‖ was created by Japan‘s Dr. Noriaki Kano in 1984 and to this day it remains
to be a useful tool in Product and Service Development. The model brings out the
nonlinear relationship between the product performance and customer satisfaction.
The model divides product attributes into four categories: threshold, performance,
excitement and indifferent.
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Threshold Attributes: These are the attributes that are expected by the customers and
therefore are the ―musts‖ of a product or service. These are the points of parity and do
not provide an opportunity for product differentiation. Improving the performance of
these attributes do not guarantee increased customer satisfaction and may only add to
the cost of product. What is important is the absence or even poor performance of
these attributes would cause great dissatisfaction. Threshold attributes are not
typically captured in Quality Function Deployment (QFDs). For example, a threshold
attribute can be four wheels in a car.
Performance Attributes: Performance attributes are those for which more is merrier.
The better fulfillment leads to linear increment of customer satisfaction and absence
or poor performance of these attributes will diminish the customer satisfaction. Most
data from Voice of the Customer (VOC) will reflect these attributes. The price for
which customer is willing to pay for a product is closely tied to performance
attributes. For example, customers would be willing to pay more for a car that
provides them with better fuel economy.
Excitement Attributes: These attributes are not expressed by the customers explicitly
and are generally unexpected by the customers. The presence of these attributes
delights the customer and results in high satisfaction. The absence of these attributes
however does not cause dissatisfaction. The excitement attributes are seen to meet the
latent needs of the customers. The marketers can build on these attributes to delight
the customers and gain competitive advantage. A point to be noted here is that today‘s
excitement attribute would evolve into performance attribute in near future and finally
could end up as a threshold attribute. An example could be power steering in a car.
Indifferent Attributes: There are some attributes of products that do not exactly fall
into any of the above three categories discussed above. This is because of their little
or no importance to the customer. They do influence the decision making. Take the
example of a plate listing part numbers which can be found under the hood on many
vehicles for use by repairpersons. Similar attributes are termed as ‗Indifferent
Attributes‘.
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An ideal product should have all the basic attributes, maximize the performance
attributes and incorporate as many ―excitement‖ attributes as possible at a price that is
affordable.
3.5 Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction:

Customer satisfaction is the overall impression of customer about the supplier and
the products and services delivered by the supplier. Following are the important
factors that could affect customer satisfaction:
i. Department wise capability of the supplier.
ii. Technological and engineering or re-engineering aspects of products and services.
iii. Type and quality of response provided by the supplier.
iv. Supplier‘s capability to commit on deadlines and how efficiently they are met.
v. Customer service provided by the supplier.
vi. Complaint management.
vii. Cost, quality, performance and efficiency of the product.
viii. Supplier‘s personal facets like etiquettes and friendliness.
ix. Supplier‘s ability to manage whole customer life cycle.
x. Compatible and hassle free functions and operations
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3.6 Process of Customer satisfaction:

Steps of customer satisfaction process:
Define a goal and metrics
Create a customer
satisfaction Survey
Collect answers
Analyze results
Turn conclusions into

change
Survey Again
Figure 3.4 (Process of customer satisfaction)
i. Define a goal and metrics

It‘s easy to say that you want to research customer satisfaction. But you should be
more specific before you start a survey. Define a core metric that you are going to
track (for example, Net Promoter Score). You can also set success metrics related
to the survey itself – for example, the number of answers you want to get or
completion rates.
Hint: the core metric should be quantitative – either expressed in numbers (like
NPS) or answers to a close-ended question. It will make tracking changes over
time much easier and reliable. Open-ended questions are useful for digging deeper
into customers‘ opinions and collecting valuable insights.
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ii. Create a customer satisfaction survey

When you know what exactly you want to research, it‘s time to create a survey.
But before that, think what the best method for running this survey is. Should you
use targeted website surveys, in-message surveys, questionnaires, or maybe call
customers . After choosing the method, it‘s time to create a survey.
The basic rule: keep it as simple and short as possible to maximize response rates.
Also, surveys must be relevant – make sure customers are asked only questions
they can know answers to. It usually means the need of segmenting customers.
Example: ask different questions a new and repeat customer and use a different set
of questions in a post-purchase survey you send immediately after purchase and in
a survey you send half a year later.
iii. Collect answers

People new to analyzing surveys often get excited after collecting a few answers.
It‘s understandable that but you should wait longer for results. It‘s difficult to talk
about a minimum sample size because it often depends on the number of
customers you survey. For most of the companies, it‘s impossible to reach
statistical significance and a few hundreds of answers or even less must be
enough. For a very small company, getting more than 100 answers can be
challenging yet it shouldn‘t discourage you from measuring customer satisfaction.
iv. Analyze results

This is the core part of the customer satisfaction process – analyze the results to
find out how satisfied your customers are. If you use only closed-ended questions,
analyzing answers will be easy – you‘ll see a breakdown of answers. If you used
open-ended question you will need word cloud to quickly make sense of collected
answers. While analyzing answers, think what they imply.
v. Turn conclusions into changes

You analyze results not to be smarter but to be able to make decisions whose aim
is to improve customer satisfaction. Without this step, researching customer
satisfaction or running any other kind of survey is mostly a waste of time. If
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customers complain about the quality of customer service, dive into this issue and
think what exactly can be improved. Maybe all the people complaining contacted
the same customer service agent? If people complain about the website – talk to
the IT team how you can fix the issues. When changes are in place, it‘s time to
move to the last point of customer satisfaction process.
vi. Survey again

When you implement changes inspired by answers to one survey, run another one
to see if they worked. Customers might not like the solution or solving one
problem can bring another one to the surface. It‘s important to stop the old survey
and run a new one, even if it is the exact copy – then you will be sure that answers
are not mixed. Don‘t be surprised if changes resonate differently with new and
returning customers – often people don‘t like changes.
3.7 Review of literature on Customer Satisfaction on services provided

by Railway:
a) Literature Review:
The literature review may include earlier research on same topic, articles
in newspapers, magazines, trade literature, and academic literature or
published statistics from research organization or governmental agencies.
It is one of the time saving and least expensive means to discover
hypothesis. There is enormous quantity of information available in various
libraries, on interest sources, in commercial data bases, etc.
Prof. S. Vishnuvarthan and Dr. A. Selvaraj (Dec, 2012) had conducted

“Railway Passengers’ Satisfaction: A Study in Salem Division of Southern
Railway.”, with objectives of measuring the level of satisfaction of the passengers
about the services offered by the Indian Railways and determining the awareness
of the passengers & their level of satisfaction about the services offered by
railways. This research not only focused on the level of satisfaction of passengers
towards services provided by Railways but also the awareness regarding the
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services and their level of satisfaction. The findings suggest that the passengers
are highly dissatisfied and there‘s a scope of improvement in services provided by
Indian Railways.
Sheeba A. A and Dr. K. Khumthadevi (Feb, 2013) had conducted a study on

“Service Quality of South Indian Railway – Determinants of Passenger
Satisfaction in Trains.”, with objectives of identifying the factors which the
Indian railway provided for passengers in train and identifying the factors of
service quality which affects customer satisfaction. Here, the customer satisfaction
towards railway services has been measured with determinants such as basic
facilities, hygiene, safety and security, catering, health – care services,
punctuality, behavior towards passengers, etc. The empirical nature of this study is
a really contribution to identify the factors that determine passenger satisfaction in
a train with service quality of services provided by railways. Repeated attempts
made by the railways to improve quality of services, the result wouldn‘t satisfy the
customer needs. It reveals that, continuous, comprehensive, lengthy performance
and attempts are essential to solve these problems.
Prof. S. Gandhimathi and Dr. S. Saravanan (Nov. 2013) had conducted “A

Study on Passenger’s Satisfaction towards Railway Services in Coimbatore
Junction.”, with objectives of analyzing the customer satisfaction towards
railway services and measuring the passengers perception and satisfaction towards
services offered by railways. The methods which are used in this study are
SERVQUAL and Ratio analysis. The study concludes that the majority of the
passengers are unsatisfied with the services provided by railways and there‘s a
scope of improvement.
Prof. G. Rajeswari and Dr. D. Elangovan (April 2014) had conducted a study
on “Passengers’ Satisfaction on the Services Offered by the Rail System.”,
with objectives of measuring level of satisfaction of passengers on services
provided by railways and offering suggestions to improve satisfaction of
passengers of rail system. The SERVQUAL method was used for this study. The
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contribution of this study is the identification of factors that determine passengers‘

satisfaction with services offered by railway. This study, thus provides a direction
for railway administration whereby areas for improving services may be identified
and passengers‘ satisfaction may be enhanced.
Prof. V. Rajeswari and K. Santakumari (May – June, 2014) had conducted

“Satisfaction and Service Quality in Indian Railways – A study on Passenger
Perspective.” with an objective of investigating the customer perceptions about
the service quality in Indian Railways. This study has been undertaken
considering the major stations of India that are, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai,
Hyderabad. The passenger satisfaction has been measured with SERVQUAL
instruments which are Tangibles, Reliability, Assurance, Responsiveness and
Empathy. The overall findings conclude that the railway is failing to provide
qualitative services to passengers. It is also evident that railways should make
efforts in improvising or upgrading the rail transport system. The service quality
of railway is regarded as critical indicator that would enhance its customers‘
satisfaction.
Dr. J Anuradha (Aug. 2014) conducted “A Study on Passengers’ Satisfaction

towards Railway Services in Erode Junction.”, with objectives of measuring
level of satisfaction of the passengers, measuring the perception and satisfaction
towards services and offering suggestions for improvements in the services
provided by railways. In this study though the objectives were to measure
customer satisfaction but more importance has been given to the customer
awareness about the different services provided by railways. It is very important
to make the passengers aware of the services provided by the railways. Indian
railway has to take more responsible steps to make customers aware about the
different services provided by them. The study even suggested that the customers
are dissatisfied with the services and there should be corrective actions taken in
order to create satisfaction.
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Dr. G. Sathiyamoorthy and Prof. B Karthikeyan (July 2016) had conducted

“A Study on Passenger Satisfaction Towards Indian Railway Services.”, with
objectives of identifying awareness level of passengers, finding out preferences,
opinions and ideas of passengers and examining problems faces by passengers
towards Indian Railway. The study first focused on which population has been
targeted, then the percentage analysis of the population size has been done. From
the size analysis, the ranks has been given to the services in accordance to basic
facilities provided by the railways. The study reveals that the basic facilities
provided by the railways satisfy passengers more. With the increase of passengers,
the Indian railway has focused to extend its attention to satisfy the needs of
customers and made initiative to improve the quality of services to enrich the
satisfaction of customers.
Prof. D. Anubpriya and Dr. S. Subadra had conducted “A Study on

Satisfaction of Passengers towards Service Quality of Southern Railway.”,
with objectives of identifying the travel factors influencing passengers of southern
railway and analyzing the passengers‘ level of satisfaction towards southern
railways. The study gave equal importance to both the objectives. ANOVA as an
instrument analysis has been used. It concluded that railway provides the most
convenient mode of transport for both long distance and suburban traffic. Railway
tries to improve the core areas of and deliver good quality of services to the
passengers.
b) Conclusion:
According to all the literature reviews it can be concluded that the most of
the passengers traveling through railways are majorly unsatisfied with the
services provided by it. And most of the passengers are unaware about the
various services provided by railways. So it can be said that there is a
major scope of improvement in services provided by railways.
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Chapter - 4
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CHAPTER 4 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.1 Introduction:
This chapter mainly contains the introduction and meaning of research
methodology. Problem of the study i.e. Railways, Primary & Secondary
objectives, importance of railways in accordance with Customer, Company,
government and society‘s point view. The nature of the research and which type
of research design has been used is also being discussed. With that the scope of
the study and data collection methods is also discussed. All the data collections
techniques, sample size, sample element, sampling methods, sampling frame and
survey methods are also being stated. And lastly the limitations of the study are
also stated.
4.2 Introduction and Meaning of Research Methodology:

i. Introduction:
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve a research
problem. It is science of studying how research is done scientifically.
Essentially it is the procedure by which the researchers go about their work
of describing, evaluating and predicting phenomenon. It aims to give the
work plan of research. It provides training in choosing methods materials,
scientific tools and techniques relevant for the solution of the problem.
ii. Meaning:
Research methodology is the specific procedures or techniques used to
identify, select, process, and analyze information about a topic.
4.3 Problem of the study:

India is one of the largest countries in terms of its geographical size which
requires efficient means for long distance transportation. The public transport,
being primary mode of transport remains as a powerful yardstick to measure the
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overall development of a nation. Among the various mode of transport, railways is

one of the biggest modes of passenger transport in the world.
Satisfaction is based on the perception of passengers on various services offered
by the railways. To offer customized services, it is essential to understand the
expectations and perceptions of the passengers with regard to quality of services
offered by the railways.
Based on the above issue, it is pertinent to focus the study on consumer
satisfaction on services provided by the railways with the following query:
 What is the satisfaction level of the passengers on services provided by the
railways?
4.4 Objectives of the study:

a) Primary objective:
I. To measure the passengers‘ satisfaction level for the services offered by
the Indian Railways.
b) Secondary objectives:
I. To know about the respondents awareness towards the services provided
by the Indian railways.
II. To examine passengers‘ satisfaction towards various factors affecting

services of the railways.
4.5 Importance of the Study:

a) Customers’ Point Of View:
This study will help in examining the satisfaction of the passengers towards the
Indian Railways and the passengers‘ awareness regarding the various services
provided by the Indian Railways.
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b) Company’s Point Of View:

This study will be helpful for the railways to know the satisfaction level of
passengers about the services provided by them. They can identify whether to
improve their services provided by them or to make them aware about more
services.
c) Government Point Of View:

To the government, this study will helpful to know how many passengers are
actually aware about the services provided by the Indian Railways and how much
they are satisfied with the services provided by them.
d) Society Point Of View:

This study will aware the society about the different services provided by the
Railways.
4.6 Nature of the research:

 There are two methods of research:
i. Basic research
ii. Applied research
I. Basic Research:
Basic research is mostly conducted to enhance knowledge. It covers fundamental
aspects of research. The main motivation of this research is knowledge expansion.
It is a non-commercial research and doesn‘t facilitate in creating or inventing
anything.
II. Applied Research:

Applied research focuses on analyzing and solving real-life problems. This type of
research refers to the study that helps solve practical problems using scientific
methods. This research plays an important role in solving issues that impact the
overall well-being of human.
 For this study, the Applied Research method is used.
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4.7 Type of Research design:
Research Design
Exploratory Research design Conclusive Research design
Descriptive
Causal Research
Research
Cross sectional Longitudnal

design design
Single Cross Multiple cross

sectional design sectional design
Figure 4.1 (Flow chart of types of research design)
The research design is a broad framework that describes how the entire research
project is carried out. Basically, there can be three types of research designs –
exploratory research design, descriptive research design, and experimental (or
causal) research design. Use of particular research design depends upon type of
problem under study.
I. Exploratory Research Design:

Exploratory Research, as the name implies, intends merely to explore the research
questions and does not intend to offer final and conclusive solutions to existing
problems. This type of research is usually conducted to study a problem that has
not been clearly defined yet. Conducted in order to determine the nature of the
problem, exploratory research isn‘t intended to provide conclusive evidence, but
helps us to have a better understanding of the problem. The objective of the
exploratory research is to explore through a problem or situation to provide insight
and understanding.
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 Types of Exploratory Research:
Qualitative
Analysis
Literature Depth
Research Interview
Types of
Exploratory
Research
Focus Case
Group Analysis
Figure 4.2 (Various types of exploratory research)
II. Descriptive Research Design:

Descriptive research can be explained as a statement of affairs as they are at
present with the researcher having no control over variable. Moreover,
―descriptive studies may be characterized as simply the attempt to determine,
describe or identify what is, while analytical research attempts to establish why it
is that way or how it came to be.‖ This research seeks to determine the answers to
who, what, when, where and how questions. There are two types of Descriptive
Research Design:
i. Longitudinal Research
ii. Cross Sectional Research
i. Longitudinal Research:
A fixed sample of elements from the population is measured repeatedly on
the same variables. The same people and same variables are measured over
the length of the time for the study.
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ii. Cross Sectional Research:

Cross sectional means that the sample of elements from a given population
is selected only once to obtain information. It is concerned with the field
studies and survey method.
III. Causal or experimenting Research Design:

Causal research, also known as explanatory research is conducted in order to
identify the extent and nature of cause and effect relationships. Causal research
can be conducted in order to assess impacts of specific changes on existing norms,
various processes etc. Causal studies focus on an analysis of a situation or a
specific problem to explain the patterns of relationships between variables.
Experiments are the most popular primary data collection methods in studies with
causal research design.
 For this project, Cross sectional research design under the type of
Descriptive research design, which falls in Conclusive type of design, is
used as it describes data and characteristics about the population or
phenomenon being studied.
4.8 Scope of the Study:

This project will deal with understanding of satisfaction of passengers towards
services provided by railways. This project will cover all the aspects of
satisfaction. This project can also be extended to different areas of studies taking
different sampling frame.
4.9 Data Collection:

I. Primary Data:
Primary data are original observations collected by the researcher or his agent for
the first time for any investigation and used by them in the statistical analysis.
II. Secondary Data:
Secondary data are collected by others and used by others.
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A. Here, the collection of data has been done through Primary survey
method.
4.10 Data Collection Techniques:

a) Sampling Size:
Sample size determination is the act of choosing the number of observations or
replicates to include in a statistical sample. The sample size is an important feature
of any empirical study in which the goal is to make inferences about a population
from a sample. Total number of elements studied is known as sample size.
B. In this project, sample size i.e. total numbers of passenger surveyed are
110.
b) Sampling Method:
There are two types of sampling methods:
i. Probability
ii. Non - probability sampling.
i. Probability Sampling:
It is a sampling technique where the samples are gathered in a process that
gives all the individuals in the population equal chances of being selected.
This can be used in case of limited population only.
ii. Non – probability sampling:
It is a sampling technique where the samples are gathered in a process that
does not give all the individuals in the population equal chances of being
selected.
C. Here in, convenient sampling, a type of non-probability sampling method
is adopted.
c) Sampling Frame:
It is a list or map or other specification of a unit which constitute the available
information relating to the population designed for a particular sampling scheme.
D. Here in, the survey has been conducted in the different areas of Surat city.
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d) Sampling Elements:
The elements which are available for selection in a sample such as a store or
product or person are known as sampling elements.
E. Here in the survey sample elements, passengers of Indian railways are
taken into consideration.
e) Survey Method:
There are four main types of survey methods which practiced by researcher in
general. These are;
• Traditional •In Home

• CATI •Mall Intercept
•CAPI
Telephonic Personal
Interview Interview
Mail
Interview Electroinic
(Post/ Interview
Courier)
• Simple Mail • Internet
• Mail Panel • E - Mail
Figure 4.3 (Different types of Survey methods)
I. Telephonic Interview:
a. Traditional Telephonic Interview:
In this interview method, from an office or a call center caller asks
questions to the respondents. To fill up responses caller holds paper
questionnaire and pen – pencil, after asking each question caller fills up in
the questionnaire. So it finally comes to bunch of papers questionnaire.
b. CATI (Computer Assisted Telephonic Interview):
Here, in this interviewing method, caller fills responses directly in the
computer which is right in front of caller. Caller asks one question at a
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time and fills responses in to the computer. So, at the end of the survey,
researcher has data directly available in the computer.
II. Personal Interview:

a. In – Home Interview:
In this method of data collection, researcher visits respondents at their
homes and asks questions face to face. This method includes field work.
Researcher carries bunch of questionnaires with them and can be filled by
respondents by giving them directly or by asking them. It is time
consuming as well as expensive.
b. Mall – intercept Interviews:
In this method, respondent are contacted at the place where they usually
get or buy particular things. For example, respondents are intercepted
when they‘re shopping in the malls. After this, all the things remains same
as in – home interview.
c. CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview):
To conduct this type of interview, one computer system is set and
respondents sits in front of a computer terminal or ATM machine like
setting is there or by using tablet, where respondent directly fill up data in
the computer using keyboards, mouse or touch screen, one representative
of researcher may remain present to assist. CAPI has been used to collect
data at shopping malls, product clinic, conferences and trade shows. Banks
are also using this kind of system now days to collect some information,
interest of account holder.
III. Mail Interview (Post mail/ courier):

a. Simple mail:
In this traditional or ordinary mail survey method, questionnaires are either
mailed through post office or couriered to preselected potential
respondents. A typical mail survey consists of package of the outgoing
envelope, cover letter questionnaire, return envelope, and possibly an
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incentive. In this method, there‘s no verbal communication. Response rate

for this method remains poor.
b. Mail Panel:
A mail panel is a group of respondents who have agreed to participate in
periodic mail questionnaires and product tests. They are large, nationally
representative sample of households, which represents population for the
survey. The household compensated with various incentives or gifts or free
samples. Because of the commitment of the panel member‘s, this survey
method has high response rate. Mail panel can be used to obtain
information from the same respondents.
IV. Electronic Interview:

a. E – mail interview:
In this method, the questionnaire is written within the body of the e-mail
message or sometimes in soft copy attached with e-mail. In this method,
also a list of e-mail addresses obtained. Respondents fill it up and reply
back on the sender e-mail address. Sometimes it may wrongly represent
population. Here also questionnaire remains descriptive as compare to
personal interview.
b. Internet Interview:
This type of survey methods use of HML, the language of web and are
posted on the websites. Respondents are asked to go to a particular website
to complete the survey. Sometimes respondents themselves invite others in
their contact to complete the survey. This may be based on some incentive.
Through this also data directly complied in server and can be used for data
analysis.
F. This research will be carried out through Personal Survey Method by
contacting the passengers who use railway services.
f) Survey Tool:
In this project, Structured Questionnaires is used.
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g) Data Analysis:
In this report, the data collected through questionnaires will be analyzed by
following techniques:
I. Hand and cross tabulation
II. Charts
III. Tables
IV. Percentages
V. Measures of central Tendency
h) Pilot survey:
A pilot survey is a strategy used to test the questionnaire using a smaller sample
compared to the planned sample size. In this phase of conducting a survey, the
questionnaire is administered to a percentage of the total sample population, or in
more informal cases just to a convenience sample
G. Pilot survey of 5 respondents has been undertaken.
4.11 Limitations of the Study:

Although the project is done taking utmost care, certain limitations may be bound
to be there.
i. The factors determining the satisfaction of passengers on railway service
quality is large in number. In this sense, the selection of limited variables
in this study not at all ensures comprehensive result towards the
satisfaction of the passengers.
ii. The area has restricted to Surat city only and findings of the study
described on the basis of information provided by the respondents only.
iii. The respondents‘ response differ because of their experience so it may
happen that respondent has traveled only once and giving a response on
that one experience only.
iv. Respondents might not know all the factors affecting services of the
railways.
v. The data or responses have been gathered from around 110 respondents
only.
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Chapter 5 – Data Analysis & Interpretation
5.1 Demographic Table:

Particular No. of Respondents Percentage
Gender:
Male 31 71.8
Female 79 28.2
Total 110 100
Age:
Less than 20 6 5.5
20 – 30 48 43.6
30 – 40 14 12.7
40 – 50 29 26.4
More than 50 13 11.8
Total 110 100.0
Marital Status:
Married 65 59.1
Unmarried 43 39.1
Widow 2 1.8
Divorcee - -
Total 110 100
Educational qualification:
No formal education 1 0.9
Graduate 68 61.8
Technical/Professional 12 10.9
Schooling 6 5.5
Post graduation 19 17.3
Others 4 3.6
Total 110 100.0
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Occupational structure:
Farmer 1 .9
Employee 44 40.0
Housewife 7 6.4
Business 25 22.7
Professor 27 24.5
Professor 3 2.7
Others 3 2.7
Total 110 100.0
Annual family income (in Rs.):
Less than 25,000 12 10.9
25,000 - 50,000 15 13.6
50,000 - 1 Lac 17 15.5
More than 1 Lac 66 60.0
Total 110 100.0
Table 5.1 (Geographical area)
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5.2 Data Interpretation and Analysis:

1. How often do you travel by trains?
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Daily 6 5.5 5.5 5.5
Weekly 12 10.9 10.9 16.4
Monthly 28 25.5 25.5 41.8
Half Yearly 34 30.9 30.9 72.7
Yearly 30 27.3 27.3 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.2 (Table showing passengers‘ time of traveling)
Graph 5.1 (Percentage of travelling time of the passengers)
 Interpretation:
From the above table 5.2, it can be said that 5.5% of the passengers travel daily by
the train, 10.9% of the total passengers travel weekly by the train, 25.5%
passengers travel monthly, 30.9% of the passengers travel half yearly and 27.3%
of the passengers travel yearly by the train. It can be interpreted that most of the
passengers travel half yearly.
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2. What is your purpose of travelling?
Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent
Valid Official/Business 20 18.2 18.2 18.2
Purpose
Educational Purpose 8 7.3 7.3 25.5
Personal 30 27.3 27.3 52.7
Vacation 35 31.8 31.8 84.5
Tour 15 13.6 13.6 98.2
Others 2 1.8 1.8 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.3 (Table showing passenger‘s purpose of traveling)
Graph 5.2 (Percentage of passengers‘ purpose of traveling)
 Interpretation:
From the graph 5.3 it can be said that 18.2% of the passengers travel because of
official purpose, 7.3% of the passengers travel because of study purpose, the
purpose of 27.3% passengers traveling is personal, 31.8% travel because of
vacation, 13.6% travels because of tours and the rest 1.8% passengers travel
because of other reason. Here it can be interpreted that most of the people travel
in vacation time.
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3. Factors affecting level of satisfaction on services provided by

railways:
A. Tangibles:
I. Availability of power:

Percent Percent
Valid Highly Dissatisfied 4 3.6 3.6 3.6
Dissatisfied 4 3.6 3.6 7.3
Neither Satisfied nor 27 24.5 24.5 31.8
dissatisfied
Satisfied 27 24.5 24.5 56.4
Highly Satisfied 48 43.6 43.6 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.4 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards availability of power)
Graph 5.3 (Graph showing percentage of availability of power)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.4, it can be said that 3.6% of passengers are highly dissatisfied
and dissatisfied, another 24.5% of passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
and satisfied and the rest 43.6% passengers are highly satisfied. It can be
interpreted that most of the passengers are highly satisfied.
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II. Seating Arrangements:

Percent Percent
Valid Highly Dissatisfied 2 1.8 1.8 1.8
Neither satisfied nor 41 37.3 37.3 51.8
dissatisfied
Satisfied 33 30.0 30.0 81.8
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.5 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards seating arrangements)
Graph 5.4 (Graph showing percentages of sitting arrangements)
 Interpretation:
According to the table 5.5, 1.8% of the passengers are highly dissatisfied, 12.7%
of the passengers are dissatisfied, 37.5% of the passengers are neither dissatisfied
nor satisfied, and 30% of the passengers satisfied and the rest 18.2% are highly
satisfied. Here it can be interpreted that the most of the passengers are neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied with seating arrangements.
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III. Ventilation facilities:

Percent Percent
Valid Highly dissatisfied 3 2.7 2.7 2.7
dissatisfied
Satisfied 42 38.2 38.2 80.0
Highly satisfied 22 20.0 20.0 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.6 (Table showing satisfaction of passengers towards ventilation facility)
Graph 5.5 (Percentage of customer satisfaction towards ventilation facility)

 Interpretation:
According to the table 5.6, there are only 2.7% of the passengers who are highly
dissatisfied, 13.6% passengers are dissatisfied where 25.5% passengers are neither
dissatisfied nor satisfied and 38.2% of the passengers who are satisfied with the
ventilation services and the rest 20% of the passengers are highly satisfied. So, it
can be interpreted that the most of the passengers are highly satisfied with the
ventilation facilities of the railways.
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IV. Sanitation facilities:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 32 29.1 29.1 81.8
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.7 (Table showing passenger‘s satisfaction towards sanitation facilities of railways)
Figure 5.6 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards sanitation facility)
 Interpretation:
According to the table 5.7, it can be said that 5.5% passengers are highly
dissatisfied with the services, 18.2% passengers are dissatisfied and another
18.2% passengers are highly satisfied and the rest 29.1% and 29.1% passengers
are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied as well as satisfied with the sanitation
facilities by railways. So, it can be interpreted that majority of passengers are
either neutral or satisfied with the sanitation services by railways.
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V. Catering facilities:
Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 33 30.0 30.0 93.6
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.8 (Table showing passengers satisfaction towards catering facilities)
Graph 5.7 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards catering facilities)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.8, it can be said that 4.5% of the passengers are highly
dissatisfied with the services provided by railways, 39.1% passengers are
dissatisfied where 40% of the passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied,
30% of the passengers are satisfied. And the rest, 6.4% of the passengers are
highly satisfied with the catering services by railways. From this, it can be
interpreted that most of the passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with
catering services.
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VI. Information of the platform:

Percent Percent

dissatisfied
Satisfied 33 30.0 30.0 70.9
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.9 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards Information of the platform)
Graph 5.8 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards information of the platform)
 Interpretation:
As per the table 5.9, it is said that 1.8% of the passengers are highly dissatisfied,
15.5% of the passengers are dissatisfied where 23.6% of the passengers are neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied. 30% of the passengers are satisfied and the rest 29.1% of
the passengers are highly satisfied with the Information of the platform. Here it
can be interpreted that the most of the passengers are satisfied with the service of
information of the platform of railways.
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VII. Infrastructure in the train:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 33 30.0 30.0 86.4
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.10 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards infrastructure in the train)
Graph 5.9 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards infrastructure in the train)
 Interpretation:
dissatisfied, 13.6% of the passengers are dissatisfied, and 40.9% of the passengers
are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. 30% of the passengers are satisfied and the
rest 13.6% of the passengers are highly satisfied with the infrastructure in the
train. So, it can be said that the most of the passengers are neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied with the infrastructure of the trains.
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VIII. Appearance of railway personnel:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 28 25.5 25.5 81.8
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.11 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards appearance of railway personnel)
Graph 5.10 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards appearance of railway personnel)
 Interpretation:
dissatisfied, 15.5% are dissatisfied, 33.6% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and
25.5% are satisfied and the rest 18.2% are highly satisfied with the appearance of
railway personnel. So here, it can be interpreted that most of the passengers are
neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the appearance of the railway personnel.
 Conclusion:
For Tangibles, it can be said that most of the passengers are neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied with the services provided by railways.
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B. Responsiveness:
I. Willingness of the railway staff to help:
Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 35 31.8 31.8 91.8
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.12 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards willingness of the railway staff to help)
Graph 5.11 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards willingness of the railway staff to help)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.12, it can be said that 9.1% passengers are highly dissatisfied,
16.4% are dissatisfied, 34.5% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 31.8% are
satisfied and the rest 8.2% are highly satisfied with the willingness of railway staff
to help. It can be interpreted that most of the passengers are neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied with the staff‘s willingness to help.
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II. Behavior of the railway staff:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 33 30.0 30.0 91.8
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.13 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards behavior of the railway staff)
Graph 5.12 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards behavior of railway staff)
 Interpretation:
From the above table 5.13, it can be said that 10.9% of the passengers are highly
dissatisfied, 15.5% of the passengers are dissatisfied and 35.5% are neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied and 30% of the passengers are satisfied where 8.2% of
the passengers are highly satisfied. So, it can be said that most of the passengers
are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the behavior of the railway staff.
Railways
III. Services by railway doctors:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 24 21.8 21.8 87.3
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.14 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards services by railway doctors)
Graph 5.13 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards services by railway doctors)
 Interpretation:
dissatisfied, 20.9% are dissatisfied, 36.4% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and
21.8% are satisfied and 12.7% are highly satisfied with the services provided by
railway doctors. So, it can be interpreted that majority of the passengers are
neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the services provided by railway doctors.
Railways
IV. Responsiveness of railway police:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 21 19.1 19.1 83.6
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.15 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards responsiveness of railway police)
Graph 5.14 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards responsiveness of railway police)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.15, it can be said that 10% of the passengers are highly
dissatisfied, 20% dissatisfied, 34.5% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and
39.1% are satisfied and the rest 16.4% are highly satisfied with the responsiveness
of the railway police. So, it can be interpreted that majorly passengers are neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied with the responsiveness of railway police.
Railways
V. Approachability of the top management:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 29 26.4 26.4 87.3
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.16 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards approachability of the top management)
Graph 5.15 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards approachability of the top management)
 Interpretation:
According to the table 5.16, it can be said that 16.36% of the passengers are
highly dissatisfied, 15.45% of the passengers are dissatisfied, 29.09% of the
passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 26.36% of the passengers are
satisfied and the rest 12.73% of the passengers are highly satisfied with the
approachability of the top management. So it can be interpreted that most of the
passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the approachability of the
top management.
Railways
VI. Medical facilities:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 27 24.5 24.5 77.3
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.17 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards medical facilities)
Graph 5.16 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards medical facilities)
 Interpretation:
dissatisfied, 10.91% of the passengers are dissatisfied, 30% of the passengers are
neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 24.55% of the passengers are satisfied and the
rest 22.73% of the passengers are highly satisfied. It can be interpreted that
majority of the passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the medical
facilities provided by the railways.
 Conclusion:
For Responsiveness factor, it can be said that all the passengers are
neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the services provided by railway
and its staff.
Railways
C. Assurance:
I. Trustworthiness of railways:
Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 27 24.5 24.5 81.8
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.18 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards trustworthiness of railways)
Graph 5.17 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards trustworthiness of railways)
 Interpretation:
As per the table 5.18, it can be said that 9.1% of the passengers are highly
dissatisfied, 8.2% of the passengers are dissatisfied, 40% of the passengers are
neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 24.5% of the passengers are satisfied and the
rest of the 18.2% of the passengers are highly satisfied. Here, it can be said that
most of the passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
Railways
II. Safety of passengers in transaction:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 40 36.4 36.4 90.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.19 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction on safety of passengers in transaction)
Graph 5.18 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction on safety of passengers in transaction)
 Interpretation:
From the above table 5.19, it can be said that 10% of the passengers are highly
dissatisfied, 20% of the passengers are dissatisfied, 23.6% are neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied and 36.4% of the passengers are satisfied and the rest 10% of the
passengers are highly satisfied. So, it can be interpreted that majorly passengers
are satisfied with their safety in transaction.
Railways
III. Courtesy of the staff:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 32 29.1 29.1 90.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.20 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction on courtesy of the railway staff)
Graph 5.19 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction on courtesy of the railway staff)
 Interpretation:
dissatisfied, 17.3% of the passengers are dissatisfied and 32.7% of the passengers
are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. The ratios of satisfied and highly satisfied are
29.1% and 10% respectively. It can be interpreted that majority of the passengers
are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
Railways
IV. Performance of services as promised:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 33 30.0 30.0 85.5
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.21 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction on performance of services as promised)
Graph 5.20 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction on performance of services as promised)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.21, it can be said that 10% of the passengers are highly
dissatisfied and 18.2% are dissatisfied. 27.3% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
30% of the passengers are satisfied and 14.5% of the passengers are highly
satisfied with the performance of services as promised by railway. Here, it can be
interpreted that majority of the passengers are satisfied with the performance of
railway services as promised.
Railways
V. Digital display:
Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 27 24.5 24.5 77.3
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.22 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction on digital display)
Graph 5.21 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction on digital display)
 Interpretation:
dissatisfied, 22.7% of the passengers are dissatisfied. 23.6% of the passengers are
neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. And the ratios of the passengers‘ satisfaction and
high satisfaction are 24.5% and 22.7% respectively. It can be interpreted that
majority of the passengers are satisfied with the digital display of railways.
 Conclusion:
For Assurance factor it can be said that 3 out of 5 factors have satisfied
passengers with the services so it can be said that majority of the
passengers are satisfied with the assurance factor.
Railways
D. Empathy:
I. Individual attention to the passengers:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 23 20.9 20.9 94.5
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.23 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction on individual attention to passengers)
Graph 5.22 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction on individual attention to passengers)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.23, it can be said that 16.4% and 20% of the passengers are
highly dissatisfied and dissatisfied where as 37.3% of the passengers are neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied. And the ratio of satisfaction and high satisfaction is
20.9% and 5.5% respectively. Here, it can be interpreted that majorly passengers
are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the individual attention given to them.
Railways
II. Railway journey is easy to plan:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 35 31.8 31.8 83.6
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.24 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards railway journey is easy to plan)
Graph 5.23 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards railway journey is easy to plan)
 Interpretation:
dissatisfied, 14.55% of the passengers are dissatisfied. And 23.64% of the
passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. The rest 31.8% and 16.4% of the
passengers are satisfied and highly satisfied with the thought that railway journey
is easy to plan. So, it can be interpreted that, most of the passengers think railway
journey is easy to plan and they are satisfied.
Railways
III. Mental and physical support from the staff:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 32 29.1 29.1 91.8
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.25 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction on mental and physical support from the staff)
Graph 5.24 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction on mental and physical support from the staff)
 Interpretation:
dissatisfied, 19.1% of the passengers are dissatisfied and 30% of the passengers
are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. The ratio of satisfaction and higher
satisfaction is 29.1% and 8.2% respectively. It can be interpreted that majority of
the passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the mental and physical
support from the railway staff.
Railways
IV. Understand the needs of the passengers:

Percent Percent
dissatisfied
Satisfied 24 21.8 21.8 85.5
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.26 (Table showing passengers‘ satisfaction towards railways staff‘s understanding needs of the passengers)
Graph 5.25 (Percentage of passengers‘ satisfaction towards railways staff‘s on understanding passengers‘ needs)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.26, it is said that 12.75% and 21.82% of the passengers are
highly dissatisfied and dissatisfied. 29.1% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
And the rest 21.82% and 14.55% are satisfied and highly satisfied respectively.
So, it can be interpreted that majority of the passengers are neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied with the railways staff‘s of understanding passengers‘ needs.
 Conclusion:
For empathy factor it can be said that majority of the passengers are
neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the services.
Railways
IX. Listed below are five features pertaining to the services provide
by railways. Please allocate 100 points among the five features
according to how important it is to you. Make sure the points add
up to 100.
I. The appearance of the railways facilities, personnel and
communication materials.
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid 5 2 1.8 1.8 1.8
10 11 10.0 10.0 11.8
15 9 8.2 8.2 20.0
18 1 .9 .9 20.9
20 28 25.5 25.5 46.4
25 18 16.4 16.4 62.7
30 17 15.5 15.5 78.2
35 7 6.4 6.4 84.5
40 6 5.5 5.5 90.0
45 2 1.8 1.8 91.8
50 5 4.5 4.5 96.4
55 2 1.8 1.8 98.2
60 2 1.8 1.8 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.27 (Table showing ranking of railway appearance related services)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.27, the passengers have given different ranks to the appearance
facility of railways. Most of the passengers have given 20 points that is
approximately 25.5% to the appearance services.
Railways
II. The railways ability to perform the services accurately and as

promised:

Percent
Valid 5 2 1.8 1.8 1.8
10 26 23.6 23.6 25.5
15 15 13.6 13.6 39.1
20 32 29.1 29.1 68.2
22 1 .9 .9 69.1
25 12 10.9 10.9 80.0
30 11 10.0 10.0 90.0
35 4 3.6 3.6 93.6
40 4 3.6 3.6 97.3
45 1 .9 .9 98.2
50 1 .9 .9 99.1
60 1 .9 .9 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.28 (Table showing responsiveness factor of the railway services)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.28, it can be said that most of the passengers have given 20
points that is 29.1% to the railway‘s ability to perform services accurately and on
timely basis.
Railways
III. The railways‘ staff are willing to help passengers and provide services
on time to time basis:

Percent
Valid 10 32 29.1 29.1 29.1
15 19 17.3 17.3 46.4
20 25 22.7 22.7 69.1
23 2 1.8 1.8 70.9
25 12 10.9 10.9 81.8
30 9 8.2 8.2 90.0
35 6 5.5 5.5 95.5
40 3 2.7 2.7 98.2
50 1 .9 .9 99.1
60 1 .9 .9 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.29 (Table showing railway staff‘s willingness to help passengers)
 Interpretation:
According to the table 5.29, it can be said that most of the passengers have given
32 points out of 100 points that is 29.1% to the railway staff‘s willingness to help
and provide their services on time to time basis.
Railways
IV. The courtesy of the railways‘ employees and their ability to convey
trust and confidence:

Percent
Valid 5 4 3.6 3.6 3.6
7 1 .9 .9 4.5
10 36 32.7 32.7 37.3
15 20 18.2 18.2 55.5
18 1 .9 .9 56.4
20 21 19.1 19.1 75.5
25 8 7.3 7.3 82.7
27 1 .9 .9 83.6
30 8 7.3 7.3 90.9
35 5 4.5 4.5 95.5
40 1 .9 .9 96.4
50 4 3.6 3.6 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.30 (Table showing courtesy and ability of the railway staff to convey trust and confidence)
 Interpretation:
As per the table 5.30, most of the passengers have given 36 points out of 100 that
is 32.7% to the courtesy and ability of the railway staff to convey trust and
confidence services by railways.
Railways
V. There is an individual attention given by the railways staff to their

passengers:

Percent
Valid 5 9 8.2 8.2 8.2
10 41 37.3 37.3 45.5
13 1 .9 .9 46.4
15 15 13.6 13.6 60.0
17 1 .9 .9 60.9
20 23 20.9 20.9 81.8
22 1 .9 .9 82.7
25 7 6.4 6.4 89.1
30 6 5.5 5.5 94.5
35 2 1.8 1.8 96.4
40 3 2.7 2.7 99.1
50 1 .9 .9 100.0
Total 110 100.0 100.0
Table 5.31 (Table showing railway staff‘s frequency of giving an individual attention to the passengers)
 Interpretation:
As per the table 5.31, most of the passengers have given 41 points to the railway
staff‘s attentiveness to give every passengers an individual attention out of 100
points that is 37.3%.
Railways
5.3 Hypothesis:
1. H0: There is no relationship between gender of the passengers and their traveling
time.
H1: There is a relationship between gender of the passengers and their traveling
time.
Gender Total
Male Female
How often do you travel by Daily 5 1 6
trains? Weekly 10 2 12
Monthly 22 6 28
Half Yearly 29 5 34
Yearly 13 17 30
Total 79 31 110
Table 5.32 (a) (Table showing relationship between passengers‘ gender and their traveling time.)
Chi-Square Tests
Value Df Asymp Sig. (2-
sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 16.888 4 .002
Likelihood Ratio 16.060 4 .003
Linear-by-Linear Association 7.851 1 .005
N of Valid Cases 110
Table 5.32 (b) (Chi square of the hypothesis)
Railways
Graph 5.26 (Relationship between passengers‘ gender and their time of traveling)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.33, the top row of that table, Pearson Chi – square statistic, X2 =
16.888, and Value of Asymp. Sig.(p value) is 0.002 means p < 0.05; thus, the null
hypothesis is fail to accepted, since p < 0.05, so it can be concluded that there is a
relationship between passengers‘ gender and their traveling time.
Railways
2. H0: There is no relationship between Passengers‘ age and their purpose of

traveling.
3. H1: There is a relationship between Passengers‘ age and their purpose of
traveling.
What is your purpose of traveling? Total

Official/Business Educational Personal Vacation Tour Others
Purpose Purpose
Age Less 0 2 0 4 0 0 6
than
20
20-30 5 2 11 21 8 1 48
30-40 4 3 4 0 3 0 14
40-50 11 0 8 6 4 0 29
More 0 1 7 4 0 1 13
than
50
Total 20 8 30 35 15 2 110
Table 5.33 (a) (Table showing relationship between relationship between passengers‘ age and their purpose of
traveling)
Chi-Square Tests
Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-
sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 46.594 20 .001
Likelihood Ratio 53.961 20 .000
Linear-by-Linear Association 2.642 1 .104
N of Valid Cases 110
Table 5.33 (b) (Chi square of the hypothesis)
Railways
Graph 5.27 (Relationship between passengers‘ age and their purpose of traveling)
 Interpretation:
From the table 5.35, the top row of that table, Pearson Chi – square statistic, X2 =
46.594, and Value of Asymp. Sig.(p value) is 0.001 means p < 0.05; thus, the null
hypothesis is fail to accepted, since p < 0.05, so it can be concluded that there is a
relationship between passengers‘ age and their purpose of traveling.
5.4 Findings:
 From the table 5.2, it can be interpreted that most of the passengers travel half
yearly.
 From the table 5.3, it can be interpreted that most of the people travel in vacation
time.
Railways
 From the table 5.4 to the table 5.11, all the factors related to tangibles related to
railways, it can be interpreted that most of the passengers are neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied with the services provided by railways.
 From the table 5.12 to the table 5.17, all the factors related to responsiveness of
the railways, it can be interpreted that all the passengers are neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied with the services provided by railway and its staff.
 From the table 5.18 to the table 5.22, For Assurance factor it can be interpreted
that 3 out of 5 factors have satisfied passengers with the services so it can be said
that majority of the passengers are satisfied with the assurance factor.
 From the table 5.23 to the table 5.26, for empathy factor it can be interpreted that
majority of the passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the services.
 From the table 5.27, it can be interpreted the passengers have given different ranks
to the appearance facility of railways. Most of the passengers have given 20 points
that is approximately 25.5% to the appearance services.
 From the table 5.28, it can be interpreted that most of the passengers have given
20 points that is 29.1% to the railway‘s ability to perform services accurately and
on timely basis.
32 points out of 100 points that is 29.1% to the railway staff‘s willingness to help
and provide their services on time to time basis.
36 points out of 100 that is 32.7% to the courtesy and ability of the railway staff to
convey trust and confidence services by railways.
41 points to the railway staff‘s attentiveness to give every passengers an
individual attention out of 100 points that is 37.3%.
 From the 1st hypothesis and the table 5.32 (a) and 5.32 (b), it can be interpreted
that there is a relationship between gender of the passengers and their traveling
time.
 From the 2nd hypothesis and the table 5.33 (a) and 5.33 (b), it can be interpreted
that there is a relationship between passengers‘ age and their purpose of traveling.
Railways
Railways
CHAPTER – 6 SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
6.1 Conclusion:
I. The primary objective of the study was to find out passengers‘ satisfaction
towards the various services provided by railways. After the passengers‘ survey
and analysis it can be concluded that majority of the passengers‘ are neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied with the services provided by railways.
II. The second objective was to find out whether passengers are aware about various
services by railways or not. Here it can be concluded that majority of the
passengers are aware about the various services except the services of medical and
doctor facility provided by railways.
III. The third objective was to examine the various factors affecting services towards
passengers‘ satisfaction on railways. It can be concluded that factors such as
tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, Assurance etc affect the passengers‘
satisfaction.
6.2 Suggestions:
After the survey and analysis of various responses, the conclusion is that majority
of the passengers are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the services by
railways. So there are higher chances of improvement in services by railways as
railways are the integral part of transportation and millions of people travel
frequently by the railways. And it is very important for the people to know about
the various services by railways and its railways duty to make people aware about
the various services provided by them.

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A Study on Customer Satisfaction on services provided by

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION TO RAILWAYS

1.2 History of Railways:

I. 1853 – 1924: Passenger railway and Expansion

II. 1925–1950: Electrification and further expansion:

III. 1951 – 1983: Zonal re – organization and redevelopment:

IV. 1984: Present and Recent Developments:

1.3 Introduction to World Railways:

1. United States: 250,000km

The rapid expansion of China‘s high-speed rail network in recent years

Edmonton and Montreal-Boston have been proposed, but none of these

Figure 1.6 (Australia has the seventh largest network)

1.4 Introduction to Indian Railways:

Customer (passenger) satisfaction of Indian railways has its influence on service

1.5 Comparison of Indian Railways with World Railways:

(traffic units/employees) also, IR is way behind many of the Railways (Martin B,

Graph 1.1(a) (Total numbers of kilometers)

Graph 1.1 (b) (Annual Numbers of Passengers)

Graph 1.1 (c) (Annual Number of Railway Passengers-Kilometer Carried)

1.6 Industry scenario of Indian Railways:

c) Demand and Supply scenario:

i. Metre Gauge to Broad Gauge Conversion of

Percentage of links 1997 2002 2007 2012 2017

iv. Percentage Utilization of Links

iii. Dedicated freight corridor

1.7 Contemporary Issues:

ii. Cost and Revenue Problems:

iii. Low level of employee productivity:

iv. Staff Wages:

v. Increase in lease charges:

vi. Slowdown in Revenue Growth:

vii. Social Burden:

viii. Other Problems:

lack of security arrangement on the railways resulting in theft. Political

1.8 Other Related Information:

b) Total contribution to the economy/Sales:

d) Top leading companies:

railway projects as identified by the Company or by the private parties, to

development of Hotel in integration of Mahatma Mandir and Helipad

ii. Assess the demand/requirement of Railway Infrastructure (both passenger

 GIDB has commissioned following Feasibility studies.

Name & Description Estimated Completion Status

Km) (BG) Line up to Koteshwar. finalization

Prefeasibility Gauge conversion of the Completed M/s.

Prefeasibility Govt. of Gujarat is keen to Completed M/s.

CHAPTER – 2 IRCTC PROFILE

2.2 Introduction of IRCTC:

IRCTC is managing on Board Catering Services in Rajdhani / Shatabdi / Duronto

ii. Mission of IRCTC:

5. Imbibe strong and ethical work culture through teamwork, build

v. Internet Rail Reservation

vi. Non Railway Segment

is also planned. Non Railway Segment has a potential to contribute around

vii. Food Plazas

viii. Call Center

2.3 Organizational Structure:

2.4 Marketing Practices of IRCTC: