India / TTEs to wear PPEs, masks instead of coats, ties: Railways' new guidelines

New Delhi: In an attempt to strengthen social distancing norms inside the trains to keep coronavirus away, the Indian Railways has come up with a bunch of new, innovative guidelines to be followed by the ticket checking staff. For the first time in its 167-year history, the railways’ onboard ticket checking staff will change their attire and will do away with their customary black coats and ties.

This new norm will come into effect from June 1 when the special 100 pairs of trains start operations.

“In order to prevent/reduce chances of infection, TTE staff may be asked to dispense with tie and coat. They will, however, put on their name and designation badge,” the guidelines said.

Ticket checkers visit every passenger and check for their tickets and identity cards. In general, they carry a list of the names of the passengers and cross-check that with the tickets. Be it a printed ticket or an e-ticket, the ticket checkers hold it in their hands and after checking the required details, they hand those tickets back. Though the transaction lasts only for a brief moment, it is enough for spreading contamination and hence it has been decided that the TTEs won’t touch any surface belonging to the passengers.

New guidelines for TTEs

1. TTEs won’t wear black coats and ties.

2. However, there will be name tags to identify them as railway staff.

3. They will check tickets with magnifying glasses

4. Instead of coats and ties, TTEs will wear masks, PPEs, gloves.

5. There will be enough number of masks, face shields, hand gloves, head covers, santiser and soaps for the TTEs so that they can maintain hygiene.

While the Indian Railways have been running Shramik Specials to ferry stranded migrants to their home states since early this month, it started special passenger trains from May 12. From June 1, there will be 100 pairs of special passenger trains. As the Indian Railways is calibrating its operations, several first-time measures are being taken to minimise the chance of infection taking place inside a train or at the railway station area.