Indian Railways to Share Live Running Status via WhatsApp

The move seeks to better customer experience and reduce the load on the Railways’ enquiry number.

Tejas Express is the Railway Ministry’s attempt to take the Indian Railways into the future. 

(Photo Courtesy: BloombergQuint)

Partnering with a private Indian online travel company MakeMyTrip, Indian Railways have announced that they have made it easier for its commuters to check the live updates of trains via WhatsApp.

Passengers can now get access to scores of updates regarding train timings, booking status, cancellation as well as live running status through WhatsApp, the Indian Railways said.

To avail of this facility, all passengers have to do is save the number of the Indian Railways – 7349389104 – on their mobile phones and message the train number for updates. The service will then automatically share the required details.

For their train-related queries, commuters will have to message the train number to the company and to check their ticket details they will have to forward their Passenger Number Record (PNR) number.

The updates can be expected within 10 seconds of the message being delivered. The delivery of the message will be indicated by the two blue ticks on the WhatsApp message.

The Indian Railways said that the idea behind the move was to reduce the load on their railway enquiry number 139, and to better the customer travel experience.