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So you can’t sleep in a train journey worrying about missing your destination station? Or do you abruptly wake up only to ask your co-passengers, which station you are on? Or do you crane your neck, and squint through the window looking for signage everytime train rolls onto a station platform?
 
The Indian Railways seems to have realised the pain that its passengers go through, and has come with a solution.
 
Railways will now give the passengers a “wake-up alarm call” and “destination alert call”. The service, which is available for a nominal fee, is now available to those passengers who opt for it.

 Railways spokesperson Neeraj Sharma said that in the “destination alert”, the passenger will be called half-an-hour before the actual arrival of the train, while in the “wake-up alarm”, the passenger can set a wake-up call for a station of his or her choice.
 
The passengers have the option to set the “destination alert” through three modes: by calling the Railways’ enquiry service number 139 and selecting the option 7 on the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system; through assistance from customer care executive by calling 139; or by sending an SMS on 139.
 
The “wake-up alarm” service can be activated in similar modes. However, the SMS service is not available for this service.
 
“On Voice Call-139, option 7 leads to a sequence of steps wherein the user enters required data such as PNR number, STD code of station and station name (presented as a list of numerals) to set the wake-up alarm. When the call is transferred to agent as per standard 139 call transfer procedure, the agent sets the alarm on the system with the necessary user inputs.
 
The wake-up alarm call shall be played through an outbound call 30 minutes before train reaching destination station. System will check current position of train before sending the call. In case the train is late by more than 30 minutes, the call shall be delayed by 30 minutes and same logic shall be followed every time,” Sharma said.
 
This service is a joint initiative by the IRCTC and Bharat BPO. A railway official said that a charge of Rs 1.20 per minute is applicable for calls to 139 from metro cities while calls from non-metro cities will be charged at Rs 2 per minute. SMS charges would be Rs 3 per SMS.