Like in flights, railway staff to carry trash bags to collect food on coaches

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani has instructed officials that the pantry staff should collect trash in a bag after meals are served “as done in airlines” to maintain cleanliness on trains. 

The direction was given during a meeting Lohani held with division-level officers and board members on July 17. 

“Meal plates are usually kept under the seats by passengers after eating and the pantry staff take away those by stacking one on top of the other. Sometimes, the leftover contents spill and fall on the floor the coaches. Also, passengers keep sundry items like banana peels, packets and other such things on the berths or on the floor,” an official pointed out.

All this could change after the railway catering staff begin collecting waste directly. In airlines, on-board staffers carry trash bags to every passenger before the flight lands so that they could deposit the waste in those bags. This minimises the need for a major clean up before the aircraft is ready to seat the next set of passengers. 

“Under this system, the pantry staff, just like airlines, will carry a bag to every passenger who can put their trays, plates or any other trash in it,” the official added. In those trains that does not have the pantry facility, the housekeeping staff on board should keep such trash bags, chairman Lohani said. 

For this, trash bags would now be included in regular contracts with caterers, he has said.