T’puram: While passenger experience on trains may have improved over the years, those working to serve these passengers continue to work in pathetic conditions.The catering staff who sell food and beverages on board express trains don’t have trolleys to supply food and beverages or a place to rest or bathe.Highlighting their plight, MP John Brittas posted a clip on social media that showed a vendor fishing out tea bags from his trouser pocket.“Hope Hon’ble Rail Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw will look into this. Today on the Mangala ‘SF’ Express (12617), catering staff were seen carrying tea bags in their pants pockets before serving passengers, which unfortunately appears to be a regular phenomenon. The video was shot by the complainant, Supreme Court lawyer @pvdinesh highlighting the urgent need to strictly enforce standard FSSAI protocols for passenger health,” Brittas posted on X.As food trolleys are not available — a feature introduced in the executive class of Vande Bharat trains — staff are forced to carry food packets and snacks on plastic trays. When they tire of carrying the trays on their shoulders, they place them wherever they find space, including near doors and toilets. The situation is similar for staff serving tea and coffee, as they have no proper facility to carry supplies.On long-distance trains, the same team of catering staff travels with the rake, stays on board and returns with it when the train makes its return journey. They stay in pantry cars.In trains without pantry cars, they sleep wherever space is available. Only AC coaches have designated space for coach attendants.Sources said that on many occasions, the staff have to go without bathing and are forced to bathe at rail yards where the rakes are parked.A DREU union member said: “Catering staff on long-distance trains are required to work for up to 19 consecutive days without adequate facilities for bathing, storing food or resting.”The staff should be rotated every eight hours, which would also make it possible to serve regional varieties of food on trains, he added.At present, many workers are paid between Rs 8,000 and Rs 12,000, with some also earning commissions, forcing them to sell more products, he said.“Catering contracts were initially awarded for individual trains, followed by the introduction of base kitchens. The system has now shifted to an overall contract model. But quality had not improved because the work was being sub-contracted in many cases,” the union member said.Sources said that one enterprise handles close to 90% of the contract but has not done much to improve the system.A railway official said pantry and food-and-beverage staff are fined for failing to maintain hygiene and instructions have been given for routine checks of pantry cars.However, contractors are not held accountable, while Railways is yet to formulate a policy allowing food trolleys on all trains, as is done on Vande Bharat trains.
