Georgian Railway: Passenger Comfort Our Top Priority

Georgian Railway has introduced many innovations to improve the quality of its services. Passengers who often travel by train appreciate these changes. What’s more, Georgian Railway is able to draw a high number of passengers thanks to its low-cost tickets.

Dachi Tsaguria, Head of the Georgian Railway Service Quality Development Office, talks about specific innovations and plans.

The situation in passenger trains has dramatically improved. Today, we have many innovations. What specific projects have you implemented to improve the quality of services?

Georgian Railway receives revenues from cargo transportation and we also subsidize passenger transportation services. We do our best to offer full comfort to our passengers and to make their journeys more pleasant. We have introduced a new cleanup system with modern equipment and techniques. The system enables carriages to be cleaned with 180-degree high pressure steam whereas previously we cleaned the exterior of carriages by hand. We have restored the carriage wash plant that had been suspended since the collapse of Soviet Union.

At the same time, we are focusing on improving the quality of services. To that end we have signed an agreement with Ilia State University Business School on training our staff. Cashiers, operators, and conductors, who directly relate with passengers, now go through rigorous training. We are very content with the results of these trainings, and can see that the quality of services has already improved.

Moreover, for many years information displays were out of order. As a result, passengers were uncertain when this or that train would arrive or leave. We have bought the necessary equipment and installed it at 18 main stations across Georgia.

To further improve the quality of services, we have simplified the ticket purchasing process. In summer the flow of passengers is higher, therefore, long uncomfortable queues occur frequently at booking offices. We have installed special regulating systems to manage such queues. We have also worked to ease the ticket purchase process and now passengers can buy tickets on various websites, for example, on www.railway.ge, and at quick payment terminals.

It should also be noted that, according to various international reports, Georgian Railway has set one of the lowest tariffs worldwide and ranks second in the world and first in Europe. Ticket prices range from 1 GEL to 55 GEL depending on the destination. We have also introduced a 10-month discount campaign and our passengers are now able to buy 40-GEL tickets at 25 GEL, and 23 GEL tickets at 18 GEL.

All these innovations inspire us. We do our best to maintain low prices and simultaneously to increase the quality of our services.

Our wagons were recently improved, but there is still considerable work to be done in this regard.

We have launched the intensive rehabilitation of carriages. We have unrepaired old wagons which used to run in foreign countries but these have been almost fully amortized. We have not spared efforts on this project and have repaired 17 wagons of 20. By the end of 2015, we plan to have overhauled all 20 wagons.

We have also repaired seven locomotives- each modernized to the highest level jointly with the Locomotive Repair Plant.

Georgian Railway has never had so valuably and thoroughly repaired locomotives, all of which were tested, and demonstrated very good results.

We have also been working actively to repair platforms all over Georgia. At this stage we have reconstructed eight platforms and we plan to repair a further 12 in 2016.

What other projects will Georgian Railway implement?

We plan to introduce many other projects. We are working on changing the ticket sales system. The new system will be introduced in summer 2016 and will secure passengers from unexpected complications. With the new system, even if a passenger loses their tickets, they will still be able to travel using our new e-tickets with barcodes which will include passenger information. Conductors will check the e-tickets through barcode readers.

Moreover, we plan to rehabilitate the Tbilisi Railway Station. As reported, we have repaired Batumi railway station through an entirely new concept. Today, the Batumi Railway Station is the best in Georgia. I would like to congratulate not only Batumi residents, but the whole country on this fact. We also want Tbilisi Railway Station to have a good appearance and are developing a new project which we have high expectations for.

I would like to assure all passengers of Georgian Railway that we aim to create full comfort for each of them.

Ana Akhalaia