Change is never easy, and in preparing to introduce technology advances to state services, many industries and nations carry out a period of ‘beta’ testing before a new system is completely rolled out to iron out shortcomings. Often state institutions and the developers of the digital systems and platforms used for public services, invite tech experts and a sample batch of end users to find ‘bugs’ in the systems and test its efficacy. Essentially new systems are tested and ‘stressed’ to find all possible negative outcomes and shortfalls in speed and effectiveness. Further, such systems, due to the volume of citizens who would use them, are also tested for cyber security shortcomings and to validate the privacy of the personal data individuals who use such systems generate. These are internationally practised norms.  

However, it seems Sri Lanka is an exception to this norm, with multiple ‘technology’ and ‘digitalisation’ drives by successive governments, often creating more headaches for the users than ease, in the early roll out periods. The lack of a testing period or mechanism to ‘troubleshoot’ a new digital services platform, underscore an institutional lack of understanding within state institutions about digitalisation and customer service. Sri Lanka has a transport crisis, and with fuel costs soaring along with cost of living, the demand for public transport has risen significantly. The island’s rail network are key arteries which allows the ‘working class’ to transit to and from work. Many use it to return to their villages on the weekend, and on holidays. The daily rush to secure train seating is hectic, with hundreds of thousands trying to commute to Colombo and the Western Province, the economic engine of the island.  Digitalisation of such booking services were expected to bring ease of travel for locals and tourists alike. But the results have not shown that goal met.  

A new system to reserve train seats only through an online platform was implemented by Sri Lanka Railways with effect from 14 March. Under this system, the reservation of seats has been facilitated through the relevant mobile phone networks, a mobile phone application, or the relevant website. It has been envisaged that the reservations can be made within a specific time period, and the passengers had claimed that almost all seats for which early reservations could be made, get reserved within a few seconds. While there had been a web-based online seat reservation system for some years, the new digital platform which can be accessible via smart mobile phones, was intended to improve ease of booking, and to reduce cost of operation, and the paper footprint of the state transport giant. However, commuters have taken to social media in droves to complain about the new system being ‘difficult’ to make reservations on, and that some groups have begun to abuse the system to ‘stockpile’ reservations. It is learnt that Railway Station Masters have also informed the institution's hierarchy. “It has become so that an ordinary passenger cannot make a reservation through this system. The reason is that certain individuals, mostly tourist guides, make bulk reservations and sell tickets to tourists at higher prices. This issue is reflected by the fact that most of the reservations made under this system for trains to Badulla, are made from Kandy, and not from Colombo Fort. An ordinary person would usually reserve a seat on a train running to Badulla from Colombo Fort. However, tourists mostly start their journey to Badulla after visiting Kandy, and that is why reservations are made from Kandy,” a source said.

When contacted by The Daily Morning, Railways General Manager H.M.K.W. Bandara said that the passengers have had to face difficulties in making seat reservations due to the current supply being insufficient to meet the demand. “The people cannot make reservations since all the seats get reserved within a short period. As a solution, we plan to introduce new trains with seats that can be reserved,” he said. When asked about the price gouging, his reaction was “When more trains are introduced, no one will be needing to purchase tickets at high prices.” A typical answer from a bureaucrat, which does nothing to solve the abuse and racketeering, but gives a half-baked idea, which may further exacerbate the issue.

What is needed is for there to be controls on bulk buying of such reservations, and for penalties and black lists to be issued when racketeering is observed. This is why there is a real need for transparency, checks and balances and tight compliance checking for public services and goods. The Railways General Manager’s lacklustre approach to provide solutions is the unfortunate ‘civil service culture’ today which is endemic across all services. Shame.

What good is digitisation, if you still can’t reserve a seat on a train and are forced to buy it from a third party at a higher cost?