Indian Railways turns commuters into storytellers with new campaign

Indian Railways has launched a new campaign to engage its customers. #MyTrainStory, a multimedia campaign calls commuters to share their train stories with the lure that the best stories will be published on the Indian Railways website and a chance to meet the Rail Minister. 

Commuters interested started tweeting their stories in 140-characters to the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Indian Railways. 

The campaign will go on for a year, and selected stories will be uploaded on the Indian Railway’s official social media platforms and may even be featured in the Rail Bandhu magazine.

Apart from this, the story tellers will be given monthly e-certificates and every quarter, the Railways will pick three best stories whose writers will get a chance to meet Prabhu. 

There are as many as 12,617 trains that carry 23 million passengers on a daily basis, Business Standard reported in February 2015. The Indian Railways is considered a lifeline for crores of Indians in the subcontinent. 

A PTI report quoted a senior official of the Indian Railways saying that some people may use the Railways to commute for educational purposes, while others may use it daily to get to work; some might have met their spouse -- all stories that deserve to be told.