[Resolved]  Southern Railways Memu Trains — Excess fare charged

Hi,
My complaint is that there is no clear indication of 1st class in the southern railway MEMU trains, when you move one couch to another inside the train. No divider to blcok 1st class from others.
And because of that I have been "charged excess fare and fine for innocently travelling in a rare kind of 1st class in a MEMU train that I never used. Its a rare kind because, if you travel by standing in this class you are not in 1st class. If you sit thats it... you are in 1st class. You can move from 1st couch to last in this kind of train.

This happened to me on 02/12/2009 5:15pm at Tambaram railway station, Chennai. Ticket checker came directly to me skipping others standing on his way and asked for the ticket. I quickly and innocently showed him my 2nd class ticket. I'm sure he is 100% aware of getting this kind of travellers specially in this train on a regular basis. I even showed him my daily route 1st class pass to prove that I had no intention to do this mistake. He made me getdown and after unfruitful arguments I paid the fine in deep frustration. The worst thing is I was travelling by standing just before arriving at this station and when some seats got freed, I sat on one and faced this problem.

I'm sure that every new traveller in this train will make this mistake and these railway guys are making use of them but no action to avoid this confusion. They got so many for the same reason more than no ticket travellers. Even there was college student got for same mistake, crying without fine money and offered her watch and few amount she had with her. The checker was least bothered for our unknowing mistake.

Are there any action being taken against Railway employees travelling in 1st class without proper passes? The answer is definite NO. I know this from my regular route 1st class travel. In this train, it seems the Railway is forcing the passengers to do this mistake unknowingly and collecting fine.

I would like some clear discremintaion between 1st and 2nd classes in these trains and request the Railway ticket checkers no to make use of this rather they can clearly mention the 1st class besides there glossy advertisements.