Multilingual Announcements and Passenger Experience in Indian Railways

Charu Ghosh

Independent Researcher

India

Abstract
This study investigates the impact of multilingual public address announcements on passenger experience in Indian Railways prior to 2019. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, the research examines how language choice, clarity, frequency, timing, and presentation modality of announcements influence perceived service quality, information accessibility, journey stress, and overall passenger satisfaction across diverse demographic groups. Quantitative data were collected through structured surveys administered to 600 passengers at six major junctions representing northern, southern, eastern, western, central, and northeastern zones. Qualitative insights emerged from focus groups and semi-structured interviews with 30 frequent travelers, station managers, and announcement operators. The findings reveal that stations implementing announcements in Hindi, English, and the regional state language achieved substantially higher comprehension (mean score 4.3/5) and satisfaction (4.1/5) than stations using only Hindi and English (comprehension 3.5/5; satisfaction 3.6/5). Critical factors mediating effectiveness included audio clarity—impacted by aging loudspeaker infrastructure and background noise—announcement frequency aligned with train schedules, and standardized, pre-recorded messaging that reduced human error. Passengers reported 28% fewer missed stops and 34% fewer staff inquiries when announcements met multilingual and technical quality benchmarks. This paper recommends a codified multilingual announcement policy mandating at least three languages across major stations, scheduled maintenance protocols for audio systems, centralized repositories of professionally recorded messages, and real-time passenger feedback loops via mobile kiosks or apps. These measures can enhance communication equity, reduce travel anxiety, and lay a robust baseline for assessing post-2019 digital interventions in India’s rail network.

Keywords
Indian Railways, Multilingual Announcements, Passenger Experience, Service Quality, Pre-2019 Study

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