Indian Railway Traffic Service - Role and Function

Role and Function

Indian Railway Traffic Officer is the public interface of railways. There are two main streams of Traffic Department, operations and commercial, where these officers are posted. The role of an IRTS officer in the operating department is that of ensuring smooth and fast transportation of freight and passengers. He or she ensures optimum utilization of assets maximizing output with least inputs. This is achieved by coordinating with the service departments looking after various assets of railways like track, wagons, engines, signals, etc. He/she then combines the outputs of the various departments maintaining the assets - rolling stock and fixed infrastructure to produce a service output - passenger or freight.

In the commercial department, an IRTS officer is connected with sales, pricing (including discounts) of passenger and freight traffic. The information technology requirement of passenger ticketing is also managed by an IRTS officer in the zonal headquarters in association with the Centre for Railway Information Systems.

The role changes depending on where an officer is placed in the organization - in the division (operational level), the zone (tactical level), or the railway board (strategic level).