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Conception: RAJA Passenger Train Company, an Islamic Republic of Iran
Railways (RAI) affiliate, got off the starting block in October 1996. At the suggestion of
the Ministry of Road and Transportation and the then Organization for Employment and
Administrative Affairs, the Supreme Administrative Council decided that RAJA take over
passenger services of RAI. After certain arrangements, some 3,200 posts dealing with
passenger transport were taken over by RAJA and its detailed executive instructions were
provided and approved.
Significant Tasks: To win its stated goals, RAJA is authorized to carry out the
following – without being limited only to these fields:
Transporting
passengers and taking care of all services on trains
Selling
tickets at company offices or via the private sector and setting up new offices
Managing
the services rendered to passengers at stations
Procuring,
fixing and maintaining passenger wagons and trains, machinery, buildings and facilities
Carrying
out research on transport and drawing up new development policies
Improving Performance: There are two major criteria to assess the performance of RAJA.
The number of passengers carried and the proportion of passengers to the distance traveled
(in kilometers).
The number of passengers transported in
1997 stood at 9.5 million. The figure rose to 11.7 million in 2000 registering a 23%
increase. The passenger/kilometer index in 1997 hovered around 5.6 billion
people/kilometers. In 2000, it jumped to 7.1 billion people/kilometers showing a 27%
growth.
Human Resources:
Human resources are instrumental in materializing every organization’s goals. In
recent years, a cutback in the number of unskilled staff at RAJA has been matched by an
increase in the number of specialized workers. The trend has seen personnel efficiency
shoot up. The proportion of passengers to personnel index has always had an upward trend
in the three years to 2000. In 1998, the figure stood at 1,688 thousand kilometers/staff.
In 1999, it rose to 2,000 thousand kilometers/staff and in 2000 it hit an all-time high
(2,336 thousand). The figure is no more than 398 thousand kilometers/staff in Iran’s
air transport.
Active in Privatization: RAJA has followed the official line on downsizing the government
and delegating more and more responsibility to the private sector. It has already handed
over some activities to the private sector, among them:
Services
on up to 75% of all passenger trains
New
train services with private sector investment
Maintenance
of all rundown trains along with railway warehouses they are kept in
Ticket
sales (224 travel agencies throughout Iran now take care of ticket sales)
Station
stalls
Advertisement
and publications
Online
system and other software support
Maintenance
of internal decorations of wagons
Maintenance
of AC systems of Spanish wagons
All
cleaning services
Some
technical workshops for repair, maintenance and painting
Purchase
of private passenger trains
Future Plans:
There are a number of new projects on the company’s agenda, among them:
Buying
200 passenger wagons from Wagon Pars Company
Purchasing
150 passenger wagons from abroad
Buying
20 power generators
Purchasing
30 passenger locomotives with up to 160 k/h of speed
Buying
30 rail buses for launching local trains
Handing
certain activities over to the private sector for navigation and launching special trains
Drawing
investment to buy train cars both at home and abroad and launching new services
Identifying
much-commuted routes and launching local and regional train services
Expanding
the railroad that links Tehran, Tashkent and Almaty
Establishing
a system for online sale of tickets
Increasing the speed of
passenger trains to up to 160 kilometers in the Third Development Plan
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