From now on, a senior railway official will be lending an ear to all your complaints 24 hours a day and forward them to top authorities for a quick solution. Just dial a toll free number-1800-11-2511 and pour out your frustrations on anything to do with Northern Railway .

The Grievance Cell was introduced on Thursday and going by the 200-odd calls and around 30 complaints registered, it seems cleanliness and punctuality still elude the railways despite promises of better services.

"Most of the complaints were about trains arriving late and cleanliness related issues," said the duty officer manning the grievance cell.

Revoltingly dirty toilets in running trains and at stations had passengers calling from their mobile phones.

"They wanted the toilets cleaned either immediately or at the next station. Several callers complained about late arrivals and departures, while others reported overcrowded coaches," he said.

This was exactly the idea behind the scheme, said Northern Railway General Manager Shri Prakash. "The idea was to bridge the gap between people and top officials. We want aggrieved passengers to call on the spot so that problems like no water in coaches, dirty toilets etc can be fixed immediately," he said. Hindustan Times was the first to report the Grievance Cell was in the offing.

Earlier, in a step to induce "people connect" and cut down red tape in Northern Railway administration, Prakash had published mobile numbers of all five division-heads, and two other top officials. "The response was good. But this centralised system would streamline the complaints and calls in a much better way," said Northern Railway spokesman Rajiv Saxena. The facility is available on MTNL/BSNL phones. Among private service providers, Airtel supports the number.