In recent years, the integration of technology into public transportation has significantly transformed the way passengers interact with service providers. With the rapid growth of smartphone usage and digital infrastructure, mobile applications have become essential tools for enhancing service delivery, improving convenience, and ensuring customer satisfaction. In this context, the Indian Railways—one of the world’s largest and busiest rail networks—has taken a significant step forward by launching the Rail One app, a unified digital platform aimed at modernizing railway services and enhancing passenger experience.

The Rail One app was introduced by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on July 1, 2025.The app offers a wide array of features such as ticket booking, train tracking, station services, platform navigation, and integration with UTS, IRCTC, and parcel services. Unlike previous apps that served isolated functions, Rail One is a consolidated ecosystem designed to serve as a one-stop solution for all railway-related needs.

While the app has been widely promoted for its features and convenience, limited empirical research exists to evaluate its actual impact on passenger experience. It is crucial to understand whether passengers find the app truly beneficial in terms of usability, service features, and information quality, and how these factors influence their convenience and overall satisfaction.

This study aims to fill this research gap by assessing the impact of the Rail One app on passenger convenience and service satisfaction, using a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The study further explores the relationships between key constructs such as app usability, information quality, service features, and their influence on convenience and satisfaction.

India’s public transportation system is undergoing rapid digital transformation through the introduction of mobile-based solutions. The launch of the Rail One app by Indian Railways on 1st July 2025 marks a significant leap in integrating services such as ticketing, train tracking, grievance redressal, catering, and platform navigation into a single digital interface. It is crucial to examine the underlying constructs that determine its effectiveness in enhancing passenger convenience and service satisfaction. This section explores key constructs from the proposed conceptual framework: App Usability, Information Quality, Service Features, Passenger Convenience, and Passenger Satisfaction.

App Usability     :

App usability refers to how easily users can interact with and perform tasks on a mobile application. Prior studies suggest that ease of use significantly influences perceived value and intention to use transport apps (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000; Bhattacherjee, 2001). Cardoso et al. (2020) found that when public mobility apps offer intuitive design and task simplicity, users report higher convenience and satisfaction. The Rail One app’s consolidated interface may enhance usability by reducing app-switching fatigue.

User satisfaction with mobile government services is significantly influenced by intuitive interfaces and ease of navigation. (Hussain, Mkpojiogu, and Kamal 2021), Their findings suggest that when users perceive an app to be simple and accessible, especially during high-demand scenarios (like booking train tickets), their engagement increases. In the Indian context, this becomes crucial as public service apps cater to a diverse user base with varying digital literacy levels.

Information Quality:

Information quality includes accuracy, timeliness, relevance, and completeness. In digital transit services, real-time updates on train schedules, platform numbers, or delays have been found to reduce anxiety and increase convenience (Zhou et al., 2022). (Darsena et al. 2020) noted that real-time crowding and tracking features in transport apps influence satisfaction and trust.

Liu et al. (2022) found that real-time accuracy, error-free content, and timely delivery of information are fundamental in influencing trust and satisfaction in transport-related mobile apps. Their research, based on urban commuting apps in Asia, confirmed that passengers heavily rely on app information for planning, especially during transit disruptions—a scenario applicable to Indian Railways as well.

Service Features

This construct captures the range of services (e.g., booking, food, refunds, tracking, helpdesk) provided within an app. According to (Lim et al. 2021), comprehensive service integration increases perceived value and influences user retention. Rail One’s ability to consolidate ticketing, PNR, catering, and grievance handling echoes this trend.

Ryu and Lee (2017) investigated how comprehensive service offerings in a single app—like location tracking, payments, notifications, and customer service—affect perceived value. Their study on travel apps revealed that users prefer bundled features that reduce the need for switching between platforms, a concept that supports the Rail One app’s all-in-one approach.

Passenger Convenience

Passenger convenience is defined as the extent to which a passenger’s travel is simplified, time-saving, and hassle-free due to digital tools. Studies like (Kapoor & Dwivedi, 2020) highlight that apps reducing physical queuing, paperwork, or agent dependency greatly enhance convenience perception. With the Rail One app offering end-to-end functionality, its impact on convenience is worth empirical analysis.

Chatterjee and Kar (2018) highlighted that digital public services, especially mobile-based platforms, improve urban mobility by reducing procedural delays and simplifying user actions. Their empirical work on Indian metro apps suggested that when digital access points are user-centered, perceived convenience increases, leading to repeat usage.

Passenger Satisfaction:

Satisfaction is an emotional outcome based on comparing expectations and actual service delivery. In transport contexts, satisfaction is influenced by perceived ease of use, service reliability, responsiveness, and convenience (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Zhang et al., 2021). When expectations are exceeded—like getting refunds or information promptly—satisfaction increases.

Kumar, Singh, and Dwivedi (2020) examined the satisfaction levels of Indian commuters using mobile railway apps. Their study found that factors like customer support, refund mechanisms, and seamless payments played a more critical role in satisfaction than basic functionality. This reinforces the need to evaluate satisfaction in multi-feature apps like Rail One.

The findings confirm that App Usability, Information Quality, and Service Features are key antecedents of Passenger Convenience in the context of the Rail One app, consistent with prior studies (Kim et al., 2021; Sharma & Singh, 2022).

The strong positive relationship between Passenger Convenience and Passenger Satisfaction highlights that convenience plays a pivotal mediating role, emphasizing that ease of navigation, information accessibility, and value-added featureslike ticket history, live updatesdirectly enhance user satisfaction.

These results are aligned with earlier findings in mobile transportation and e-service contexts (Lu et al., 2020), and reinforce the importance of focusing on user-centric app design and informative, feature-rich digital platforms for public services.

This study investigated the impact of the Rail One mobile applicationlaunched by Indian Railways in July2025on enhancing passenger convenience and satisfaction. Utilizing a structural equation modeling approach, the findings revealed that app usability, information quality, and service features significantly contribute to passenger convenience, which in turn strongly predicts passenger satisfaction.

The results confirm that digital platforms in the public transportation sector, when effectively designed, can enhance user experience and satisfaction levels. Among the predictors, app usability emerged as the strongest contributor to convenience, reinforcing the critical role of user interface and functionality in mobile application success. Moreover, the strong influence of passenger convenience on satisfaction emphasizes its role as a central construct in user engagement and retention.

Theoretical Implications

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on e-governance and digital service quality in public transport by validating a model specific to railway applications. It confirms the mediating role of passenger convenience between service quality constructs and satisfaction, thereby extending prior research on mobile service adoption in the transportation context.

Managerial Implications

For policymakers and app developers in Indian Railways:

Optimize App Usability: Focus on intuitive design, minimal navigation complexity, and speed. Enhancements in this area have the highest payoff in terms of user convenience.

Strengthen Information Delivery: Regular updates, real-time train status, and clarity in journey information are essential for building trust and perceived usefulness.

Invest in Functional Features: Elements such as smart alerts, integrated payment, offline support, and multilingual options can improve overall passenger interaction.

These insights can inform continuous improvements to Rail One and inspire similar digital transformations in other public service sectors.

Limitations

While this study offers valuable insights into the digital transformation of public transport through the Rail One app, certain limitations must be acknowledged:

Geographical Limitation: The data was primarily collected from a limited regional sample, which may not represent the perceptions of passengers across all states or railway zones in India.

Cross-Sectional Design: The study employed a cross-sectional survey, capturing user perceptions at a single point in time. This restricts the ability to examine changes in satisfaction or usage patterns over time.

Self-Reported Data: As with most survey-based studies, the reliance on self-reported responses may introduce social desirability bias or inaccuracies in user experience reporting.

Exclusion of Moderating Variables: The model did not incorporate potential moderators such as age, digital literacy, or travel frequency, which might influence the relationships between constructs.

Future Scope

To build on the current findings, future research can:

Adopt a Longitudinal Design: Assess user behavior and satisfaction with the Rail One app over time to capture evolving usage trends and loyalty.

Explore Mediators and Moderators: Introduce variables like trust, perceived privacy, or user digital skill levels to explore deeper insights into user engagement.

Compare with Private Railway Apps or International Platforms: A comparative analysis with similar transportation apps in India or abroad can position Rail One more competitively and identify areas for innovation.

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