The Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) is one of the Group A services in which candidates can appear after successfully clearing the UPSC Civil Services Exam.
The primary role of this service is to manage and control the transportation department of the Indian railways.
This service is responsible for revenue generation in the railways.
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This service is considered as the 5th most coveted among all Group A Civil Services.
The two major divisions of this traffic service
1.Operations
2.Commercial.
The total cadre strength of this service is around 900.
 The following content will be clearly explained the roles and responsibilities payscale,carrer prospects, trainings and posts offered to them.
Indian Railway Traffic Service – Roles and Responsibilities:
- To Coordinate the production and sales of the transportation output.
- To manage the customer interface of the Indian railways.
- Under the operations division, they have to ensure smooth and fast transportation of freight and passengers.
- Under the commercial wing, cadre member will deal with the sales, pricing, service and marketing matters of the passengers and freight business.
- An IRTS officer has a chance to be sent on deputation to other ministries and departments which comes under the Central Staffing Scheme.
Indian Railway Traffic Service – Grades & Salaries:
There are 7 different grade levels comes under this Group A Civil Service.
| Destination or post | Pay scale |
| Junior Time Scale | Rs.15,600-Rs.39100 + Grade Pay Rs.5400 |
| Senior Time Scale | Rs.15,600-Rs.39,100 + Grade Pay Rs.6600 |
| Junior Administrative Grade | Rs.15,600-Rs.39,100 + Grade Pay Rs.7600 |
| Selection Grade | Rs.37,400-Rs.67,000 + Grade Pay Rs.8700 |
| Senior Administrative Grade | Rs.37,400-Rs.67,000 + Grade Pay Rs.10,000 |
| Higher Administrative Grade | 67000-3%-79000 |
| Higher Administrative Grade + | 80000 fixed pay |
Indian Railway Traffic Service – Training:
- After getting into this service by clearing UPSC Civil service exam training will be undergoing in one of the national-level training academies.
- They are
- Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) at Mussoorie
- National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT) at Nagpur
- Dr Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute at Hyderabad
- RCVP Noronha Academy of Administration, situated at Bhopal.
- After this training, the specialised course will be taught for them regarding the Railway Foundation at National Academy of Indian Railways, Vadodara.
- Further, the officers are given specialised training at the Indian Railway Institute of Transportation Management (IRITM) situated in Lucknow.
- There, they have to visit various railway activity centres, workshops and organisations related to railway department, Centralized Training Institutes of Indian Railways and also ongoing and upcoming railway project sites, ports.
- Greatly they can also have a Parliamentary attachment.
Indian Railway Traffic Service – Postings:
IRTS officers after a training they will be servicing as Operations Officer and Commercial Officer of the Indian Railways transportation department.
Following posts under different divisions of Indian Railways.
- Assistant Operations/Commercial Manager
- Have chance to get post in other PSU’s
- Railway Ministry Units
- IRTS officers may be sent on deputation to other ministries under Central Staffing Schemes.
Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) – Career prospects:
- At Secretary Level, the Traffic Department of the Railway Board of India will be managed by the IRTS officers.
- At Zonal levels, the important positions such as Chief Operations Manager, Chief Commercial Manager will be served by IRTS officers.
- The marketing and commercial activities will be handled by Chief commercial manager and freight operations are handled by Chief operations manager.
- IRTS officers can also be get posted as Chief Traffic Planning Manager and Chief Claims Officer.
- At divisional level the roles of the IRTS officers will be Senior Divisional Operations Manager and Senior Divisional Traffic Manager.
- They have to serve as the directors in the Traffic, Commercial Operations, Planning sections and Passenger Management Units.
