North Western Railway to provide passengers video on demand services during train journeys

In a tie-up with travel entertainment startup PressPlay, North Western Railway will provide its passengers video on demand services during train journeys.

The feature is being offered on the Delhi-Bikaner Intercity (22471 up & 22472 down) and Chetak Express (12981 up & 12982 down), with plans underway to extend it to 30 trains in the coming quarter.

With this service, users can connect to the railways WiFi in the train, from where they can download movies and other content to watch while travelling.

PressPlay will install WiFi hotspots in AC coaches of the train for users to remain connected. Passengers can stream locally, using the hotspots, and need not use mobile data. PressPlay will also allow users to watch live channels and trending videos, etc, in case of the availability of a 3G / 4G connection.

The service is currently free to use, although it is likely to be supported by ads.

According to the company, the videos are downloaded locally by the app, so users could continue to watch the content even after getting off the train and while being out of the WiFi range. It is, however, not clear as to how long users could keep the content.

The PressPlay TV app downloads automatically when the user's phone is connected to the WiFi. Once it is installed, users can start streaming movies and videos free without using their mobile data, the company says.