Indian railways is the fourth-largest railway network in the world with a significantly large number of users. the express trains, which runs overnight have berths for sleeping, aligned one above another with vertical spacing. in the present scenario, proper steps to support the feet at the time of climbing up or down to the berths is completely absconded. there are only horizontal bars on which the passengers have to somehow balance to stand and climb up; it poses severe difficulties on the users those who are not physically fit for this kind of activity which altogether requires a high energy level, physical strength, and balancing capability. in this study, the present scenario is closely examined by conducting interviews and observation on the passengers. this research depicts the design of a novel retractable stair system for indian railway to facilitate ease to the passengers to access the middle and upper berths. in this new design, we have introduced 3 retractable steps, the first one at the level of the lower berth, the second one at the level of halfway between the lower and middle berth and the third one at the level of the middle berth. figure 1 shows the isometric view of the retractable stair design in open condition. s1 indicates the lower/first step, s2 indicates the middle/second step and s3 indicates the upper/third step. h1 indicates the handle which does fold and unfold the steps and works as a normal handle as well while climbing up and down. s4 indicates a footrest to aid climbing to the upper berth. all these three steps are placed in a zigzag vertical alignment instead of being aligned straight. this zigzag arrangement provides more space or flexibility to the passenger to stand on the individual steps in a limited space like inside the railway coach. to incorporate the inclination or slope angle of any conventional stair in this context, where space is limited, the lowermost step is designed to be wider with a gradual decrease in width for the rest two steps. these three steps will come out from its folded position on pulling the handle (h1). the same handle (h1) (see fig.1) will also provide the user to hold and lift their body in the upward direction for climbing. in this design, the existing handle (h) in indian railway coaches (fig. 2) is replaced with a handle h2 which is double in size (fig. 3). figure 3 represents the side view of the retractable stair design in the open condition. handle h2 is more usable for a person with short height or for a young boy/girl who is not completely grown up. this long handle has a horizontal component which provides a two-stage holding position. a spring loaded bolt is designed to automatically lock the steps at its closed (vertical) position to prevent its undesired fall due to jerking or any kind of vibration. a mechanical link, having two ends, upper knob (un) and lower knob (ln), is connected with the spring loaded bolt and is to be pressed or pulled to release the bolt to open the steps by pulling the handle (h1) down (fig. 4a and 4b). the 3 steps and the handle h1 are connected by links (l1, l2, and l3) and functions as an integrated system. the final model is conceptualized in cad model and tested with a set of users from different age group and validated with experts.