The railways has decided to instal automated ticket vending machines (ATVM) on premises outside stations to reduce queues at booking windows.
Central Railway has already installed an ATVM at a post office in Vartak Nagar in Thane, which is the busiest railway station on the local suburban system. “There are also plans to instal ATVMs at Mantralaya, Navy Nagar and Tata Memorial Hospital,” said a senior CR official.
The coupon validating machines (CVM) are on their way out as the system was not linked to the unreserved ticket system servers, increasing the possibility of frauds. On CR, sale of CVM booklets has dropped drastically in the last one year mostly because commuters would have to stand in long queues at booking windows to buy them. Earlier, the CR had allowed outof-turn sale of these coupons. CR officials feel steps should be taken to popularize the smart card-operated ATVMs.
In 2007, CR had installed 175 ATVMs, and in 2012, procured 75 more. In 2013, CR bought 136 more machines. Of the older lot, it has decided to replace 48 ATVMs, while another 83 will be fixed.
CR has also decided allow sale of unreserved tickets through ATVMs for long-distance trains. “The machines will be installed at CST, LTT, Dadar and Kalyan stations. Often passengers miss their train because they are stuck in queues at booking offices. Allowing unreserved tickets of long-distance trains from ATVMs will provide a major relief to commuters,” a CR official said.
No more double halts at Thane station A s work on the extension of platform no.5 and 6 towards the Mumbai end of Thane station is complete, double halts to all Up and Down mail/express/ passenger trains have been stopped from Tuesday. While work on covering the platform along the extended portion is on, it will be completed on time.
Indian Railway Turn Around News 