‘Improved’ ticket dispensers to be installed next year

Despite the poor results of the coin operated Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (Co-ATVMs), more ticket dispensers will be introduced on the suburban railway system. Railway Board Member (Traffic) Devi Pande said “improved” version of the Co-ATVMs would arrive from March 2015.

“We want to make ticket dispensing easier and so coin operated ATVMs will be provided latest by March,” said Pande. He added that following feedbacks, several improvements had been suggested and would be undertaken before the machines were introduced. “There were issues with the maps displayed on the machines as well as transaction time. Work is under way to make the machines more user-friendly,” said the Railway Board officer. The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) was working on making the ticket dispensers more accessible, added Pande. The Railway Board has sanctioned 500 machines, of which 270 are for the Western Railway and 230 for the Central Railway. “We have got a favourable response from other zones and the machines are doing great,” said Pande.

A total of 3,000 coin/cash operated ATVMs are planned to be introduced on the Indian Railway. The machines are aimed at commuters who travel less often and do not have a season pass. During the pilot, Central Railway (CR) found that against 3,000 tickets sold per day by smart card based ATVMs, coin operated ATVMs sold only 400 tickets a day. In its report to the Railway Board, the zonal railway mentioned that the machines were resulting in queues, were not user-friendly and only accepted exact change.

According to railway sources, the Board, in its reply said changes would be madeAutomatic Ticket Vending Machines (Co-ATVMs), CRIS, Central Railway before the machines were reintroduced. Pande said the railway authorities were also working on providing a single button operation and a system to provide change back to the commuter to make it more user-friendly.